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Tigers fall to Spartans
Team 0-4 on the season
Varsity Football pic1
Freshman quarterback Coey Watson scampers against a stingy West Hall defense. - photo by Ryan Coker Dawson Community News

Even though the Dawson County offense moved the ball at times against West Hall Friday night in Tigers Stadium, Head Coach Jeff Lee's varsity football team still couldn't find the end zone.

The Tigers picked up 180 yards on 50 rushes, but only managed three points in a 26-3 loss to the Spartans. Dawson County has scored just two touchdowns in four games.

Defensively, the Tigers looked strong against West Hall.

Dawson County held the Spartan's explosive running game to 248 total yards, 224 of those were on the ground.

Kwon Williams put West Hall on the board first with a two-yard touchdown run with six minutes left in the first quarter. The score was set up by a 47-yard scamper by teammate Tyquann Statham on third and six from the 49-yard line.

The extra point, by Bradley Hodgson split the uprights.

In the second quarter, West Hall added another score from Statham on a 9-yard burst into the end zone. After two penalties by Dawson County put the ball down on the inch-line, the Spartans were unable to convert a 2-point conversion.

West Hall held a 13-0 lead with 9:48 left before halftime.

Statham finished the game with nine carries for 96 yards and a touchdown.

Hodgson added a field goal from 35-yards out with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter. West Hall took a 16-0 lead into halftime.

Lee's Tigers began the second half recovering an onside kick by Nick Murphy that really seemed to surprise the Spartans.

The Tigers then began a 10-play drive that saw their only points of the evening on a 29-yard field goal by Zach Buchan that cut the Spartans lead to 16-3.

West Hall responded on its next drive.

The Spartans used seven-plays to cover 56-yards to notch the team's third score of the evening. Williams scampered into the end zone from 29-yards out for his second touchdown of the evening with 8:34 left in the third.

Hodgson added the extra point to give West a 23-3 lead.

Williams carried the ball 11 times for 69 yards and two scores for the Spartans.

The Spartans had seven different ball carriers rush for a total of 224 yards on 40 carries.

The final score of the cool fall evening came on a Hodgson field goal from 33-yards out with only 4:07 remaining in the game.

For Dawson County, running backs Andrew Goley and Kyle Hayes ran for 44 and 43 yards respectively. Freshman quarterback Coey Watson also picked up 56 yards on the ground. Watson threw 13 times with only three receptions against the tough Spartan defense.

Picking up catches for the Tigers were Goley, Jeffrey Partain and Hayes.

Up next for Dawson County will be a must win game against East Hall in Tigers Stadium. The Vikings are 1-3 this season, following a 38-35 loss to Lumpkin County on Friday night.

The Vikings have also lost to Pickens, 38-10 and Jackson County, 31-6.

Coach Bryan Gray's team's lone win came against Wesleyan by a score of 20-13.

Friday night will also be Park and Recreation Night at the game.

With the win, West Hall moved to 4-1 overall, but more importantly they are 1-0 in Region 7-AAA play. After a bye week the Spartans will play host to East Hall.

"We as coaches have started selecting a player of the game from each of the offense, defense and special teams," Lee said. "It is based upon the performance of the player after viewing the previous game film."

This week, according to Lee, the offensive player of the week is Kyle Hayes, the defensive player is Luke Martin and the special teams player is Nick Murphy.