Bruin rally takes care of Patriots

Northwest Whitfield’s defense knew at some point it was going to have stop Paulding County’s offense.

Until that time came, senior running back Lance Andrews and the Bruins offensive line understood they were just going to have to keep moving.

When they needed it most, the Bruins found a way to connect a scoring drive of their own with a defensive stop of the Patriots, winning a four-quarter battle with their effort in the final minutes of a 43-33 victory on Friday night in Tunnel Hill. With the win in the Region 7-4A playoff game, Northwest secured a spot in the Class 4A state playoffs, which begin next week.

Andrews scored his fifth touchdown with 2:30 to play on a 2-yard plunge — he also had scores of 1, 5, 3 and 25 yards as he stacked up 193 yards on 29 carries — and the Bruins (7-3) finally found a way to slow down a Paulding County (4-6) offense that came to life for its second-highest single-game point total of the season against a defense that had allowed more than 13 points just once in its previous six outings.

“Paulding County’s offense looked pretty good tonight,” Andrews said.

“You’ve got to give them credit ... We usually depend on our defense and then we go out and score one or two touchdowns. But tonight it was a different role and I think our offense did a good job of taking it and going with it.”

The Bruins entered the fourth quarter trailing 33-29, but moved 59 yards in eight plays and went ahead 36-33 with 9:11 to play on Andrews’ 25-yard blast to the end zone that started with a good hole at the line.

Northwest gave up a 17-yard gain through the air on the first play of Paulding County’s ensuing possession — the Patriots, expected by the Bruins to be run-heavy, attacked with fade routes throughout the game as Zach Munoz completed 16 of 25 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns — but then settled down for its finest defensive stretch of the night.

Turning up the pressure on Munoz on fourth-and-eight, the Bruins’ decision to blitz paid off as senior linebacker Chito Chibuye wrapped up the quarterback 9 yards behind the line of scrimmage, giving Northwest the ball back with 7:16 left for what proved to be the victory-sealing scoring drive.

“Somebody had to make a play,” Chibuye said. “I’d blitzed before, but sometimes I get to where I don’t really trust what I see and won’t go. But that time I went all-out and got to him before he could throw the ball.”

The Bruins made one more defensive stand after Andrews’ final touchdown. After the Patriots picked up 12 yards and another first down with a pass on the first play of the possession, senior end Nermin Delic sacked Munoz for a 6-yard loss on the next play and the quarterback’s next three attempts — one of them made with three defenders in his face — went incomplete.

“They put on the pressure and our line couldn’t hold them all,” said Munoz, who completed touchdown passes of 53, 17 and 18 yards to Ronale Hargo, who finished with 129 yards on nine catches. “They got to me and I didn’t have enough time to get the ball out there. That was the difference-maker in the game, right there.”

The lead changed hands five times during the game, but it felt even more back-and-forth than that because neither side held anything close to a commanding margin. The Bruins seemed to be in control when Delic blocked a punt midway through the second quarter, setting up his own 21-yard touchdown catch from Chad Keeter two plays later for a 22-12 lead with 4:09 left in the half — but as it turned out, they still had plenty of work to do.

The Patriots used one Bruins fumble to set up a touchdown drive with 5.7 seconds to play in the half — Northwest led 22-19 at halftime — then took advantage of another Northwest turnover to set up a go-ahead score early in the third quarter.

“You don’t want to be put in that kind of a situation,” Delic said. “Of course, you want to come up with a big victory. But maybe this is better for us, it gets us tougher down the stretch, overcoming some adversity to get ready for next week.”

Friday marked the end of a surprising run through the second half of the season for Paulding County, which was 1-5 before winning three consecutive games to find its way into the region playoffs. But the Patriots got everyone’s attention at Bruin Stadium when Johnny Sheffield went 73 yards for a touchdown on their fourth play from scrimmage — he also had a 5-yard touchdown run in the third quarter — and used the rest of the game to show how far they’d come in the past month.

“That’s just a credit to our kids and our coaches sticking together, believing in what we were doing and continuing to work,” Patriots coach Rick Sauls said. “They easily could have laid down in the middle of the season. We played really good against a good team tonight, but they were really big and that wore on us.”

Northwest has made plenty of progress of its own. The Bruins started this year heavy on youth and light on experience, but overcame a 1-2 start with five sub-region victories in a row before a 35-11 loss to Dalton ended their region title hopes.

“When I think back to the way we looked when we scrimmaged Ridgeland to the improvements we’ve made,” Bruins coach Mike Falleur said, “this team right here has made as much improvement as any team I’ve ever coached. It’s just unbelievable where we started and where we are. I’m really proud of them.”

Both Paulding County, which finished third in Sub-region 7A-4A, and Northwest, which finished second in 7A-4A, came into Friday’s game knowing the winner would prolong its season for at least a week while the loser would be done for the year. Northwest enters the 4A bracket as Region 7’s No. 4 seed and travels next Friday to play Southwest DeKalb (9-1), the champion from Region 6.

The Bruins fell to the No. 4 seed for state via the result of the other region playoff game between the sub-regions’ second and third finishers. Sprayberry — which beat Northwest 28-7 on Sept. 11 — won 29-7 at Sequoyah on Friday and is 7-4A’s No. 3 seed for the postseason.

BRUINS 43, PATRIOTS 33

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Paulding 12 7 14 0 — 33

Northwest 8 14 7 14 — 43

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

PAU — Johnny Sheffield 73 run (kick failed), 11:08

NOR — Lance Andrews 1 run (Tyler Arnold pass from Chad Keeter), 5:59

PAU — Ronale Hargo 53 pass from Zach Munoz (run failed), 1:26

Second Quarter

NOR — Andrews 5 run (Oscar Solarzano kick), 8:38

NOR — Nermin Delic 21 pass from Keeter (Solarzano kick), 4:09

PAU — Hargo 17 pass from Munoz (Kenny Langford kick), 0:05.7

Third Quarter

PAU — Sheffield 5 run (Langford kick), 9:36

NOR — Andrews 3 run (Solarzano kick), 4:30

PAU — Hargo 18 pass from Munoz (Langford kick), 1:36

Fourth Quarter

NOR — Andrews 25 run (Solarzano kick), 9:11

NOR — Andrews 2 run (Solarzano kick), 2:30

YARDSTICK

PAU NOR

First Downs 17 22

Rushes-Yds. 27-177 59-313

Passing Yds. 223 31

Com.-Att.-Int. 16-25-0 2-4-0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2

Punts-Avg. 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yds. 7-60 6-40

Turnovers 1 2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Paulding County: Johnny Sheffield 11-119, Carl Edouard 4-38, Zach Munoz 9-13, Travis Pittman 1-5, Dartez Reedy 1-2; Northwest Whitfield: Lance Andrews 29-193, Wesley Bell 3-44, Chad Keeter 12-39, Nathan Sistrunk 5-33, Jordan Darnell 4-16, Mike Martin 2-13, Zach Sloan 1-0, Team 3-minus 25.

PASSING — Paulding County: Munoz 16-25-0-225, Ronale Hargo 0-1-0-0; Northwest Whitfield: Keeter 2-4-0-31.

RECEIVING — Paulding County: Hargo 9-129, Bob Jobe 6-81, Edouard 1-13; Northwest Whitfield: Nermin Delic 1-21, Tyler Painter 1-10.

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