By Adam Carrington [email protected]
POWDER SPRINGS — During the 7-plus minutes of football McEachern completed Friday night prior before severe weather led the game to be postponed until Saturday, the Indians could do nothing wrong.
McEachern had jumped out to a two-touchdown lead against defending Class AAA state champion Cedar Grove, but the Indians then had to wait nearly 24 hours before taking the field again.
It was up to McEachern to sustain the momentum, and it did so for the most part.
Jordon Simmons rushed for 73 yards on 12 carries and gave McEachern an insurance score in the fourth quarter on an 11-yard run in space with 3:10 to play in the game.
Once McEachern returned to the field Saturday, it looked as if the Indians were heading toward a running clock for the third straight game after jumping out to a 22-0 lead halfway through the second quarter.
“We really got off to a fast start (Friday night),” McEachern coach Franklin Stephens said. “It was important for our defense (Saturday) to come back out and get a big stop, and then, offensively, we can go down the field and get a score so we can get up by three scores and then start making them chase.”
But after McEachern went up three scores, Cedar Grove (2-2) started figuring out a way to sustain drives. The Saints chewed off the latter half of the second quarter to get on the board on Austin Smith’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Janiran Bonner with 13 seconds left.
Fortunately for McEachern’s defense, whatever fatigue it may have had did not show on the field.
The Indians forced the Saints to turn the ball over on downs on Cedar Grove’s first drive of the second half. Later in the frame, McEachern stopped a 6-plus-minute drive on the McEachern 21-yard line on fourth down when Jamil Burroughs sacked Smith on fourth down.
Early in the fourth quarter, McEachern’s offense allowed its defense to rest by sustaining a drive of its own, with Simmons accounting for 51 of McEachern’s 83-yard drive.
During Friday night’s portion of the game, Carlos Del Rio-Wilson hit Dacari Collins for a 15-yard touchdown to give the Indians the early lead. Then, the Indians recovered a muffed punt deep in Cedar Grove territory before Christian Mason added to McEachern’s lead with a 3-yard run.