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Tigers victorious, 27-6
Gilreath scores three touchdowns
S-DCHS V Fball pic 1
Senior Tiger receiver Cody Tobias looks to the sideline for an offensive signal. - photo by Photo/Pam Jacobs

September was a disastrous month for the Dawson County High School Varsity football team. The Tigers lost four straight games to Region 8-AA opponents.

 

Last Friday night Dawson traveled to Lexington to face Oglethorpe County (1-5; 0-5) on the first Friday in October and came away with a 27-6 victory.

 

The Tigers now have the week off before an important match-up with North Oconee Oct. 17.

 

North Oconee currently has a 5-1 overall record and a 4-1 record in the region.

 

With the victory on Friday, Dawson moved its record to 2-4 overall and 1-4 in region play.

 

The game against North Oconee will also serve as homecoming for the Tigers.

 

It was a much different Dawson squad that hit the gridiron last Friday.

 

Defensively, they looked like the old Chicago Bears, "Monsters of the

Midway."

 

Offensively, the Tigers had a complete turn around with 284 total yards and 150 yards from the arm of quarterback Chase Gilreath.

 

Gilreath had a career game for the Tigers. He accounted for 134 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Through the air he completed 10-for-20 passes for 150 yards.

 

"I don't know what he ate for breakfast, but whatever it was Chase needs to do it again two weeks from now," Dawson County Head Football Coach Jeff Lee said.

 

Cody Tobias also had a great night for Dawson County. Tobias rushed three times for 27 yards and a touchdown. He also hauled in three passes for 53 yards from Gilreath.

 

"He's starting to grow up a little bit," offensive coordinator Doug Miolen said of his young quarterback.

 

"There were a couple of throws that he made where he stood in the pocket and got rid of the ball and took a shot afterwards. I'm very proud of those plays," he added.

 

"We really didn't do anything different on offense this week with the exception of not motioning so much in our option game," said Miolen. "We made up our minds that we were going to throw the ball more and we did."

 

Miolen also commented about durable running back Eian Perry.

 

"Eian did a much better job picking up the blitzes and blocking in pass protection," he said.

 

Perry finished the contest with seven rushes for 45 yards.

 

"Our offense really came to play this week," said Lee. "We are continuing to get better each week even though we are still missing some offensive lineman due to injury. The guys we played along the line this week are stepping up when we need them."

 

Kicker and punter David Scully led the special teams for Lee.

 

Scully had three kick-offs that resulted in touchbacks putting the ball on the 20-yard line for the Patriots.

 

Defensive coordinator, Van Samples, was also glowing about his defensive players.

 

His squad limited Oglethorpe to only 67 yards rushing and 36 yards passing on 46 plays.

 

"We moved some people around this week that really seemed to help," Samples said.

 

Ethan Brown had another big week for the Tigers.

 

Brown, who leads the team in tackles as a sophomore, totaled nine tackles during the game.

 

But it was Evan Weatherford who had a monster game with 10 tackles and some very hard hits from his linebacker position. Visions of Dick Butkus and the Bear 51 come to mind.

 

Samples was also impressed with the play of senior cornerbacks Tommy Lin and Cody Tobias.

 

Lin had an interception and Tobias had two quarterback sacks in the game.

 

"We played hard," said Samples.

 

"Overall our kids came to play," Lee said. "We could have easily thrown in the towel after losing four in a row but you got to hand it to our kids they didn't quit. Now we have to use the next two weeks to fine tune both sides of the ball before North Oconee."

 

 

This will be the first meeting between Dawson County and North Oconee.

 

 

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Tiger Stadium.

E-mail Pam Jacobs at sports@dawsonnews.com.