After watching his team frequently fall behind early in games during its 2-3 start, Pebblebrook coach Leroy Hood said he spent the past few days stressing the importance of getting off to a good start against Harrison this week.
The Falcons apparently got the message. Pebblebrook scored on its third and sixth offensive plays of the game, taking a 14-0 lead in the first six minutes, and went on to a 31-14 victory Friday night at Cobleigh Stadium in Kennesaw.
Qamar Grant threw touchdown passes of 47 yards to Briyar Powers and 38 yards to Dwight Phillips on the Falcons’ first two possessions to put the Falcons in front for good.
“The whole idea was to go out and score fast and in a hurry,” Hood said. “We wanted them to play from behind because they’ve got a good offensive line and a good run game, so we preferred for them to air it out as opposed to run the ball. We’re not very big up front, and that kinda plays against our weakness. So we wanted to start out fast and put them in a position to play from behind.”
Pebblebrook’s three losses have come against South Gwinnett, Rome and Denmark by a total of 13 points.
The Falcons turned the ball over three times in the first half, four times total, but Harrison (1-5) was able to take advantage only once. After recovering a fumble at the Pebblebrook 44, the Hoyas needed five plays to reach the end zone, scoring on a 20-yard pass from Braylan Ford to Reggie Brigman to cut the lead to 14-7.
Phillips answered with a 55-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter that restored the lead to 14 points. Phillips finished with 179 yards of offense (106 receiving, 73 rushing) on just seven touches.
Pebblebrook increased the lead to 28-7 less than two minutes into the second half when Tyler Scott returned a fumble 38 yards for a touchdown, and David Hernandez made it 31-7 with a 25-yard field goal with 9:34 left in the game.
Harrison’s Brigman scored the game’s final points on a 3-yard yard touchdown reception with 3:45 remaining. Brigman had four catches for 97 yards.
Grant was 16-of-22 passing for 239 yards for the Falcons, who had 364 yards of total offense. Ford was 18-of-30 for 180 yards for the Hoyas. Harrison was limited to 72 yards rushing on 30 carries and finished with 275 total yards. The Hoyas haven’t been 1-5 to start a season since 2011.
The game was the final non-region contest of the regular season for both teams. Pebblebrook and Harrison will be off next week for fall break and begin region play on Oct. 7 - Pebblebrook at home against Westlake in Region 2, and Harrison at home against McEachern in Region 3.
“To be honest, I feel really, really good,” Hood said of where his team stands going into region play. “We can’t take back those three losses that we did have. It’s kinda hard for me to let it go because I feel like those games we had in our grasp. But it feels good going into fall break at 3-3 as opposed to 2-4, so that does good for a group like us.”
Pebblebrook - 14-7-7-3 - 31
Harrison - 7-0-0-7 - 14
First quarter
P - Briyar Powers 47 pass from Qamar Grant (David Hernandez kick), 9:00
P - Dwight Phillips 38 pass from Grant (Hernandez kick), 6:35
H - Reggie Brigman 20 pass from Braylan Ford (Rudolph Gleason kick), 0:11
Second quarter
P - Phillips 55 run (Hernandez kick), 6:27
Third quarter
P - Tyler Scott 38 fumble return (Hernandez kick), 10:01
Fourth quarter
P - Hernandez 25 field goal, 9:34
H - Brigman 3 pass from Ford (Gleason kick), 3:43
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