For the second year in a row, the Spencer Greenwave Owls have beaten the Northeast Raiders and are in the driver’s seat to win Region 2, also for the second year in a row.
The Owls beat Northeast 35-34 in Macon, in overtime, to improve to 6-2, 5-0 in league play while dropping the Raiders, who fell from No. 2 to 6 in the rankings, to 6-2, 4-1.
Still, it’s the Raiders who have been ranked in 14 of 19 weeks during the regular season dating back to last year, compared to 0 of 19 for the Owls, who remain unranked, and entered Friday as 35-point underdogs. If the Owls beat Central (1-7, 1-4) Thursday and ACE Charter (7-1, 4-1) Nov. 3, they’ll again be region champs.
With the No. 1 seed in the playoffs the top priority, Owls coach Joe Kegler said projections and rankings aren’t a distraction for them.
“We tell our kids to control what we can control,” Kegler said. “We can’t control the rankings, or anything like that, so our attitude is, come in and work hard so that we’re ready every Friday.”
That the Owls beat a top 5 team is cause enough for the state to take notice. But the reason they’re featured in Georgia High School Football Daily’s “4 questions with...” and “Notable results from Week 10″ is how they won — rallying from a 25-0 first-half deficit.
“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Kegler said. “We’d get a first down, but then we’d get a penalty. We threw a pick-6 and had another interception returned inside the 10. Everything that could go wrong did. We weren’t playing like ourselves, and that was the message at halftime. Be who you are and let the chips fall where they may.”
Justyn Williams’ 2-yard touchdown run with less than three minutes remaining tied the game at 28, sending it to overtime, where Gary Gaither connected with Demarcus Horne on an 8-yard touchdown to give the Owls a 35-28 lead. The Raiders would answer with a touchdown, but miss the extra point.
Gaither threw for 275 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Horne had 10 catches for 142 yards and a touchdown. Williams had 114 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries. The defense was led by CJ Star (eight tackels, two tackles for loss, pass breakup), and Dray Duncan (five tackles, two tackles for loss, three pass breakups).
“I told the team in the locker room after the game to enjoy tonight, but with a Thursday game we’ve got a short week,” Kegler said. “We haven’t won the region title yet, so we’ve got to come back Monday ready to work.”
Should the ACE Charter Gryphons beat the Owls, it could create a three-way tie atop first place between ACE, Spencer and Northeast. Kegler said the three-way tie breaker in that case is points allowed against region opponents.
North Murray beats Model, Rockmart on deck
In Region 7, the North Murray Mountaineers beat the Model Blue Devis 21-14, improving to 7-2, 5-0 in league play. They’re on bye this week, then travel to the No. 8 Rockmart Yellow Jackets (6-2, 4-0) for what will serve as the region championship.
The Jackets have outscored 7-2A competition 193-27 this season and have won their region each of the past six years. The Mountaineers won 6-3A in 2019 for their only region championship.
“Rockmart is a really good team,” Mountaineers coach Preston Poag said. “We have had some great battles over the years and this one should be another. I have great respect for (Jackets coach Biff Parsons), and he is a good friend. Going to be an exciting game for both teams.”
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