Hapeville Charter and Carver Columbus for the two a state championship game.

Getting ready to enjoy a good one right here.

The third member of our team down on the sidelines is Autumn Johnson.

Hey guys, let's talk first time moments.

This is nothing new for longtime head coach over at Hapeville Charter Winston Gordon.

He's taking this program to three state championship games, winning it all in 2017.

However, he told me that this is the first time taking on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

He assured me, though, that his guys aren't jaded about the moment or the bright lights on the other sideline.

Completely new territory you have.

First time head coach Jarvis Jones leading his alma mater, taking on the biggest game of his coaching career.

He has a plethora of experience and also resources to lean on playing at Georgia and also the NFL.

He still reaches out to his former head coach in Dill, McGee.

He leans on his current staff here with Carver Columbus, and also he takes bits and pieces from Kirby Smart, saying he does everything the right way.

So yes, a lot of firsts for both programs, but one goal in mind to bring home a state championship for both programs.

All right.

Thank you Autumn.

And here's my big time moment with Coach Jarvis Jones when they won the state championship in 2007 under Dill McGee.

And Jarvis Jones was a star player for the Tigers.

I called that game in a monsoon.

I remember.

Watching Cairo in 2007, called his state championship as a player, and tonight I get a chance to call him going for the state championship as a head coach.

I think everybody that's aware of Jarvis Jones remembers the game he played in Jacksonville and the impact he had on that Georgia Florida game.

Sacks everywhere.

He has a strip fumble to finish off the game, but Jarvis Jones tremendous football player.

This is a great story in his first year.

If he can cap it off with a state championship, he is a super talented player.

I had to go back and look at the 2009 rivals rankings.

He was ranked number 3 in the state, should have been number 1.

Heck of a player.

Turns out to be a great football coach.

Yeah, he actually signed with USC coming out of high school and was declared medically ineligible and forced to retire by the Trojans.

He got a second opinion, came to the Georgia Bulldogs, turned out to be the SEC Defensive Player of the year and a first round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played for coach Mike Tomlin.

What a great resource for all his teammates to walk in there and say, coach, how do you go through the process?

How do you do these things, especially Triston Givens playing on the edge, playing the position.

But you look at him, my man's in camo, he is ready to work tonight.

Camo overall.

A Cammon overalls.

Hadn't seen that one.

This should be a heck of a ball game.

And certainly you got to feel like Hapeville Charter has got their work cut out for them tonight.

But you look at the comparable.

The comparable is Sumter County.

Yes.

Carver Columbus had to come back and score late to beat Sumter County.

87 Hapeville Charter came back and beat Sumter County 24-18 in overtime in the semifinals.

I'll give you credit.

You told me at the high school Football Hall of Fame in Georgia.

Rusty, Sumter County is really good.

I was like, what?

And then both teams had to wind up going through them.

So credit Sumter County.

But I will tell you this.

Been doing this a long time.

There's no practice field in the state of Georgia that looks like the gravel and dirt at Hapeville Charter.

And they would not have it any other way.

I don't know if they have lines on that field.

They don't.

I don't even know if it's safe.

But I promise you right now it builds this team and they are a tough football team because of it.

And they certainly don't have goalposts.

They are hardened.

They are battle tested.

Like we said, they do more with less and it shows on the football field.

They will not be intimidated.

They will not be in awe of this environment.

And they certainly won't be afraid of the Carver Tigers.

I love Coach Gordon this week said somebody accused me of recruiting.

We don't even have a football building.

What am I recruiting to over here?

So Carver won the opening toss and they have deferred until the second half.

So that means we'll see Hapeville Charter on offense to start this game.

I've got one question for you.

Kendrick Pearce-Spencer has it teed up and ready to kick for the Tigers?

All in black here this evening.

And the opening kickoff is brought to you by Heads Up, Georgia.

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And we are underway in the two.

A final.

Kick going to be taken by Cedric Walker, who's a real blazer, and he makes it up to the 28 yard line.

And that's where we will see the Hornets on offense for the first time tonight.

They already play with the power rankings in two a football.

This is the number 12 seed in the power rankings.

Playing against Carver.

The defending state champions.

So quite a role for Carver.

They had to win the last three games on the road in tough places no less.

Appling County, Morgan County and then at Sumter County.

Yeah.

And you look at this and and when you start talking about Hapeville tonight, staying in front of the chains cannot get into negative downs and let Triston Givens impact you this super fast Carver Columbus defense.

It's important to stay ahead of the chains.

If you're Hapeville Charter tonight.

Traeven Jones is the senior running back lined up behind Keylan Pope, and they've got a real star up there on that offensive line that we'll talk about.

Pass is thrown complete out there on the edge.

And that is going to be close to a first down as the ball goes to Carter Pitts on the opening play.

Like that, getting the ball out of my quarterback's hands pretty quickly.

Again, he's a left handed quarterback.

You see the read gets it out of his hands.

Nice play to open up and bring up about second and three.

Yeah.

Nice catch by the sophomore Carter Pitts who had only one catch coming into the game.

And super play by him right there.

So first and make it second down and short and the play gets blown dead.

On the field.

Got to be some jitters here.

False start early on.

But rusty that's any night.

No doubt that has nothing to do with Ms.. I know I would probably say nerves a little bit in this building, but they'll get ready to go here.

Carver Columbus being in this building before, obviously probably a little early advantage for them.

Not the first time walking into a large arena like this world class facility.

Jarvis Jones 17th pick in the 2013 draft, two time consensus All-American.

The run by Jones Traeven Jones going to be chased down.

And there's a flag on the play as Trayvon Jones ended up losing yardage on the play.

Probably going to get Triston Givens right here.

Maybe with a face mask.

Givens a five star rated as high as the number 6 Edge in the country, and the number 4 prospect in the entire state of Georgia.

Face mask against the defense.

Five yard penalty.

Second down.

You will see, though Givens is tough against the run.

He's not just a pass rusher.

This guy can set the edge.

He wants to engage.

He'll do what's needed out on the edge.

And you saw that right there against the run able to run that down unfortunately.

Get some face mask.

Second down and three ball sitting at the 27.

Now encroachment.

It'll be a first down.

Nic'quayvion Simmons another one of their big time players on that defensive line jumped offsides number 51.

Both sides defense five-yard penalty.

First down.

For that, drives a coach crazy in game 15.

How many times have I told them to watch the ball?

You're the closest guy to the ball and you jump off.

You're practically on top of.

The football.

The football?

Only the center is closer than you are.

So first and ten for Hapeville Charter handoff goes to Jones.

Traeven Jones makes a man miss as he skips up to the 47 yard line.

And rusty, let's take a look at the impact players.

When Hapeville Charter has the ball on offense.

It has to start right there with Alabama signee Chris Booker.

You talking about violent hands?

Six foot 3.5, 290 pounds.

He's a four star on rivals interior offensive lineman.

I love that he plays both ways.

Look at Nic'quayvion Simmons, the Tennessee commit.

He's a three star.

That is a Rodney Garner special.

A young man that played what he played eight man football last year.

He did it.

Stewart County handoff goes to Jones and Jones struggles to get back to the line of scrimmage.

And a helmet pops off as Antavius Watts, who signed with Mississippi State, came up and hit him hard and lost his helmet.

Yeah, you're going to look at Simmons and go, listen, Rodney Garner is going to look at him.

And I got so much left in this young man.

Kind of a raw prospect coming to Carver Columbus.

This senior has made a big impact and wound up going to Tennessee.

Great pursuit that was Jaiden Taylor, their leading linebacker, a sophomore been offered by Troy and the son of Jamonie Fortson, who is Travis Jones best friend.

That's crazy.

Great season for Jaiden Taylor his numbers unreal.

Third down and about 3.5 hand off.

And the carry that time by Ray Damond Stiggers.

And he's going to be short of the first down at the 50 yard line.

Let's see if they go for it here.

Another tackle there by Simmons.

Tough tough run.

They're going to get it right about third and one.

Fourth and one.

See what.

Coach Gordon decides to do here.

Fourth and one.

They're going to go for it.

Got a late man coming on the offensive line.

Going to go with the power package right here.

Handoff goes to a fullback.

And he's going to get the first down.

That's old school football right there.

Old school fullback a yard deep.

That was Cameron Lear their big six for 213 tight end.

Yeah they talked about us.

We talked about him in our coaches call.

He goes look rusty he's the next one here at Hapeville 2027 prospect.

Both these teams have a lot of players.

Did not sign in the early period.

So this is a big showcase audition for them on a big stage in front of a lot of coaches.

We'll talk about that in just a second.

After this play.

I'll tell you one big difference tonight.

It will impact this game and the next game.

So first and ten ball sitting at the 48 yard line keeper by Pope going to dump it deep.

Got a man streaking open and incomplete at the six yard line.

Trying to get the ball to Jayden Lambert.

They're Boyd Lambert had him beat.

He lets that ball.

I know he wants to put a little bit more on that one.

He flips his hips as the left hander just a little bit too much air and enabled the Carver defense to get there at the last second.

That was Antavius Watts again, that Mississippi State signee who got back there and broke up the play just in time.

So second down and ten.

Tuck that away though.

Lambert got behind him and he was open for a second.

Second down and ten.

Handoff goes to Traeven Jones as we take a look at the Johnny's New York style pizza offense for Hapeville Charter, there's Chris Booker, the Alabama signee.

Then you got Williams, Miller, Marks and Harris up front.

Jones, the starting running back with Lambert, Paige, Walker all of them really fast at the wide receiver positions and Cameron Lear who we already saw, make the first down on the fourth down.

Carey Booker signed with Alabama over 16 total offers, including Georgia and Florida.

Third down and 64 star.

He's rated as high as the number 5 interior offensive lineman in the country.

I tell you, he is violent and I mean that in a good way.

In the football terms, he is trying to hurt people.

He is trying to finish blocks.

If you watch number 72, he's locking in on people.

Ball goes to Lear and he gets up ended.

I think that was Lear.

Or maybe it was Patrick Reddick.

It was one of the tight ends.

Yes, it was.

Patrick Reddick talked about him a little bit in our coaches meeting.

He's a six foot 2.5, 235 pound H-back tight end.

They love to get the ball to him.

And man, Carver was ready for that.

Tough physical corner.

JaMarcus Davis, the 61, 190 senior made that tackle and he's shaken up on the play.

Yeah, I believe you had a big man like that.

His guy in the thighs.

Hopefully.

Hopefully it's just a stinger and he'll get right back up.

Patrick Reddick is a as you mentioned, a gigantic target at the tight end.

He reminds me of reminds me of Isaac Norda, former Buford tight end, and I watched his tape this week.

Is he a burner?

No, but he's just always open.

They find him.

He's their guy.

They line him up everywhere.

If you follow 19, you're going to be able to find the football.

So we'll step aside as they tend to JaMarcus Davis down on the field.

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So they get JaMarcus Davis off the field.

The 61, 190 senior.

That's another one of those guys that we've been talking about that Coach Jarvis Jones was talking about.

It's a big game for him because he hasn't signed yet.

Yeah.

Listen we're going to go further into it.

Is a NCAA dead period.

There's no power for schools here.

There's no there's no ones here tonight except the lower level Division two Naia schools.

And what does that do?

The game you all have tonight Buford and Carrollton, there would be 300 coaches here, minimum.

Now they're able to get to watch it through TV and through us all around the country.

But a little bit different pathway this year as no no big time coaches, no schools in the Division one level are able to be here tonight.

Fourth down and four Hapeville Charter keeps the offense on the field.

Trayvon Jones lines up at running back.

Snap goes back to Pope, scans the field, throws the ball.

It's complete.

Will not get the first down as he gets stopped at the 43 yard line.

Ball went to Lambert right there, but he hit stonewalled by Jayden Taylor and his friends.

Sophomore linebacker all over the field.

Jarvis Jones says this is the guy, rusty.

This is our next one here.

A lot of young, talented Carver, but you're going to see number 5 all night.

He gets there and he finishes that play.

He absolutely brings the lumber 150 plus tackles on the season.

Look at that 36 TfL, seven sacks and two picks.

Those are not real numbers are.

They I don't know, but he is 61.5 210 I can tell you right now his his scholarship offers are going to continue to trend up over the next two recruiting cycles.

That is a 2028 prospect.

Guy that Jarvis Jones admits, though, has to get in the weight room and get stronger.

Yeah, you got you got to keep him.

You got to keep him humbled a little bit.

So he made sure.

And you and like you said before, when Jarvis Jones speaks, these kids listen, he's got the resume.

Instant credibility.

He's alumni.

He's been through the path of Carver Columbus to Georgia, to the NFL and back.

Sebastian Heard there.

Freshman running back, hands off to Tarver on the first play.

73 yard pickup.

Sebastian Heard got thrust into the job a 62, 180 freshman the first week of the season.

Game week, opening game of the season.

They didn't even tell him until Monday.

He was going to be the starting quarterback.

Jarvis Jones they didn't realize his other quarterback had transferred until Sunday morning.

Tarver with the run and a big hit.

As we take a look at the impact players when Carver Columbus is on offense.

You look at Parker Pritchett, the 66 foot four, 315 pound Auburn signee.

Coach Jarvis Jones says rusty he can play any five positions.

He is super athletic and we talked about Patrick Reddick on the other side here.

He plays defensive end and tight end.

This is a kid that's a 2026 prospect.

Still unsigned.

Big opportunity for him.

Not sure that he's not long term at defensive end.

But they use him primarily as an H-back on offense.

Third down and three.

And the run and first down carry for Tarver.

So Tarver getting his work in early here tonight.

I love that everybody is required to give stats, depth charts and all that when we call Coach Gordon, he said.

Rusty, this is our depth chart.

He gave us the roster.

He said everybody plays.

And he is right about that.

That was Rashad Williamson in on that tackle.

I think.

Tarver seven offers, including Minnesota, Troy, UAB, who you mentioned just offered.

He's a three star running back.

Yeah he's a one cut guy, man.

He likes to get behind his pads, get north south.

Keeper.

Instead.

It's going to pitch out here on the edge and stop right there.

No gain on the play as the ball goes to Zackarie Watts their freshman running back man.

Look at Amari George right here.

Show number 20.

Safety a lot of talk about this freshman from Carver.

I hate to say it, but you just have to mention the comparisons.

Isaiah Crowell when you start talking about elite running back Carver Columbus special.

How special is it for Carver Columbus that Jarvis Jones and Isaiah Crowell are back in their hometowns for Jarvis Jones?

He said it's the first time they've been back home since I was in high school.

He moved back?

Yeah.

Was on Coach Kirby Smart staff at the University of Georgia when he took the job.

Yep.

Hey, watch the.

Third down and long coming up for the Carver Columbus Tigers.

And Isaiah Crowell is back.

And you know he's been around the program a little bit and doing some charitable work there in his hometown.

Let me tell you something.

Not that I look too far in the future because at my age, I don't know if I'll be around to cover that class.

But Isaiah Crowell, son, I've seen the highlights.

Let me tell you something.

He is special.

My goodness.

Third down and eight ball sitting at the 43 yard line.

Ball is complete right there in the middle for a first down.

And that is the senior Marte Sears coming up with the big catch.

Nice job there.

Protection.

Able to get able to get that ball off.

So he has plenty of time to scan the field.

Goes through his progression, sets his feet, delivers a strike.

And we can say it now the game started the game plan for Hapeville Charter.

They want this quarterback to beat them.

They don't want Carver Columbus to run the ball down the throat, Coach said.

We're going to put it in his quarterback's hands and see what happens.

We'll see what happens.

But Sebastian Heard has handled the load this year.

They've gone 14-0 he's a freshman.

I would test him too.

But so far right now he's passed every test.

This is game 15.

Carver Columbus has had only one game the entire season, including the playoffs that have been decided by less than three touchdowns.

And that was an 87 win at Sumter.

That was on October the tenth.

It was.

October, October the tenth.

It's been a minute since they've been sweating in the fourth quarter.

And a lot of those folks at Sumter had a fabulous season.

They thought they would be back here in the bins facing Carver again.

And then they got beat in overtime by this Hapeville Charter team.

Handoff goes Jakobe Caslin Caslin got the first down near the 20 yard line.

Here's a look at the offense for Carver Columbus.

It's brought to you by Johnny's New York style pizza.

Parker Pritchett Terance Warren two Maulers.

Big time prospects on the left side of that line.

Stevenson Shelley and Murray at the center in the right side.

Tarver we've seen Miles had his coming out party in this game a year ago, just decommitted from North Carolina recently, and then Caslin, Woodson, Woodson and Sears in the wide receiver positions and tight end.

Got a player, got a player down here for Hapeville.

I'm not surprised man.

These guys are hitting hard.

Yes they are expected this type of physicality in this game between these two teams.

The one thing I'm going to watch, and I think everyone knows Hapeville plays a lot of kids both ways.

Let's take a look at the season recap for the Carver Columbus Tigers here in Jarvis Jones first season, 14 0-1 region one, 7-0 they're riding a 26 game winning streak dating back to early in the 2024 season, averaging nearly 48 points per game, giving up just five points per game.

You'll win a lot of games that way.

Average margin of victory is 42 plus.

I don't know if I've ever seen that.

I mean, maybe Creekside.

Creekside I did, I saw I saw it last night.

I know you did.

I saw it to start the season.

Yeah.

You you you called that game.

That was the closest game of the season until last night.

That game they were down 21 to nothing until they ripped off seven touchdown drives in a row.

Let's go.

I knew right then Coach Dixon and crew was a little bit different this year.

Yeah Benedictine gave him all they could handle last night.

Squeezed every second out of that game.

Second down and four Caslin on the carry.

And he's going to have another first down for Carver.

Nice little drive they got going on here.

This is good news for Carver Columbus.

They could run the football like this.

It opens up everything else they want to do.

But if they can come north south at you it's going to give you some issues.

Coach Gordon told us he goes, rusty, if I see I'm having a problem, I will make some adjustments and I will add some extra bodies.

Right now.

Carver Columbus able to run the football, stay ahead of the chains.

Here's Kobe Caslin been offered by Troy, Central Michigan and UMass, but has not yet signed and a returning starter for these Tigers that wanted a year ago.

Wallop Burke County in the state finals a year ago and then beat Burke County in the semifinals.

Leading into this game, there's Zackarie Watts.

Watch out.

He's got great speed.

Look at him get around the corner and score easily.

But there is a flag.

Oh man, they don't get a guy that had a little bit of my emotion.

But did you see the the footwork on this freshman right here when he put his foot in the ground.

Legal shift.

I didn't necessarily see anything.

See that?

Look at the speed on him.

Illegal shift against the offense.

First down.

Freshman.

That'll back the ball up to the 15 yard line.

But you immediately saw the speed of Zackarie Watts the freshman.

He's got nine offers already.

Just a ninth grader offers including Georgia Tech, Georgia and Texas A&M.

Yeah he'll have all those whose offers you everybody.

First and 15 to the air end zone and broken up.

Tried to get the ball to K.J.

Miles right there and got denied over there in the corner of the end zone.

Good job there.

By Anthony Brooks.

Just staying staying in phase forcing the wide receiver to the sideline.

Going to be a tough catch anyway.

But great job defensively.

They're going to play man to man.

They're not hiding.

They're playing straight man to man trying to add bodies to the box.

You see Carver Columbus try to take a shot right there.

Recognizing the man to man coverage.

Brooks is a fantastic player.

Move in from Columbia South Carolina.

That Coach Winston Gordon had to convince.

You're not a wide receiver.

You're a corner.

But he did get suspended.

Did not play in the semifinals.

So they got him another game.

And he's happy to be playing here in the finals today.

Yep.

Second down and 15.

It is goal to go.

And the handoff goes to Watts who shoots through a hole right there in the middle and picks up a couple of yards.

Booker in on that tackle for the Hornets.

As we take a look at the Hornets on defense.

There's Barnes, Reddick and Booker the star in Stiggers.

Another really good one on that second level.

You got Sibley, Williamson and Ward.

And in the secondary Cobb Paige, Crawford and Crawford.

The two Crawford Zion and Xzavier.

That group has got to be big up front playing against this big offensive line at Carver Columbus going to take a lot of snaps today inside weathers good.

Cramping should be an issue, but they're going to have to have a bunch of snaps out of their big men today for Hapeville to have a chance.

Third down and goal from the ten.

And another whistle on this play.

Clock went to zero.

Delay of game offense five-yard penalty.

We're about to wrap up this first quarter rusty and we've had one possession for each team.

I did watch Army Navy last week.

So did I. They had 14 plays and then the other team had 13 plays and the quarter was over.

Great football game.

That is a bucket list for me one day.

Yeah, I tweeted as that game started before the game even kicked off, I had already had chills watching this game and they haven't even started playing yet.

I had one of my close friends there.

His daughter is a freshman at the Naval Academy and he went and sent us video just bucket list for me, man.

Got several players here in the state of Georgia who'll be playing their college football at Army and Navy ball in the air and overshoots the tight end.

Timothy Woodson right there at the goal line.

It's going to be fourth down.

Let's see if they try a field goal.

They got a man that can do it.

Looks like they're going to bring Kendrick Pearce-Spencer on to try this kick.

Or are they just swapping out personnel.

Are they kicking?

I'm looking for 41.

See anybody.

Know it looks like they keep the offense out there.

Oh no.

He's walking.

Oh here he is.

He was hiding.

Yeah.

You know kickers man.

They gotta get to the routine.

511, 230 sophomore Kendrick Pearce-Spencer.

His cousin is the special teams coach and kicked here in the Carver program.

So this is going to be a 33 yard kick.

And it's on its way.

And it is good.

So Pearce-Spencer puts it through the uprights and Carver Columbus has the early lead 3-0 It's a really good job there.

By Hapeville Charter though.

Carver you got to think man, we had a penalty take away a touchdown.

Hapeville gets another chance.

They hold probably a win on their part holding that to three Coach Gordon see what type of adjustment he makes after Carver.

Columbus has had two possessions now.

So Carver Columbus held the ball for 7 minutes.

Make.

Location services.

14 plays on that drive.

We got to ask him about the outfits.

When was the decision to roll with that?

Definitely making a statement.

No question.

We also at some point got to get a shot of Coach Gordon shoes.

It's a big deal.

I'm sure we'll have more on that later.

He's a big shoe guy and he said every game day I reach into the closet, I pick the ones that I think are going to be the winners for me that night.

What do you say?

You had 200 pair of shoes.

I think he said something like that, which was about 195 more than me.

There's the return by Walker up to the 24 yard line, and that is where Hapeville will go on offense again.

Two.

Now you start start seeing the within game.

You know, what adjustments do you make?

You had a chance to see both teams kind of line up how they line up to certain formations.

Now the in game adjustment right here early on as you start late in the first quarter.

It's crazy to say.

And the Hornets going on offense for just the second time.

Take over at the 24 yard line.

Keylan Pope three of four for 10 yards passing so far in the game.

Handoff goes to Stiggers Ray Damond Stiggers and he's going to get cut down pretty quickly.

And Givens there to finish off the play.

You want to talk about somebody stepping up and filling against a pulling guard?

I don't know who it was right here on the replay.

Let's see if we can see who comes up on the edge for Carver Columbus.

This is exactly how you run fit this and allowed the guys in behind him for no gain.

Let's see if they get this final play in before the quarter finishes.

Doesn't look like they will and they won't.

And that is the end of the first quarter here at Mercedes-Benz two, a state championship game Carver Columbus on top of Hayfield 3-0 Second quarter coming up.

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Matt Stewart rusty Manziel back with you at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Adam Johnson is down on the sideline.

Hey, guys, I was always told if you look good, you feel good and that is the exact case for Hapeville Charter Winston Gordon.

He has a very good superstition ahead of him, always making sure he stays ready with the type of shoes he wears for every single game there is no repeats.

It's a brand new pair.

Every single game.

No exceptions.

It is his good luck charm and I got a chance to see what type of shoes he's rocking on the field today.

It's the Nike Pegasus Trail Fives.

They're bright and yellow a statement and it is very true.

If you look good, you feel good.

Absolutely.

And I tell you no doubt.

About my man, I like it.

He said he became a shoe guy as soon as he started making money.

Yes, he did.

So second down as we start this second quarter, Stiggers will get the handoff Ray Damond Stiggers with some room to run.

Oh, got closed down really fast.

Wow, that shut down really fast as DeMarcus O'Neal.

The safety came up to make the stop.

Yeah, you look at the speed of the Carver Columbus defense, you're thinking that's going to be six or seven yard gain.

And next thing you know that's maybe one or two.

You got to get north south right here.

You got to go.

You're not going to be able to bounce it wide against a team like this.

Got to stick it up in there and get the tough yards.

Going to bring up about third and six now.

But you see the speed of Carver closing quickly.

94 total tackles for O'Neal this season.

Pope going to step up in the pocket bounce off a tackler.

Then he goes down at the 25 yard line as we take a look at the Johnny's New York style pizza defense for Carver Columbus, Edmond, Simmons, Brown and Givens up front, Daniels and Taylor.

The linebackers very productive numbers.

Murphy and Davis are the corners with O'Neal, Wright and Watts the safeties.

You want to watch a future SEC matchup?

Look at the left tackle going to Alabama and look at the defensive end going to Texas A&M.

Going to be some big time battles in the future between Chris Booker and Triston Givens that play.

Watch the top of the screen right there.

Look at those two.

Look at him redirect.

Look at Booker.

Redirect with his feet.

My goodness he's going to be an interior offensive lineman I'm telling you this guy is a complete package.

Booker won the battle that time.

They're going to have some battles now.

Punting situation.

And that's Elijah Hardy who boots it out of there and gets a nice bounce.

Look at that big 15 20 yard bounce all the way down to the 20 1 yard line.

So they don't have to look good.

They just have to be good.

And that was actually Booker.

I thought Hardy was listed as the punter, but it's big.

Chris Booker punting the ball right there.

At an Alabama fan asked me today.

He said, who do you compare him to?

I say, I don't know that he has the actual 330 pounds of Chance Warmack, but he's got the nastiness to him and you see how good his feet are.

He's not going to play out on the edge because of his length.

This is a kid, man.

He's the real deal.

His for his recruitment exploded last year.

From January on, Alabama wins a tight one in the end over Georgia.

Yeah, when we saw him on GPB sports Football Fridays in Georgia in the last game of the regular season.

He had maybe one or two offers and they were not big offers.

And all of a sudden here he is signed with Alabama a year later, Tarver gets hit in the backfield, bounces off that, but not off that great pursuit right there by Hapeville Charter to come up and make that tackle.

That's Elijah Paige the safety.

You're also going to see Rayqwan Stiggers watch 56 with the penetration.

Look at him get upfield.

He's the one that almost gets him slows him down enough for everybody to get there.

But nice play by Stiggers to get up the field to beat the block.

Man, these teams are flying around defensively.

And this is a Hapeville Charter team that lost one of their top returning starters in the secondary.

Derric Johnson hurt himself early in that Lee County game and was lost for the season.

Beard back to pass.

Guns it right there in the middle of the defense at the 25 yard line as they get some of that yardage back.

Going to K.J.

Miles.

Nice job.

K.J.

Miles within the game last year he kind of exploded after this kid is still unsigned, a lot of people, but when he sets his feet, look at him go get that ball.

Nice play there.

By Miles Ball was a little bit behind him, just reaches up and snags it.

Strong hands.

He had a great state championship game last year.

He's going to be a kid that's going to sign in February.

And nearly 200 yards receiving in that game.

He's a three star wide receiver.

He was committed to North Carolina, still has 18 offers, including Memphis, North Carolina and Georgia.

I tell you what, he's going to be.

His recruitment is going to really pick up.

This is a great audition for him.

But those power four schools that are going to be looking for a high school receiver late, he's still going to be on the market.

Running a screenplay.

Ball goes to Tarver, and Tarver cannot get the first down.

Actually, it was Coby Caslin who caught that pass.

Did not pick up the first down, stopped at the 29.

Love the call, but the pursuit and speed there of Hapeville defense catches up and keeps this to about a about a fourth and two.

They draw.

They show blitz and drop out of it.

Missed tackle there.

They still run to the football.

Good job.

Fourth and one.

Are they going to go for it here.

We saw Benedictine do this last night.

I don't know that you have to right here.

This might be a Kirby smart special.

Try to get you jump offsides and call time out.

And now a Time-out is going to be called by Hapeville Charter.

So they'll call a time-out facing fourth.

And one different situation.

You're right.

Benedictine.

Last night.

When they went for it on fourth and one at their own 24, they felt like we've got to keep the ball here.

We can't punt it back because Creekside is playing so fast.

But we'll step aside as they call the time-out.

3-0 Carver Columbus.

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Back at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

It's a fourth and one.

And let's see what Carver Columbus does here.

Following the time-out by Hapeville Charter.

Looks like they will punt and Kendrick Pearce-Spencer, who has provided the only points in this game on a 33 yard field goal late in that first quarter, will punt.

Nice kick.

Nice.

Kick.

But will not be returnable either as the Turner just kept backing up on the play and he stood his ground.

He could have come up and made a play on that ball, but did not as he let it fall instead.

So that's where Hapeville will go on offense.

As we take a look at the resume for the Hornets won the 20172 way state championship game.

They were a great team that year, went 14-1 They've won five region titles, five seasons with ten plus wins, and the program didn't even start until 2011.

But that 2017 team, it's a two way program at 20:02.

Players sign and play college football.

Their only loss that year was a one point loss to Thompson out of Alabama.

Yes.

And Winston Gordon, says Thompson, Thompson coach, said I will never schedule you again.

He told him that.

Here comes the reverse.

Oh wow, what a tackle, man.

Carver Columbus bringing it on defense.

They got it down to.

Artaveus Yancie right here.

Watch him come up.

What a tackle by Yancie right here.

Wow.

Cut him down and hopefully he's going to be okay.

But that's a violent collision on that reverse.

Mm.

Their safety room is special with, Watts and Wright and Yancie.

They got some big time players in that safety room for Jarvis Jones team.

Believe they told us this starting secondary all has a power four offer.

At least one.

Makevious Yancie 511200 pounds.

Senior played in this game a year ago when Carver Columbus won their state championship.

Central Florida app state, UAB.

Middle Tennessee State Georgia State several offers.

75 total tackles, 17 TfL from the safety position and four sacks from the safety position.

A couple of picks as well.

Love to see that young man run off the field.

Good job.

Just Jayden Lambert looks like he'll be okay.

Just shaken up.

So second down and ten coming up.

Lambert the junior wide receiver.

Carver Columbus playing for their third state championship.

Actually, I've had a chance to call all of them.

Called every one of their state finals games.

They love you.

They I love.

They lock you in now for the next ten years.

You're not going anywhere, Matt.

I love.

Them, too.

As long as they're here, you're in it.

Second down and ten.

Long throw.

Long throw right there and nice catch.

Snagging that hand, staying in that, snagging that ball with his hands.

Xzavier Paige, the junior wide receiver.

Nice catch on the long throw by Keylan Pope.

Yancie Givens in his face there.

Good snag there, but that was a long throw.

Brings it up to it'll be third and one now.

He had to throw that all the way across the field with Givens pressure on him.

What a matchup man to watch Booker and Givens go.

It's a real battle going on at that left tackle defensive end position right there.

Once again, Givens is lined up directly in front of him off to the side a little bit right there at the bottom of your screen, you see 72.

Booker look how long his arms are even.

He's a 63 frame.

That's what helps him to be able to play tackle right here.

Fakes the handoff and Pope just has to get it out of there.

Let's see if they drop a flag on that.

It looked like it was that offsides.

Just timed that perfect.

Either that or their get off was great.

Man.

I don't think it was a flag.

Let's see here.

No he was back.

Yeah.

He timed it well.

Yeah.

Timed it perfectly.

That's Artaveus Edmond.

And it's going to be fourth down and one.

They keep the offense on the field.

See if they go back with the fullback here.

They went with Cameron Lear last time.

The six foot four, 215 pound junior.

Up in that fullback.

Yeah.

Worked the first time.

And we have movement.

And then you see Lear come up and pop his offensive lineman on the head.

Offense.

That'll kill you.

Penalty fourth.

Down a chance at midfield to try to convert.

He put his hands out.

He just leaned on him.

Everybody slapped him.

Christopher Marks he's a 62, 280 sophomore right guard.

And then watch Lear you didn't see it.

And then Lear came up and popped him on the helmet for making that mistake.

Oh my goodness, young man.

But tough break there for Hapeville got a chance to convert.

Try to keep the ball, keep the offense going.

But you have a penalty there.

That's when a coach comes over and goes.

You knew the snap count.

Why did you move.?

Chris Booker is on the punt again.

We've seen these multifunctional big men the last couple of nights.

We saw the Damien Guyton playing offense last night.

The number 1 ranked Edge in the country, who signed with Texas Tech.

I think I can share this if I don't.

Get in trouble.

Offense.

Five yard penalty.

I talked to Creekside staff today.

They told me Damien Guyton was the best defensive end they've ever coached against, and that includes Will Anderson, who they went against.

Yeah, at Dutchtown.

And they said, rusty, he's 16-years-old.

He is really a junior.

Yep.

Reclassified and would have been a junior.

But last night was his final high school football game.

And it was a great high school football game.

To close out your career.

Guyton certainly impressed a lot of people, including me.

Ball is caught by Watts on the run.

Watch out.

Gets slowed down a little bit by a hit and goes down at the 45 yard line.

But you saw him starting to gain some momentum and speed, and we got a flag down on the field at the 33 yard line.

Chop block, chop block coming up.

So they're going to make make them punt again don't you think that's great field position.

Yeah.

There's the chop block.

Oh yeah.

Or it's not actually a chop block.

It was a block below.

The knee.

That was a dive block.

Yeah.

Chop block.

I think you actually have to have two guys involved in it.

Someone taking him low and high.

That was not the case right there.

So chop block would not be the definition of what we saw right there.

But a block below the knees would be.

So let's see if they make him punt it again.

It looks like they're just going to take the play and take the ball at the 45.

I probably would take it here.

There's a lot of things that go wrong with special teams in high school.

Illegal block below the waist, just kicking team.

That penalty will be tacked on to the end of the run.

Yeah.

First down.

Oh.

Even better.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

Even better.

Yeah.

So it's not a matter.

Of do.

You take the penalty and make them punt again or you take the play.

You take the play plus get the penalty.

That's the best of both worlds right there.

There's no brainer.

So first and ten Carver Columbus at the 40 yard line.

See if they take a shot right here.

They know hate bills in man to man.

Let's see if they let the freshman turn one loose.

Instead they give it to Caslin.

Jakobe Caslin picks up a couple of yards to the 38 yard line.

Caslin a guy that plays that slot position been Moore wide receiver later in the season.

Early in the year, used him more in the running game.

He's a fantastic athlete.

Second down Donovan Barnes there at 95, defensive end 64, 215 pounds.

Gets in there, makes a nice play for Hapeville and bring up second Seven.

Barnes.

There he is.

64, 215 senior.

He's really the only true defensive end they have on that line.

They got Reddick.

They're playing at the defensive tackle position.

They could probably use him at defensive end as well.

They've got to move down inside.

Deep ball, far side and caught touchdown K.J.

Miles.

He loves playing in this building.

Makes another spectacular catch for the first touchdown of the night.

Matt that was a play late I felt like they were going to take a shot right here.

This side of the field.

Hapeville and man to man you can see it.

And the freshman lays one out here.

Watch him turn this one loose.

And K.J.

Miles as you said he just goes and gets that actually deflected.

And he goes back and gets it a second time.

Watch him tip this ball.

Miles wants to play every game in this building.

Like we said a year ago, had his coming out party exploded on this big stage.

And the two a state championship game.

And here tonight he hauls in a 38 yard touchdown pass from Sebastian Heard and Pearce-Spencer puts it through.

And Carver Columbus has built a 10-0 lead with 6 minutes to play here in the first half.

Here's your DBHDD red ribbon 365 curriculum scoring drive.

Not much of a drive, just a couple of plays, 40 yards and 38 of.

Them.

By that young man right there.

Special teams penalty gave Carver Columbus great field position.

Did not take long.

They take a shot from right there.

Freshman drops that in for K.J.

Miles.

Let's check in with Autumn.

That was just pure patience and poise from quarterback.

Sebastian Heard Sebastian is a guy who had no choice but to step up this season as the quarterback, and has delivered in a big way, getting Carver Columbus to the championship stage as coach.

Jarvis Jones about the work we didn't see for Sebastian to get to this point, and he told me it starts with a genuine love for the game, saying, most kids say they love football, but they don't want to put in the time and do the process.

Sebastian does just that.

He does the small things very well.

He doesn't get ahead of himself.

He knows the game plan, watches film, asks questions, and lives in the process.

That mindset and attention to detail is why he's been able to handle this moment so well.

Good stuff Autumn.

And you know, I don't know that we've seen so many freshmen quarterbacks.

Yeah, we saw freshman.

Quarterback tonight.

Yeah, he's going to say CJ Cypher freshman quarterback starter for Carrollton.

We will see in our last game tonight the national championship game against Buford.

We saw a freshman quarterback win it for for Calhoun last year.

We've seen a. Trace Hawkins.

Yeah.

And he of course he's blown up and he's a big time prospect correct.

Yep.

And rightfully so.

But so many freshmen being thrust into that quarterback.

I tell you why.

And I tell.

You why.

Well.

These kids play seven on seven.

They get a lot of reps.

Mentally they're a lot more polished in the game.

See him fix his hair.

He knows he's up there on the big screen.

I like it, man.

It's a 19.

Speaking of 1990-1990, look right there a little little kid play.

Going to say Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Right there.

I like.

It.

So handoff goes to Stiggers and Stiggers gets 3 yards on the play to the 24 Ray Damond Stiggers the sophomore running back got some time last year as a freshman.

Speaking of young guys going to see big 99 in there for Carver Columbus Kingston Brown six foot 3.5, 290 pounds.

He is a load all kind of offers already.

Four star rated as high as the number 8 defensive lineman in the class of 2028-16 offers Georgia, Florida and Purdue.

Look at him.

That is a sophomore in high school.

What is he going to be doing to kids for two more years?

Ball in the air, far side and battle for it.

Flag out.

They were trying to get the ball to Cedric Walker right there, and JaMarcus Davis got tangled up with him.

Yeah, you know, there's a difference in staying in phase and cutting the wide receiver off.

He cuts him off right here.

You're going to see how tight he is.

Watch him block him here.

That works in basketball.

But not here.

Easy call.

I think it's important for and I know this might sound like Captain Obvious, but I think it's really important for Hapeville Charter.

If they can just keep this game close and get it to the fourth.

Quarter.

I think, you know, coach, I think I think he would agree with us.

He knows the depth is going to be an issue.

Keep this thing because his kids are going to play hard.

They're fast on defense.

They got to get some points.

Listen, it's been a while since Carver Columbus has been in a game.

You know, I heard you talking.

I heard you talking about last night.

What does Creekside do in the fourth quarter when somebody's within striking distance with them?

We saw them answer the bell last night.

Unbelievable.

Football game.

Got to get this thing to the fourth quarter and see how Carver Columbus reacts.

Been a while since they've been in the fourth quarter game.

Stiggers gets the handoff and he crashes off right tackle and down to the 47 yard line.

He got four on the play.

Like that.

Let's get north and south.

Let's see what we can do here.

Been going I think a little bit too much east west for me.

Let's get north south and see if we can get some yards.

Brings up second and six.

But nice play on first down by Hapeville.

You see the Stiggers wearing those Guardian cap on his helmet.

I have no problem.

With that.

No not at all.

Not not an ounce.

Looks weird.

I'll be honest with you.

But boy, look at this Carver.

They're just.

Swarming.

Defense Jaiden Taylor with the TfL.

Boy.

I tell you what.

Watch how fast he reads this.

Well, number one, no one put a hat on him.

Yeah, but once he sees that opening, he's he's he's going.

What's he sees that guard block down.

He's gone.

And that's exactly what you want to see.

Yeah.

And when I say nobody put a hat on him, that was because the defensive line tied up the offensive line.

Correct.

Left the gap in the lane for him to run through and make that tackle.

That's their job.

Third down Pope pass might have been deflected.

It was short going out there to the edge.

Incomplete.

Trying to get the ball to Jones.

And it's going to be fourth down.

And that was quick.

Pick up five.

Pick up four on first down and two quick plays.

Now you got to punt again.

You see Coach Gordon got to figure something out here.

Get any type of momentum offensively.

Yeah rusty when you take a TfL it just kills your drive.

Cannot play behind the chains against a team like this.

So Booker is out there to punt again.

I wonder if, coach DeBoer knows he's got a punter in his in his potential interior offensive lineman right there.

That's a line drive kick.

It's going to be taken by Watts and Watts still on his feet.

Dancing and flag comes out.

He just needs to get down.

And he finally does as they swarm him under at the 11 yard line.

Number 14.

And you always get a little nervous if you're a coach when you see that happening.

When you start, start seeing four or five helmets on the ball.

You're afraid that ball is going to come out.

Says a lot about Carver, though, to put this young man back there, the trust you have in him.

And what happens when you start dancing?

It causes your guys to hold on longer, to stay engaged in those blocks.

And that's what happened.

You get a handful of jerseys just trying to help your guy.

Here we go.

This time it's a special teams penalty on Carver Columbus.

I believe that's the hold right there on number 10 coming down the field.

He just his man got behind him.

Steven Wright yeah.

The safety who was on the punt return team.

Holding during return him to be half the distance of the goal.

First down.

So that backs up Carver Columbus to the eight yard line.

Only 40 yards of offense so far for Hapeville Charter in this game.

101 for Carver.

Not a big number either, but they lead on the scoreboard 10-0 They had a short field and took advantage of it.

Handoff goes to Watts.

He's in trouble and Amari George is the first guy to meet him.

Yes, sir.

They run to the football.

That's not going to change for Hapeville.

They're all over that.

You see a lot of white jerseys getting after the freshman.

Now Carver Columbus is going to have to play behind the sticks and be second down and 13.

So let's see if Hapeville Charter can cash in here.

Maybe get a turnover, make him punt out of their end zone, get a short field and get some points on the board before halftime, which is quickly approaching.

Now at the 319 mark.

Haven't seen a ton of Kelston Tarver.

Tarver six carries for ten total yards.

Caslin has four carries for 23 yards.

They only have 34 yards rushing so far in this game.

And another TfL.

Wow.

They're hunting right now.

That's Williamson the Mike linebacker Rashad Williamson.

They go I-formation just try to come downhill.

But you see him just see that and he shoots the gap tackle for loss.

61190 senior A young man, they moved from the safety position to that Mike linebacker spot.

And now it's going to be third down and 14.

Carver Columbus in no hurry to snap the ball here.

As the clock goes below 230 and the play clock is at seven.

Here's where you want to tackle.

You got to probably think something quick and underneath see if he can break something.

Got to get him down to the ground.

They're going to run the ball.

And Watts gets stopped at the two yard line.

Nearly a safety as they keep getting after him.

That was Stiggers Rayqwan Stiggers.

I thought they might have taken a delay of game on that.

I thought the play clock hit zero before they snapped it.

So stopped inside the two.

It's at the 1.5 and a time-out was called by Hapeville Charter.

They're going to try to get this ball.

Hold on.

What have we got here.

I. I thought it was going to be fourth down.

Did they give him the time-out before the play.

Did Jarvis call time-out before the play.

No.

Now the scoreboard does show fourth and 16 so I don't they did not okay.

They're just calling the time-out now.

I hateful called the time-out I thought.

Now they're getting ready to tell us I think yeah time-out was by Carver Columbus.

It was by Hapeville.

It was by Hapeville.

Because they want to stop the clock.

They want to try to give themselves some time to work with here on offense.

Just took the officials a little while to make that indication.

I saw one official talking to Jarvis Jones.

I was like, did he try to get a time-out before that play?

Stack man, what a what a football player.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

What a player.

Up for the Butkus Award.

His final year there at Georgia went after his junior year, but he was the SEC Defensive Player of the year.

No question.

At Georgia.

And then four years in the National Football League with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Let's take a look at Carver Columbus and their road to the finals.

Wiped out Aydyn and Stephens County back to back by 56 to nothing scores.

Then a good Thompson team in the quarterfinals.

3810 rematch of last year's state final.

Defeated Franklin Stephens and Burke County, 33 14, in the semis.

You know, Franklin Stephens team is going to be tough, but just too much.

Power.

Saw it last year in this building and happened again a couple of weeks ago.

So now we're being told from downstairs that the time-out was given here.

I think they're going to tell.

Us the previous play is under review to check the time.

Yeah, I think they gave them the time-out before that play was run.

So they'll spot the ball back at the four and make it third and 14.

But who was the time-out on the time-out was on Carver Columbus and not Hapeville.

I saw the official talking to Jarvis.

I think he was trying to save a delay.

Hapeville Charter in their road to the finals.

And let me tell you, these guys were absolute road warriors.

I think they're going to tell us something here.

First.

Let's see what they say.

Maybe they're not beat Columbus in the first round 48-0 Then the next three wins were all on the road at Appling County, at Morgan County, at Sumter County, those are all top ten teams that they beat on the road to get here.

It seems like to me every game they play is on the road.

They don't have a home stadium either.

They use Banneker High School.

Yeah.

They play their home games at Banneker High School.

We did GPB sports Football Fridays in Georgia against Carver Atlanta, there last year.

Up top they go with beard.

Nice throw, but way too long.

Incomplete.

And now it will be fourth down.

And I don't think the clock moved because it said 215 when they snapped the ball.

And it still says 215.

Illegal shift.

Watts sloppy last man.

It's just right here.

Yeah, the whole.

Thing.

Motion against the offense.

Motion there.

Penalties declined.

Fourth down.

So now it will be fourth down.

And a if I'm not mistaken the clock never moved on that play.

Well it's little details Matt.

Okay.

So it was 221215.

They put 6 seconds back on because of the time-out issue.

If you want to call it that.

Now it's a 215.

And so Hapeville Charter should get a very short field out of this.

End over end kick.

You got to catch that ball.

And he does.

He didn't call a fair catch.

And still on his feet as he makes his way to the sideline and dragged down at the 29 yard line.

You're right.

You have to come up and make that play.

You cannot let that ball hit the ground.

And so they end up getting the ball at the 29 yard line.

Yeah, Crawford with the turn there.

But man you got to go get that.

You got to have a head of steam North and south.

They're.

At the 30.

Watch him kind of hesitate right here.

See that get you got to be going north.

South when you catch that one.

Still a good job there to get something out of.

It.

There's too much speed to run east west on this team.

Well, the most important.

Thing though.

Yeah the most important thing was he held on to the ball.

That was the most important thing correctly.

And so it's first and ten ball at the 29.

They got plenty of time to work with here.

Two 0-3 And they have a couple of time-outs remaining.

Jones in there at running back.

See if they get him outside the pocket here.

Going to hand it off to Jones instead, he tries to bounce outside.

Man you cannot bounce outside against these guys.

They are so great in pursuit.

Makevious Yancie coming up and making that tackle for Carver.

They have so much speed in that back end.

If you try to bounce it outside, you got to get north and south.

Not with these safeties and outside backers.

No way.

You got to get what you can get your second and nine.

If you get up field there, you're probably second six.

I bet Coach Gordon brings that up at halftime.

We have got to get north south against this crew.

Zone read RPO throw to the sideline.

Incomplete.

And that was going to Lambert who saw Lambert leave the field earlier.

So good to see him back out there.

Incomplete third down.

Tough throw there for a lefty to roll that way.

Have to flip his hip to make that throw.

So pulled on the run and threw the ball instead.

Was not even close on the target.

It's just hard to get your feet set right there.

Especially going that side as a lefty.

So third down and nine, probably four down territory right here.

Seeing how they don't even have goalposts on their practice field.

They don't practice those kicks very often.

Scrambling throwing right there caught in the middle.

Great play inside the ten and down to the five.

Ball comes out and covered by Carver at the six.

Got a late flag two a lot happened right there.

Lambert with the catch and run and then O'Neal with the fumble recovery.

Let's see how they sort this out.

It's a good job here by Pope.

Watch him extend the play.

Eyes down the field.

He delivers a dart right there as he gets upfield.

Let's see right here.

That's definitely a fumble.

There's no doubt about that.

Let's just take the penalty foul call.

That's all that matters here is that is the penalty going to negate the fumble?

They call it targeting.

I have not seen that indication.

The previous play is under review.

For.

The previous play is under review for.

Right here.

Yeah.

I don't know about that.

I mean, I mean that's a situation where the running back is falling and he receiver's falling to the ground.

He falls into the path of the moves.

Yeah.

Watch this.

As he goes down.

I mean if that's targeting that's a tough call against Carver because the wide receiver is falling into the path of the helmet of the defender.

He's going to be close there.

But maybe they do I mean got crown of the helmet.

I assume I assume they're talking targeting.

They did not tell us.

They just said it was under review.

So I believe what's being reviewed is whether he fumbled or not, whether he was down or fumbled.

Okay, okay.

That's what's being questioned here.

Is that come down from the booth, right?

Yes.

So where's the ball?

The ball is out.

He's not got control of it right there.

And he's not on the ground yet.

To me that's a fumble.

Yes, right.

He's lost control of the ball right there.

Yep.

That's a. Fumble.

So apparently there is.

Now there's a flag also down on the field.

They haven't told us what that's about.

And that came from the back judge.

Yeah there's a flag sitting there at the five yard line.

So the play is under review.

But they also have a flag in play here.

They haven't told us about.

Carrollton and Buford asked if we'd go ahead and speed this up.

They didn't mind.

They want to get on the field before 10:00.

Oh my goodness.

Jax Pope let's.

Different angle right there.

The ball.

He's lost control of it right there.

Yeah that's a fumble.

The penalty is what you're what you're they haven't discussed yet.

So obviously the penalty is going to come based upon who has possession of the ball based on the replays that we're seeing.

It's going to be Carver ball.

Love listening to Pete Townsend.

Somebody in our age range is in control of the music.

You got Pete Townsend playing here?

I don't know how.

I don't know how that clicks with a lot of the kids here, but I love it.

Somebody, somebody don't care.

I heard some bad company last night.

I was like, either they've got Matt's playlist or somebody our age that stole it.

Well, stick around, we got one more game coming up tonight and it's the biggie.

The 6-A state championship game, the national championship.

You ever in your career called a game that has the title of the national championship of high school football?

No, not in high school.

Well, you're about to.

I've called a national championship in college baseball, but not in high school football.

I mean, because they're so incredibly rare, you almost never have a matchup where you can call it the national championship game.

You'll have a number 1 team playing.

And like when Colquitt County won their national championship, they didn't play a one versus one or one versus two.

They were just declared national champs.

But in this game, you've got number 1.

Carrollton ranked number 1 in the MaxPreps national rankings.

You got number 1 Buford number 1 in the USA Today Super 25.

After the fumble.

Also as a penalty, personal foul, illegal contact against the defense, penalties, half the distance to the goal.

First down.

First down.

Hateful charter.

I don't know what to say there.

So they ruled that.

Yeah I you know I don't know what they were looking at, but I mean, I think everybody at home saw it.

It looked like the ball was clearly out of control of.

The receiver.

Lambert before he was on his way to the ground, before he hit the ground, you see, Jarvis Jones.

Agrees with us there.

I don't know.

I don't know what to say about all that.

Personal foul, illegal helmet contact against the defense.

First down.

So great break for Hapeville Charter that we can say it is a great break for them.

Yes.

And with a minute 15 to go they have got to get seven points here.

Jarvis Jones wants an explanation, as does many, many other people who are watching right now.

And why is the ball at the 15?

Matt.

If the targeting if, if if it wasn't a fumble.

Okay.

And the targeting happened the illegal contact with the helmet, whatever you want to call it happened at the five yard line and it's half the distance.

Shouldn't it be at the 2.5?

Yes.

We need Dave.

We need Dave.

I think Dave got other duties tonight.

Get Dave on the bat phone, folks.

They get Dave on the bat phone.

So here we go.

First and ten ball at the 15 yard line.

That's about all I can say about it because that's what's happening in front of.

Us.

Pope going to run it down to the five.

He gets stopped there by Daijon Daniels the linebacker.

Great story.

Daijon Daniels, nose tackle on last year's team.

Jarvis Jones came in and said, look, you're playing linebacker.

And he wasn't happy about it.

He wasn't.

Comfortable there.

Yeah.

He says, this is what you need to do for your college future.

Took him about three or four games, started seeing the flow of it.

Second down ball at the ten.

Handoff goes to Stiggers, finds a hole to run in and Stiggers gets down to the six.

Clock running 39.

Got to stop right here with a. They set the chain.

So he's going to be second down and one.

Clock winding down.

Stiggers gets it again.

And Stiggers does not get the first down.

He got stopped right there in the middle.

So I. Think Zamar McGee they were calling that.

They were calling that a first down.

Now the yard marker saying second.

Tom Allen Hapeville Charter.

Well, this has been, this has.

Been a out of the.

Half really wild last minute and a half kind of what's going on right now.

A lot of confusion.

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You mentioned to me something about your Heisman vote.

Think about this building last week.

Yeah, a couple weeks ago.

Georgia, can you discuss that or.

Oh yeah, I can, I can now once it's.

Yeah.

So who did you.

Vote vote for gunner I did.

Number 1.

And a lot of people didn't because he finished seventh in the balloting.

Not the first time I've been way off, but I don't care.

I vote who I think should win it because gunner, to me and all those other guys had great seasons.

Obviously, Mendoza did and Zion did, and Diego Pavia was a tremendous story.

But to me, nobody played bigger in big games and played in more big games than Gunner Stockton.

To me, that's that's my litmus test.

You look at the Texas Ole Miss game, those were his two best games by far.

And that's Gunner Stockton from Rabun County.

Rabun County, that's who Hapeville Charter beat for the 2017 state championship.

Absolutely.

So you're absolutely right up there because we had the snow and the games got wiped out in Atlanta because the snow that year.

So here you go.

It's going to be second down and goal.

Watch the eights back right here.

They got Booker in.

False start offense five yard penalty.

They had Booker lined up in the backfield.

This has been a disjointed mess.

Last 2 minutes.

Last 2 minutes.

Last 2 minutes on the clock.

The last ten 15 minutes of.

What is going on right now.

We got we got to get on some pace here.

Get the get the flow of the game back going.

I still don't understand why they got the ball back to the 15.

If you call the targeting.

And the reason why Dave Reynolds is not here with us in the booth right now is he's working the 6-A final.

Well, that's what he gets for overachieving.

He needs to be up here with.

Us.

Just you got a great view.

The next game you get up here, you don't have to be on the field in that.

So Stiggers in there at running back.

He is going to get the handoff.

Follows his blockers and Stiggers will not get there.

They might not be able to run it in from here because of this defense.

No they close.

Well sure.

Tackle is going to call another time out.

That was a Yancie again coming up and making that stop from the safety position.

I mean we're only talking five or 6 yards, but they might not be able to run it in.

Look.

Watch his counter here.

And you see nine just come up and step up and stick his face in there.

And you love that as a safety.

Yeah.

Those safeties.

Talk about filling the alley.

That's what he did.

They're like sharks I mean they close so fast.

You see that nine kind of reminds you of Rashad Jones.

Yep a good call Rashad Jones wasn't that was that Banneker?

No.

Where did he go?

Did he.

Go to Westlake?

Westlake?

He was a he's a Southside guy.

And of course, Hapeville Charter is a Southside team.

Kill me for not knowing that.

Was he Stevenson?

No, I don't think he was Stevenson.

I'm thinking Westlake maybe.

Great player.

A lot of great players.

Have you seen the Revival for a long time?

You had the great players coming out of the South Side, but it wasn't translating into state championships.

And now we've started to see it.

We've seen last night, Creekside last couple of years, Langston Hughes, tomorrow, maybe Sandy.

Creek, no matter what happens tomorrow.

If I told Sandy Creek and Creekside they were going to play Monday.

But where are we at?

Where are we playing at?

Stick around.

Coming up halftime we got John Nelson and Nikki Palmer standing by at our or sitting by.

And our state championship desk.

They'll bring you up to date on everything that's happened so far today and what's still to come tonight.

So third down and goal from the six yard line with 20-2 clicks on the clock.

Pope on the sprint out.

Throws.

Touchdown catch.

If he held on to it he did.

Touchdown catch.

And that is.

Cedric Walker Cedric Walker with a great catch fully extended to make it 106.

Boy they roll him out to this side as a left handed quarterback.

And he drills this ball here.

Watch Walker go get it and lay out for the touchdown.

They had to have this watch him flick this.

Yeah I thought he might have dropped it right there.

There was a little bobble on it.

And he takes it to the ground.

That ball.

Is underneath it.

Great job by Cedric Walker to cradle that ball and keep it off the ground.

Great call there by the official.

But absolutely Walker to keep control of that.

Just a little flick of the wrist there.

A little little two action.

Yeah.

And like I said, they were not going to be able to run it in.

It became apparent those five 6 yards they were not going to run it in.

And so they finally throw it in there.

Great decision.

Carson Dill on for the pat man.

Snap.

They still get it down a little bit off center on the snap.

And a great job by the holder.

Charles Ward to get that ball down.

Wow.

Bullet pass and a great job on the catch by Cedric Walker to make it a ten seven game.

And Hapeville Charter did exactly what they had to do there.

They had to take advantage of that short field and get points on the board before halftime.

Good job there to answer.

Man.

Had to have that seven plays 30 yards.

Time of possession was 1 minute and 45 seconds on the clock, 22 minutes in real time.

Yeah exactly.

Your red ribbon 365 curriculum DBHDD scoring drive seven plays, 30 yards.

And like you said, it took an eternity.

But they finally got it in there.

And good for Winston Gordon and his team.

What a. Coach man.

He really is.

The value he brings to those kids and people in his program invaluable.

What he does, like he said he's had, he's had chances to go other places and do other things.

He said he feels like God has put him at Hapeville Charter and that's where he does his work.

But love me some.

Coach Gordon man, but a known him for a long time.

Straight shooter to now he'll tell you straight up.

He set the Kidd last week and he said, look, you could have ran a little bit.

Now you're going to run double for what you did.

Yeah.

Talking about Brooks who he had to suspend going into that semifinal, you know, my way or the highway kind of mentality.

But that's the only way you can really coach.

He said.

TV station is coming to film his practice.

They're going to they're going to film him running the whole time.

Line drive, kick that's going to be picked up by Woodson, and he's going to take a big hit and still on his feet going backwards.

Oh my goodness.

He's still on his feet.

My goodness.

We might turn this into a Sportscenter highlight.

Look at Woodson taking it back.

Flag out on the field.

And he's still dancing around.

And with 3 seconds left they tackled him.

But there is a flag at the 44.

How did they not get him to the ground?

Then they're able to get him.

We got a block, I think, behind the back, which is way behind the plate.

The half almost runs out a lot to see right here.

How did they not get him down?

Stumbling.

One hit, two hits, 34 guys got their hands on him right there.

And he nearly takes another guy.

Got his hand on him.

Another guy.

6789 101111 different guys hit him or got their hands on him.

Everybody on that return.

Everybody on the punt on punt team got a chance at him.

Either that or several guys got a couple of chances at him.

Now this gives you a chance right here where the ball is at.

You can easily throw on the end zone, easily throw on the end zone.

Do not waste a play here.

And he certainly will not.

Well, it's going to be a penalty on Carver Columbus.

So that's going to make what you just said even more difficult.

And definitely Westlake.

It was Westlake.

Correct.

Westlake Lions kind of my alma mater.

High school I went to became Westlake.

Oh it.

Did, it did.

What was the name of your high school?

Well, we were the Lakeshore Lancers, my friend.

Shaw Lancers.

Man.

Marquis Grissom.

Was the quarterback.

Got them to the 1985 state finals.

You know who they lost to?

West Rome.

A lot of people have.

And then when I was in eighth grade, we got to the state finals, and.

They lost to one of the greatest teams ever in the history of high school football, Americus, led by Michael Harris.

No question.

We hear about that every year.

We rightfully should.

I saw today, I believe Bowden Senior Group went 53-7 with four state championships.

I have to mention me being from Floyd County, a lot of Pride West, Strohm, those seniors, 59-1 they played 60 games in four years and lost once to Carrollton.

Monsters.

Incredible final play of the half right?

There will be a run right up the middle and Tarver still battling to get yardage on the play, ends up getting 12 on that run.

On the final play of the half and a 107 lead for Carver Columbus as the teams head to the locker room.

You know, I would think going back to what we've talked about here in the first half, this is not a bad script for.

Hapeville Charter, no question.

Kind of muck it up a little bit.

Let's get physical, get some points, let's get some rest.

Regroup, found a couple of things.

Kind of the way you anticipated this a really physical football game.

You know both teams weren't going to back down.

Muck it up is a great way to describe it because especially.

Especially getting the pig pen and muck this thing up.

Especially the last couple of minutes of this half.

And it's time now for our halftime interview is brought to you by Johnny's New York Style Pizza, your original neighborhood pizzeria.

Let's send it down to Autumn Coach Jones.

Up until the last 22nd mark of this halftime, it was your defense that was able to slow down.

What would you attribute that to?

Oh man.

Just playing sound.

Doing everything we we know we're capable of doing.

And just controlling what we do.

We had some miscommunication on that last play and allowed them to score.

But other than that, I think we've been playing sound.

It was a weird last 2 minutes of this half.

I mean, what do you tell your guys in the locker room?

I mean, we get the ball coming out the second half, man.

We just got to punch it in, continue to worry about ourselves and do what we do, man.

That's the only thing that we can control is, you know, putting our best foot forward.

So we just got to go in and make the adjustments so we we can find a way to, you know, move the ball on offense.

And put some more points on the board.

Thank you coach.

Good luck.

All right.

After this half we will head to Nikki and John for more stats and breakdown of the state championship game.

Let me know if I can help you with anything.

Just looking.

I only buy local and sustainable, so.

Oh., well, that shirt's not local.

You should be wearing cotton.

George is a major supplier of cotton worldwide, so if you'd like to buy local to support Georgia, buying cotton is a great place to start.

It's renewable and sustainable.

Naturally.

Thanks.

That's a polyester fiber made of oil, by the way.

Where's your dressing room?

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Welcome in to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

We're live on GPB and right now the GHSA is handing out awards on the field.

During the half of our two AA state title game.

Since 2021, the GHSA Inspiration Awards have celebrated those who consistently exceed expectations, whether by inspiring student athletes through their work or by setting an extraordinary example as student athletes.

Nominations are submitted by peers, administrators, or coaches who recognize their remarkable impact.

The GHSA has partnered with Piedmont Orthopedics to honor these inspirational leaders on the field.

You can catch all of their stories at the GHSA website at the list this year on the student athlete side, it's Reilly Greeson from Coahulla Creek, Maggie Norris from North Gwinnett, Joseph Zettelmaier from Charlton County on the ads, coaches, teachers and community supporters side, it's Jessie Arnold, an English teacher and cheerleading coach at Harlem High School, out by Augusta Rodney Gibson, who teaches music technology at Dalton High School.

Roger Jackson, the president of the Central Macon High Booster Club.

So he is definitely a charger.

Indeed.

Candace Mitchell, senior director of athletics at Drew Charter.

Hannah Nabors, who is a teacher and an assistant cross country coach at our Murchie.

And she also teaches girls and she's also the head coach for girls soccer on the middle school side, and also doctor Rob Spencer, a teacher and head competitive cheerleading coach at Seckinger High School.

Those are the award winners this year.

Congratulations again to all of the winners.

And like Nelly said, don't forget you can check out their full information and stories on these inspirational words at ghsa.net.

Well, welcome in to our GPB Halftime show.

If you're just now joining us, it's halftime of our two, a matchup between hateful long Day John Hapeville Charter.

Take two and Carver Columbus.

We're back.

Let's go ahead and take a look at our GMC scoreboard.

John, take it away.

107.

We figured this one was going to be a bit of a Rucker Carver Columbus.

They have had problems as CART teams named Carver have had problems with Hapeville Charter all season long.

Carver and Sumter County.

It was 87 defensive game there.

So you had Carver Atlanta now beating Hapeville Charter 147.

So Carver and low scoring.

We've seen this season involving Hapeville Charter.

They've been in these muckers before.

So you have Hapeville Charter who started their season losing to Cartersville, Lee County in Westlake, and Carver Atlanta started out of the blocks 1-4 The last time they lost was September 26.

They have won nine straight.

And get this we're looking at the halftime stats kind of a little deeper than what you'll get from Matt and Rusty in a bit.

170 total yards of offense, 35 rushing yards for Hapeville Charter, 46 for Carver.

Passing yards, 64 for Carver, 25 for Hapeville Charter and most of that for Carver.

Columbus was early, I think Hapeville Charter kind of grew into the rhythm of the game itself, and you're seeing why it's a defensive struggle.

Defenses have been stout, have been problems for Carver Columbus this year.

Absolutely.

And I mean, when I was talking to Coach Jones at the half, I am so curious.

I wish we had a microphone in that locker room right now to hear what he is saying to his team.

No doubt about it.

And so that is the rundown here.

Obviously, you're getting folks to kind of fill in right now getting ready for Buford and Carrollton coming up after the conclusion of this game.

Right now, we're seeing a lot of green in the concourse, so we'll see what happens as everybody's filing in waiting for this game to finish.

So the marquee game can happen coming up a little later on.

What's the marquee game John I don't know what you're talking about.

Carrollton Buford maybe some folks have heard of the.

National championship.

John.

Come on now.

Exactly what she said.

When we come back, we'll continue our tour here at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Let you know what else is going on.

We'll catch up with some of our friends around the state and some of the great partners at GPB.

So as we say, stick and stay.

We'll be right back.

The football playoffs and championships are brought to you by Alfa Insurance.

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The 36 participating Georgia Electric membership cooperatives would like to congratulate all the winners of the Cooperative Spirit Sportsmanship Award in 2025.

E!

This award honors schools that exhibit exemplary sportsmanship during competitive events.

Only one school in each region in each classification is chosen to receive this annual award.

The GHSA takes into consideration all aspects of sportsmanship, making the award a tribute to the entire community.

Introduced in 2006, this award reinforces the GHSA philosophy that everyone associated with high school activities, from athletes to spectators, should adhere to the fundamental values it represents.

Georgia EMC in the 36 participating Georgia Electric membership cooperatives are proud to sponsor the Cooperative Spirit Sportsmanship Award.

Congratulations to all the winners this year.

Shelley.

Congratulations to all the Sportsmanship Award winners and congratulations to our winners thus far in our Championship coverage extravaganza.

John.

We had for yesterday.

We have two already today.

We're in the middle of one with another one to go.

Yes.

No, I had that math wrong.

No, you had four.

We've had two.

Two.

We're in the middle of actually no we have, we've had three.

We had two flag.

Then we had, Worth County Toombs County.

So four plus three is seven.

We're in the middle of game number 8.

Game nine coming up after this one.

That's right.

And four more tomorrow.

Okay.

We got our math straightened out.

Okay.

So all season long we have showcased some of the best student athletes from around the great state of Georgia in our USA.

Pharmacy player spotlight right now is all on Jay Lamar.

Now Jay Lamar is a running back from Colquitt.

John, we saw him when we had round one of the playoffs at Mill Creek.

They were our GPB game of the week.

Anyway.

He is a specimen out there on the field and he's only getting better.

I got shot in the ninth grade.

I mean, I was 1 " away from my main artery.

Obviously, I was headed down the wrong path.

They just needed a little guidance at the time.

But he turned out to be a great kid.

Be his only his second year of playing high school football.

He's got a lot to learn about the running back position, and I tell everybody his best football is ahead.

He's not a finished product.

Jay can do some things that.

That, that a lot of.

Kids cannot.

And he's blessed and obviously us having him on our team.

We are blessed in that same sense.

Jake and Flat Daggum run when he gets vertical.

He's really hard to catch.

I'm determined to get a touchdown every time I touch the ball.

Flat dadgum run.

I was going to say Coach Calhoun getting the dadgum in there, but he I mean, listen, Jay Lamar makes magic when he's out there on the field.

And the folks in Athens will get to see that coming up firsthand.

More coming up in just a little bit here for Mercedes-Benz Stadium second half around the corner.

But first down on the field, it is the mighty marching Tigers.

We get to see what's going on with them down on the floor.

More with Nick and Nelly coming back after this.

So stick and stay with a bit of a musical interlude tied.

In.

Precision and precision.

And then witness the musicianship.

On me.

And I'm rolling.

On on all sides.

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All right.

What do you think, Jasper?

Honestly, I think that polyester shirts affecting your game.

What?

I think cotton would have been a better choice.

Cotton.

Yeah.

It's come a long way.

You know, nowadays, cotton breeze and wicks moisture.

Great.

Plus, buying cotton means supporting Georgia farmers.

I think that's wonderful.

Okay, sure.

But what do you think about the putt?

Oh, it's really hadn't thought about it.

You wouldn't take a call during the big game.

Oh hey what's up man.

You wouldn't be texting while cheering on your team.

Jacket.

And you definitely wouldn't want to watch a video while marching with the band.

So why would you drive a car while distracted driving isn't a game when you lose on the road, it could lead to a crash.

So when you get behind the wheel, put the distractions aside, drive hands free, and save lives.

Heads up Georgia.

Welcome in to Mercedes Benz Stadium.

We're live on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

John, you and I both know this is the best place for high school football coverage in the great state of Georgia.

We have three days of championship football coverage.

We're on day two.

We're halfway through our fourth game, and then we've got the nightcap in 6-A coming up.

Yep.

Carrollton and Buford coming up around the corner, but we have day number 3 coming up after that bright and early two top 15 teams nationally, and McEachern and Polk.

It is Burgdorf VK phrase coming up at 11:00.

The fifth flag football championship.

Then we spend the rest of the day in tackle Jason Cameron and Calvary Day beat fellowship Christian left hand side of the bracket to come in to the championship game.

Hebron Christian Kenny Dallas the man who is instantly caffeinated even if he doesn't drink coffee.

The sound bite waiting to happen.

Energy all over the place.

He's got enough energy to fuel this joint at the private division.

Coming up, 106 GPB time tomorrow, then 4:00 406 GPB time.

The AAA final Amari Latimer, Sandy Creek, Darius Smiley.

Can they run the table?

They've been top ranked most of the season, going up against Jefferson.

Very, very stingy on defense.

Can they keep the ball away from Latimer?

Can they track him down if he does get it?

Jefferson Travis Nolan, Darius, smiley, Sandy Creek, 406 GPB time and then the nightcap.

736 GPB time Thomas County central.

They are here.

They're here.

We saw Coach Rogers live in person.

And in this end zone.

He came here and he's he wanted to see the game coming up after this one too.

So Thomas County Central is here doing just some kind of they're just kind of chilling.

Just like they're not doing research.

You know they're just hanging out.

Well, Justin's doing research.

Well he's always doing research.

He also still had a summer tan.

John.

Yes.

And so that's going to work through about February.

And then you've got Gainesville and Josh Niblett.

And the beard.

Once again about the beard.

No he didn't I mean it's like very, very Santa Claus.

He always starts it with football and then it doesn't come off.

And then he said there's a gradual progression of how it comes off.

Remember, because he goes handlebar and then he goes goatee.

No no no no no goatee handlebar.

The edges.

Go mustache.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

It's a whole thing with Coach.

Rogers and then Josh Niblett in Gainesville.

You know that place is going to be packed tomorrow night.

Now it is getting packed now.

Yes.

Saw a lot of green in the concourse.

Green walking past our.

Sets and so on the flip side, you see the Buford folks, they're working their way.

There's the green.

Carrollton folks are working their way in as well.

But yeah, the Buford folks, they've gotten here early.

They tried to beat the traffic.

They have beaten the traffic.

And coming down from Buford this time of day to come to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, that's like an extra 30 or 45 minutes.

And so they're working their way in here.

Carrollton is coming in as well.

And so they're coming in from the western frontier there.

The Buford fans, they're ready.

What was the what was the number that you gave since the year 2001.

Was it 13-5 in the last game of the year?

13-5 Yes, that sounds about right.

So Buford 13-5 since 2001.

So you know that they expect to be here the last game of the year.

And what we've seen from Joey King since he has taken over at Carrollton, Carrollton expects to be here as well.

One versus two, two versus three, three versus one, one versus six.

I don't know where that six.

Comes from.

But here's the thing.

Both of these teams have been fighting John recently for a state title.

What's awesome is, well, one of them is going to go home state champion tonight.

And it's been a long time coming.

And so after this one once again, Autumn Johnson is going to catch up with Winston Gordon coming up in just a little bit.

We're going to find out what's on his mind as he is getting ready to work on this three point deficit.

Hapeville Charter trailing Carver Columbus second half.

Autumn.

Matt.

Rusty coming up in a bit on the great GPB stick and stay.

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Back at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Start of the third quarter with Carver Columbus leading Hapeville Charter 107 here in the two, a state championship game.

Time now for Johnny's Pizza New York style pizza halftime interview.

Let's send it back down to Autumn Johnson.

Well, Coach Gordon, you told me this is nothing you guys haven't faced before.

How would you describe the first half?

Well, just just getting out of our own way.

You know, we got to make sure that we're making tackles and we got to get on the blocks, man.

A lot of the times when we're not finishing and getting to the next level, in order to create the run that we need.

So.

Well, you all were able to break through and get into the end zone at the last second of that first half.

What would you attribute that to and how do you bottle up that energy going into this next half?

Well, that's just making good playing good on special teams and got the ball deep in their in their side of the ball.

And we just wanted to make sure we punched before the half and we got it done.

Thank you and good luck.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Autumn back upstairs.

I thought, you know, Hapeville Charter, like we said at the end of the first half, I think they're in a good spot.

If they can keep this as a field position game, get a break late, they might pull one out here and upset Carver Columbus.

Just get it to the fourth quarter.

Anything can happen.

His team's going to play hard.

Doesn't surprise me.

A physical football game Matt there is.

They're trading some paint right now.

They really are.

A lot of lot of big hits in this ball game in the first half.

Let's take a look at those first half highlights.

Not a lot offensively to show you here.

You got the Sebastian Heard 38 yard touchdown pass to K.J.

Miles.

Came off a penalty.

Remember on that punt it gives them great field position.

The second play of that series they take a shot and K.J.

Miles capitalizes.

And then after a confusing turn of events down inside the ten yard line late in the half, a great pass.

Cedric Walker hauls it in from Keylan Pope.

And that's our scoring.

107.

I mean, you look at this 25 yards, 35 yards, I mean 102 total yards, two great defenses.

Time of possession almost equal first five downs.

What this right here Matt.

We might end up being a game who makes that costly turnover.

I think you're exactly right.

Who makes that or who forces the costly tournament turnover from the defensive defensive perspective and ends up winning this ball game late.

Yeah.

You look at this.

And what quarterback can make a play.

We got a junior quarterback a freshman quarterback a lot of speed on the field who can make that big play to separate this.

Because this is two well coached teams.

Both teams feel like they're in this right here at 10-7 And they are absolutely are.

And there's Keylan Pope the quarterback for Hapeville Charter did not take over until midway through the season.

And that's when they started winning games.

They've won nine in a row coming into this state championship game.

After starting 1-4 playing a difficult schedule, playing up, playing Lee County, did they?

They scrimmaged Carrollton correct.

They did scrimmage Carrollton.

Played Cartersville.

Like Coach Winston Gordon says they will play anybody, anywhere, any time.

And he's not lying.

You look at their schedule, they do that.

They play up and they play these big time schools before they get in there into their region schedule.

Then they played Carver in the game.

That was crucial.

As it turns out, that was mid September and that was really for the region championship, even though it was mid September, they were without five players.

References.

Back to what you were talking about earlier.

Winston Gordon there was some question about some players that had transferred in.

There were some questions about eligibility, and so they had five key players not available for that game and lost that game.

And that ends up as they end up being a 12 seed.

Didn't bother them any.

They just go on the road and win games.

I like what he said about quarterback too.

He said, look, I never have a starter.

He said, we're going to play a couple games and find out who's in the float, who we're going to go with.

Ultimately, you see Pope wins that battle as a junior.

They've rolled with him ever since.

Let's check back in with Autumn.

Hey guys, I asked Coach Jarvis Jones what he's learned about himself in his first year as a head coach, and he was honest.

He said the transition was overwhelming at first, coming from the Georgia staff.

He thought he could bring everything with him, but quickly realized high school football requires breaking things down a little bit more and building piece by piece.

He told me he's learned the importance of resilience and composure, especially working with younger players and staying consistent in how he leads them.

And Coach Jones also said this season has reinforced why he wanted to come home.

I mean, this is his alma mater, his first time back home since leaving for college and he told me his goal has been simple do things the right way, hold his players accountable on and off the field, and find ways to add value to them in this program.

Yeah, great points there and I thought it was great his candor in that he said, look, I came from Georgia.

I was working with Kirby Smart and I worked with Mike Tomlin in the NFL, played for him, and I thought I had all these great ideas.

I'm going to bring it to him.

It's going to be eye opening for the players.

And I quickly realized they're just high school kids.

They're just kids.

They're just.

High school kids.

So he's got to simplify things and let these kids play football.

But listen, that says a lot.

As a first time coach not to over coach these kids.

He backed off and goes, you know what, let's let these kids play.

Don't let me mess this up.

This is a defending state champion.

He's had a great first season right here.

And he's got one half to go with the lead.

Can they finish it off.

And I think the big thing is something that you hit on early in our game in that you know just the leadership that he provides having been down this path that all these kids want to go down and that is go play big time college football, go play in the National Football League.

He has already navigated that in his life, and he has so many experiences to share.

In fact, you know, he's kind of taken Triston Givens under his wing.

Givens is a player who played a lot like Jarvis Jones did when he was in high school.

And he said, Givens comes in his office all the time just to pick his brain coach, what about this?

What about that?

He says he has a special connection with him, obviously, because he played that position.

Before we get started, I've got to make a correction because my phone got smoked at halftime.

Rashad Jones went to Booker T Washington High School in Atlanta.

I missed it 12 times, had 18 people texting around school.

I got to make sure and say a public apology and Rashad if you're watching tonight, great football player.

Booker T, Washington.

Booker T, Washington.

Bulldogs not far from where we're sitting right now.

I mean, literally right around the corner.

And the second half kickoff is brought to you by Heads Up, Georgia.

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It saves lives and the kick can be taken at the 15 yard line.

And across the 25 and up to the 30 yard line.

On the return by JaMarcus Davis.

And that's where Carver Columbus will go on offense here to start this third quarter.

Be interesting to see if Carver takes a few more shots down the field.

I think Hapeville is just straight up man to man right here.

They're playing basketball two on two.

Our guy against your guy.

Let's see if they turn this freshman loose and let him throw a few down the field.

Hit K.J.

Miles there when they had field position for a touchdown.

Let's see if they take a few more shots to come out here to in a twin set.

Two wide receivers spread wide.

Both sides of the field.

Single back.

See if they're playing a numbers game here.

They're going to try to get something out on the perimeter.

That's Sears and Woodson lined up back to back here on the near side.

And the handoff goes right there just trying to spread the field and open up this running game a little bit and get a couple of yards on the play for Tarver actually got more than just a couple picks up about seven on the play up to the 37.

That looked just like a Josh Heupel formation outside.

The numbers spread out all the way to the sideline, almost just trying to create numbers.

Tarver again.

This time he gets dumped for a yard loss.

Rashad Williamson Patrell Reddick in on that tackle for the Hornets and it's going to be third down.

That's how you stop that.

Our five against your five.

Start seeing the adjustments screen.

So third down five Tarver the leading rusher in this game with 29 yards.

I was going on.

Man I felt like they went with a freshman a little bit more there.

Maybe brings a little more juice a little more twitch to him.

Throw the ball out here to Sears setting up the screenplay and Sears gets blown up.

Man, you're not kidding.

Great tackle by Xzavier Crawford the corner.

Love that.

Six foot, 165 pound sophomore.

He's one on one.

He has to make that play on the perimeter or it's a huge play.

Watch him bail.

Put his foot in the ground.

Come up.

Not easy to do at full speed.

Watch him break down.

Drive his hands.

Picture perfect.

Tackle out on the perimeter.

Nice job by that sophomore defensive back.

Yeah.

Woodson.

The tight end takes the inside guy on the block, so it's up to Sears there to beat his man and he couldn't.

They go one on one and their sophomore makes the tackle in space.

Nice job by Hapeville Charter getting a three and out.

Let's see if they can capitalize here in a little field position.

So Zion Crawford is standing deep back at the 35 yard line.

Interesting enough, when we did GPB sports Football Fridays in Georgia there at Hapeville Charter last year, Zion Crawford was their starting quarterback because they had a bunch of injuries and they brought him over from the defensive side of the ball to play quarterback, and he did well.

They won the region championship that night, beat Carver Atlanta.

Always a big game.

Always when you play Carver Atlanta coach Miles, you know they're going to be well coached.

Physical football team.

Among our favorites.

No doubt.

Kick going to hit at the 37 fielded on the hop Crawford makes one man miss trying to get to the corner.

Cannot flag comes out at the 40 1 yard line.

Too much speed there.

But boy he looked like he had some space.

We got a flag down the middle of the field out here on the on the numbers.

How many times have we seen tonight where it looks like there's space for the guy with the ball?

And then there is.

No question Speed, you cannot go east, west against Carver Columbus.

Gotta turn straight upfield.

They even tried some reverses early.

Tried some different things, just unable to do anything.

Out on the edge.

Triston Givens.

It's amazing.

You look at him and he's playing in Mercedes Benz tonight and probably in about three days he will be practicing at Texas A&M.

Yep, he has only one tackle tonight.

Officially, so Booker has done a good job.

That's been a great matchup that you pointed out earlier.

Chris Booker the Alabama signee against Triston Givens, the Texas A&M signing in a two way state championship game in the.

State, by the way, two exactly.

Not a 6-A a two.

Way.

Everybody tuning in across the country right now.

That's Alabama versus Texas A&M battle.

And two a. Georgia football is just that deep hand off goes to Jones.

Goes far side.

He's going to take a loss.

Great pursuit right there.

Nic'quayvion Simmons in on that tackle.

Autumn.

Yeah.

As Carver Columbus head coach Jarvis Jones.

If there's anyone on this roster that reminds him of himself as a player, and he pointed to Triston Givens, he said Triston has been under his wing since day one constantly in his office asking questions, breaking down film and wanting to understand not just his role, but the entire defense.

He's a team captain, a natural leader and coach, Jones says.

The way Triston listens and applies coaching, and it goes a long way, and it's a daily reminder of how he approaches the game every single day.

And he sees a lot of himself, of how he had that passion as well.

Growing up and loving this game.

Five star rated as high as the number 6 Edge in the country.

The number 4 prospect in the state of Georgia, and he chose the Aggies over 33 total offers, including Washington and Tennessee.

Saw him as a sophomore.

There was a time I kind of thought he was going to Tennessee.

Jarvis Jones did they call Hardy?

I think they called holding their., didn't they?

Yeah, yeah.

It was all messed up.

Holden didn't help.

Second down.

Pope scrambles out, fumbled the ball, and then he fell on top of it.

I think at the 18.5.

There's still a scramble for it, though.

Battling the big fella.

I think that's Nic'quayvion Simmons.

He's battling the ball for 51.

Who signed with Tennessee already.

With some pressure here.

Run a little twist on up front.

You'll see Brown push him out of the pocket and you're going to see Givens strip him out.

Reaches in, taps that ball, knocks it out.

I would not want to get into a scrum with Simmons.

62, 310.

I was thinking about him playing eight man football.

Can you imagine how fast it felt to him for a while?

With that many people on the field?

I think he played all kind of positions.

Eight man football.

I think he.

Actually.

Because he's a great basketball player too.

They'll let him bring the ball up the floor.

Stiggers on the run up to the 30 yard line.

That's just the original line of scrimmage.

I tell you what, they have got his cadence timed up.

I'm Hapeville Charter.

I'm going to I'm going to change this up.

Watch him up top.

They have they know when that snap count is I would I would change that snap count up a little bit because they are ten off on that.

Yeah.

That was Edmond who came firing off the edge.

It's fourth down punting situation.

Booker will punt standing at his 20 yard line.

And they nearly got that.

Might have gotten a piece of.

It.

And finally takes a big role.

So it ends up not being too bad for Booker and Hapeville Charter on the punt, but Carver Atlanta Carver Columbus pardon me will get the ball at the 35 yard line.

That might have been close.

You're right.

Somebody might have got a hand on that.

The way it came off.

Kind of helicoptered out of there like someone maybe got a piece of it.

This is where the Tigers go back on offense.

Yeah.

He did.

Yes.

Left hand.

Absolutely.

Got a piece of that.

Fortunate that that that rolled that.

Far.

And that was Jayden Taylor who got a piece of that one.

So first and ten for the Tigers from the 35.

Against the run.

They will not let you run the ball.

They have not let Carver get unleashed with that run game.

And that's Rashad Williamson again.

Again that outside linebacker setting the edge coming up.

He has made several big plays tonight just like that.

Seven total tackles for Williamson, including a TfL.

Boy, they're tough up front.

Man 1.5 to fell tackle for loss.

Second down and eight ball is at the 37.

We're almost halfway through the third quarter.

Don't jinx.

It.

If you're waiting for the the Buford and Carrollton game, which is scheduled to start at 8:00, go ahead and put some brownies.

In the oven.

You can have a sandwich now.

You can put some brownies in the oven.

You can make them from scratch and they won't be ready by then.

They'll be ready by the time that game starts.

Look at the speed on this bunch here too.

Anthony Brooks comes flying up.

Brooks he's a good looking prospect right there.

I love this play call, but too much speed by Hapeville comes right up.

Six foot 178.

I'm telling you, there's some confidence on defense right now.

They are flying around.

I feel like they're kind of one step ahead of Carver Columbus a little bit.

It's going to bring up a third and about maybe eight.

Yeah.

Athlete for athlete.

They're confident they match up correct.

They got no problem with it.

Heard scrambling quarterback sack almost gets out of there and heaves it towards the sideline incomplete.

That was a great play by that freshman.

Just to get rid of that and not eat a negative play.

Just get rid of that and live for the next play.

Even though it's going to be fourth down, saved him about 10 yards, probably where he was.

How did they not sack him right.

Here?

Didn't finish the play right there.

Should have had the quarterback sack.

Just the ball passing.

That was Reddick Patrell Reddick didn't get him on the ground.

Little plays like that though.

Saves yards to see if they could.

My goodness.

We're halfway through the third quarter.

Rusty 116 yards of offense for the Tigers and only 66 yards of offense for the Hornets.

You see Jarvis Jones talking to his staff over there.

He's got some questions and trying to figure this thing out because we talked about it.

They haven't been in a game in a while.

And right now they don't have any answers for the Hapeville defense.

This game, although I did not see it from a score standpoint and a pace standpoint, it kind of looks like it's shaping up like that.

Sumter Carver game in which Carver scored a touchdown very late with the two freshman Heard teaming up with Watts for the winning touchdown, and they wanted 87 bad snap.

Pearce-Spencer has to go back and get it, and that's going to be picked up by Carter and Jaiden.

Taylor saves their bacon and the ball is out again.

And Hayfields got it again and it's fumbled again.

Wow.

What just happened?

I think we've had what.

Just happened.

We had.

Three turnovers.

We had three change of possessions in one play.

And I don't add on a bad snap.

Unbelievable.

Wow.

But the good news for the Hornets is they've got the ball and a chance to take the lead.

Wow.

So many guys to highlight right there.

And I want to talk about Lambert Jaiden Lambert is the guy that got his helmet and put it on the ball on the return by Jaiden Taylor Taylor.

Yes.

And so the Hornets will take over at the ten yard line.

Unbelievable.

Right there.

On the field is upheld.

First down.

Yeah I got were they review.

I was getting ready to say I got to correct him.

He said review a fumble.

You mean review a fumbles plural.

So now here is Hapeville Charter a chance to grab the lead.

Handoff goes to Jones.

Jones might be their best run of the night inside the five yard line.

Matt.

You can just feel it right now with Hapeville kind of got Carver on their heels on both sides of the ball.

You see the quarterback, he wants to go, give me the play.

Let's get back on.

Don't let him sub out.

Let's go again.

They'll probably run the same play.

They do.

And Jones doesn't get there.

He gets stopped right away.

And now it's going to be third down and goal.

Jones Khyree Tyler Boyd 95 Jamari I think I might try to show that play again and do a rollout and hit a wide receiver.

Yeah, let's get the quarterback out of the pocket a little bit.

And they rolled him to the right a couple of times and had success with it.

Have the tight end release go to the corner of the end zone.

Watch Reddick here.

Number 19.

If he's in at H-back that's the guy they like.

Lear's in there.

Number 7.

Watch Seven here.

They're looking at him.

They're throwing that way to Lear.

He makes a one handed catch but he's short of the goal line.

It's going to be fourth down and goal.

Boy that's a big decision right here.

They want him on the ball.

That's a heck of a catch right there by Lear.

He's got a player down as well.

He's come underneath the pressure immediately.

Didn't let Wood Givens gets pressured.

Holy smokes.

What a catch man.

Incredible play.

Unfortunately couldn't get into the end zone.

Oh my goodness.

Unbelievable catch right there.

That's a junior.

You won't see a better catch than that in college football or the NFL this week.

Credit Triston Givens there for the pressure.

Pope was unable to set his feet.

And Pope is cramping.

To me that says you're going to kick it.

You're going to kick it here, right?

That's a bad angle too.

That's a tough angle.

No, they're going to run it.

Let's see who they got in there.

They've got the backup quarterback.

Watch the fullback.

Gilstrap in there at quarterback.

And they're pushing and they're pushing.

And the ball comes out.

Carver stops him.

Wow.

Carter JaMarcus Davis ends up with the fumble.

A tough situation to bring a quarterback in.

He goes under center for the first time.

The fullback is uptight.

The handoff was supposed to go to Lear and instead it went to Jones.

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So they get stopped at the goal line.

Watch nine.

Blows it up, man.

Makevious Yancie.

And then the ball comes out.

My question is, why did Hapeville Charter not call a time-out there with their starting quarterback?

Tough play to put him in.

Tough play under center.

Cramping on the sideline.

What's the hurry?

Where's the fire?

You got three time-outs.

Call a time-out.

Let's think about this.

See if he can come in the game after the time-out.

I don't know what the rush was.

It backfires on them.

They don't score.

You see him shaking his head right there.

Probably wish he had that one back.

See a quarterback there is upset.

Plenty of game left.

Handoff goes to Caslin.

He rumbles up to the 11 yard line.

But they had three time-outs left.

There was no need to rush the play.

Called the time-out.

Let's see if your quarterback can get back in the game.

And if he can't.

Now you got some time to really think about what you want to do there.

It's a hard situation to be in right there.

But.

Handoff goes to Caslin again.

Wow.

Punting again.

And that's Williamson again.

What a game.

Rashad Williamson has had for them at that.

Mike linebacker spot.

Both.

Both number nines.

Watch him step up in here.

And perfect tackle again.

Head right in the middle of his chest.

Drive through waiting for guys to come help you.

I'm telling you, Hapeville on defense has got some juice right now.

What a night for Rashad Williamson.

That was his ninth tackle.

He had eight before that.

2.5 TfL.

Let's see if I can get K.J.

Miles involved right here.

Maybe third and seven.

Take a shot at him.

Ball goes out there on the edge.

Nice catch.

And run up to the 30 yard line.

Triston Givens Givens in there.

Getting him in there on offense.

It's go time.

Zero hour.

Everybody plays.

Comes right out of the backfield there.

Just an easy flat route.

Get it.

Ball in space.

Runs right through that tackle.

Gets upfield.

Good job by Givens I like the call there from Carver.

14 minutes left in the state final.

There is no time.

Offense your defense.

You're out there because we need you.

He's got 14 minutes left in this Carver Columbus career.

I'm not sure he comes off the field for me.

So first and ten handoff goes to Watts.

The freshman Watts tough yardage gets about 3 yards on the play.

Up to the 33 yard line.

Khyree 56.

Stiggers.

Bring.

Up second down and seven.

For those who have tuned in to see the Carrollton and Buford 6-A state Championship and National Championship game.

Welcome, welcome.

We've still got a ways to go here in the two a state final approaching the two minute mark here in the third quarter.

And what has been an absolutely just gritty.

Game Boy just just no other way to describe it man.

Both of these teams physical.

Nobody really wants to give up much.

But these two defenses flying around.

Second down play action to watch.

And this quarterback Heard scrambling gets away.

What a block by Warren.

He just buried his guy.

But tremendous Williamson again.

I mean he just tracks the freshman down.

There was a great block in behind it by Carver offensive lineman.

Warren pancakes.

Watch 53 Terance Warren.

This is what you call a pancake right here.

Boom, man.

And then he finished him.

Six.

52.

3365.

Three.

20.

Junior consensus three star.

Number 32.

Interior offensive lineman in the country 16 offers Auburn, Alabama and Ohio State.

Junior.

Many more offers coming.

I think that makes this huddle really.

Gotta hold right here on the bottom of the.

And Heard is run down from behind by Rayqwan Stiggers.

Boy, they bring the pressure right there.

That time Hapeville brought extra guys.

I believe we're going to hold him down at the bottom, but they're not letting the freshman get comfortable right now.

What did Winston Gordon tell us?

We want to put it on that freshman and see if he can beat us.

And right now, they're coming after him.

These guys are breathing hard.

That was Rayqwan Stiggers right there.

The 511, 205 senior.

Yeah, he's got Booker.

That's that's Chris Booker playing defense.

Got a hold of.

He's got his hand right back of 72 jersey.

Anytime you can see the jersey pulling away.

That's a wrap.

They got you red handed.

Especially when you're out in space nowhere.

To hide.

Your spot remains.

Third down.

You've been nabbed.

Yep.

One 0-5 left here in this third quarter.

Jarvis Jones Coach King in his first ever state championship game.

Interesting that wear a headset.

Coach Gordon.

Does he have one on earlier?

No, I think he does have one.

Yeah he does.

Yep.

Third down and very long 19.

Be careful here.

We're going to go to a fourth quarter and it will be anybody's game.

How about these games so far.

All of them.

Every one of.

Them.

Every one of them has come down to the last minute or second.

Screen pass.

Look how fast.

Watch, Is.

What's being chased.

Got away from the defense, but not now.

Going to be driven out of bounds at the 30 1 yard line.

The original line of scrimmage.

Man down for Hapeville.

And that's our man Rashad Williamson.

They need to keep him in the game.

I believe he might be cramping.

Start talking about a lot of plays.

We're playing both ways.

This game has been a lot like Rock'em Sock'em robots.

How many helmets have we seen pop off?

Oh my goodness man.

39 so fourth and nine at the 30 1 yard line.

You saw.

It one.

Come out.

55 seconds left in this third quarter.

Headed toward a fantastic finish here in the two a state championship game.

Pearce-Spencer on to punt again.

He's standing at his 19.

Zion Crawford deep at the 40.

Punt goes straight up in the air.

Fair catch is called for.

May dropped and then downed at the 40 yard line.

Flag out at the 27.

This is going to be a penalty on Carver Columbus Hapeville Charter you make him kick it again.

Yes.

I. Would, I would, yeah because he almost blocked a couple.

You've had a bad snap, almost blocked a couple.

Absolutely.

What a wild game.

We've had one play where there was a change of possession three times on that one play.

Formation against the offense, five yard penalty.

Repeat fourth down.

So punting again.

This time it will be from inside the 15 yard line.

There's no question I make them punt this thing after a snap and last time a bad snap.

Now Zion Crawford.

The return man is standing inside the 50.

Rush is coming.

Gets it out of there.

Line drive kick.

Crawford has to go back all the way to the other 40 to get it, but he's got room to run here on the near side.

Crawford inside the 40, 30, 20 Crawford might take it.

He does.

Touchdown!

Hapeville Charter!

That is why you make him kick it again.

Special teams.

Special teams, special teams.

And there's a flag on the sideline at the 32.

Yard line.

I didn't see that.

This might be sideline interference where that flag is sitting.

The official running down the sideline might have run into a player or a coach.

Let's check the penalty call.

I did not.

That flag was laying on the.

Nobody saw that.

During the return, holding the receiving team.

Ten-yard penalty.

First down.

Wow.

Wipes out the touchdown and puts the ball down at the 42.

What a tough break for Hapeville Charter right there.

The last about 5 minutes.

Ball the one.

Don't score.

Punt return.

Let's see I think they called this on 17.

17.

You see him.

See it there.

Is that 17 holding ten.

Wow what a return by Zion Crawford.

Wow.

Just too bad that it gets wiped out by the penalty, but Hornets have the ball 28 seconds left in the third quarter.

Could be a backward pass.

Going to be a pass back to the quarterback.

It's a bad throw and it gets buried back at the 46 that had disaster written all over it.

As Kingston Brown levels.

Keylan Pope back in the game.

Tried a little trickery there.

Pope is cramping, man.

You know, I don't know about running the throw back to the quarterback.

My quarterback's been on the sideline cramping.

He had to short hop that as well.

And now he gets crunched by Kingston Brown who's 63, 285.

You just took him out of the game with cramps and now you're going to run a pass back to him.

Let him run.

Who?

Maybe he's okay.

Second down and ten ball at the 42.

Handoff goes to Stiggers.

Man he gets met right away.

Play got blown up instantly by Artaveus Edmond.

Yeah.

Trust the hole man.

Don't quit bouncing this thing against this defense.

Not going to work.

Stick it up in there.

Watch him want to bounce out.

Hit that hole to the inside and get those three or 4 yards right there.

Not going to get outside on this defense.

And that is the end of the third quarter.

Hasn't been artistic but it has been competitive.

And it has been hard hitting.

And it has been bone crunching.

And we've had fumbles multiple heading to the fourth.

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Heading to the fourth quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Two a state championship game with Carver Columbus leading Hapeville Charter 107.

Boy, they don't win this one.

They're going to go back and look at that.

That that middle 4 minutes right there of that last session.

You know they threw four interceptions against Sumter County and still won the game.

Yeah.

So overcoming their own mistakes is something they have been able to do this year.

And lately.

So third down and nine as we start the fourth quarter Matt Stewart Rusty Mansell Autumn Johnson, our entire Emmy Award winning GPB team 6-A finals coming up.

Once we get done with this one plus 36 minutes.

A national championship is on the line.

Next.

We got a quarter left for this one.

They're all over this snap count.

Ball goes to Stiggers and a big hole.

Biggest run of the night for Ray Damond Stiggers as he gets to the 27.

In a first down.

Another flag down.

Going to wipe out a good run by Stiggers.

Man down for Carver Columbus.

Looks like it's going to be the linebacker.

Daijon.

Daniels.

Holding against the offense.

Ten yard penalty remains third down.

I mean, just wiping out another good run right there with a penalty.

Coach Gordon, you have got to get your guys.

We have got to concentrate.

We're down three 11:00 to go in the state championship.

All the momentum in the world I feel like and unable to punch this thing in.

Got to finish one off.

107, 11 49 left in regulation.

This place is starting to fill up.

By the way, how about the crowd today from Sylvester, Georgia?

Congratulations to Worth County was there?

What'd you say?

There's no one left there.

Not one person.

Everybody in Worth County was.

In Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Congratulations to the Rams.

I was a little upset.

They beat my Purple Dragons last week in the semifinals.

But I will say what an unbelievable performance.

That crowd was going crazy.

Huge crowd.

Congratulations to those guys.

Hapeville Charter 81 total yards of offense, 70 yards in penalties.

But here they are.

They have a chance to win the game.

I said they mucked it up from the start.

They got.

To muck it up to the fourth.

And here they are with a chance to score some points here.

But be careful right here.

Pope has a clean pocket, scrambling guns it in the middle.

Nearly intercepted by Simmons.

Threw it right in the direction of Nic'quayvion Simmons, who is pounding his helmet because he had an interception.

I'm not sure that hit him in the worst place.

I believe.

When you're 62, three, ten, senior, anytime the ball hits you, it's the worst place.

You'll see.

Not a ball catcher.

Oh.

He immediately went for the helmet.

Oh, nice play though.

Get your hands up.

Catching the ball is not something that you practice to do.

It's been a while since he's been in those drills.

You said he played basketball.

Yeah, he's a good basketball player.

It's not basketball season yet.

Win or lose, it will be after tonight.

He'll be at Tennessee and practicing probably within a couple of days.

Tennessee is really high on him.

I feel like they've got themselves a really good prospect out of this Carver Columbus program.

A line drive kick away from Watts.

It's going to kick into the end zone, which means the ball is going to come out to the 20 for Carver Columbus trying to win their third all time state championship, the first one they ever won.

Dill McGee, the now Georgia State coach, the longtime Georgia assistant coach under Kirby Smart, was the head coach in 2007.

They beat Cairo down in South Georgia.

16 13 final.

And then they played in it again at Georgia State.

And that was in 2021, I believe.

Yeah, they lost to Benedictine.

Holden Garner was the quarterback for the cadets.

Forgot about that.

Yep.

Then they came back here last year and walloped Burke County 52 14.

Trying to get state championship number 3 tonight.

Hapeville Charter trying to get number 2.

Handoff goes to Tarver.

Tough yardage for Tarver.

He got big Parker Pritchett the Auburn signee trying to pull him forward.

Yeah, they've been really good against the run tonight.

They've played a lot of snaps.

See where they are right here late in the game.

They can keep this field position and get the ball back.

Caslin gets to the corner, has the first down Caslin down at the 35.

Let me name some names here.

Let me see if you know what these guys have in common.

Jermaine Burton, Kingsley, Arden.

Key, Chris Smith, Quan Baker.

They're all in NFL.

They are all in the NFL and they all came from this Hapeville Charter program that does not have a practice football field.

It is gravel and it's downhill.

Tarver up to the.

40 yard line.

Got six on the play.

The day I was there eight or nine years ago.

They kicked the ball down the hill into the ivy.

And Coach Gordon was so mad.

He made the players dig through that to go get it.

Well, the road, I think it's Buffington Road, but yes, I might be wrong.

Yeah, the out of bounds is sidewalk.

Yeah that runs by the field and quite often the ball goes into traffic and they have to stop practice.

And I think they're in the process.

They got a donation, someone to build a fence for them to help keep the football.

From going to the road.

No.

Arden key, one of their alumni, who is now with the Tennessee Titans.

Unfortunately, Titans having a terrible season, but he's getting paid.

He wrote him a nice check.

He did and paid for all the the uniform, the pregame uniforms.

They got new sweat suits.

Arden key man, the crane.

He was long.

He was.

Long.

LSU.

And then.

I believe he started MLK.

First time I saw him and then transferred over.

I was going to say Stevenson, but we've been wrong on our guess.

I'll say MLK on him.

Third down and one.

I better stay out of that.

After the Rashad Jones I got lit up on that one.

Yeah, there's Watts gets the first down move showing the speed and Watts breaks out into the open.

They're trying to strip him of the ball.

They get him on the ground at the 11 yard line as Zackarie Watts with a big buster right up the middle.

This bit almost that way all night.

You kind of hold your breath with the freshman.

He gets a crease right here.

Watch this move.

He puts in open space.

Good job holding on to the ball because they try to rip it out of there.

And they will be trying to rip.

Especially in this situation right there Watts gets it again spins into traffic and down to the six yard line.

And he is quick.

You just have to hold your breath on him.

He's so explosive.

You know.

Don't want to say that a score here ends the game, but with the lack of offense that he has been able to generate, you got to think if they go up two scores going to be very, very difficult for the Hornets to come back and win this game.

Yeah.

You got to hold right here.

Got to limit to three.

Second down and four from the six.

A Time-out is going to be called by the Hornets.

No yeah it is by Hornets.

Yep.

He understands how big this is.

Want to make sure they're aligned.

Right.

They came out in two tights right there.

Time out of the half.

7:17 to go.

And a big second down coming up after the break.

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Go.

Second five.

They come out.

I-formation.

Got a fullback in the game for the first time.

Two tight.

Handoff goes to Tarver.

Follows the fullback into the hole and keeps moving the pile and has the first down at the one.

Yeah, that's Jarvis Jones.

Hey, we're not fooling around anymore.

We're letting this big offensive line get on you and let's see if we can finish this thing off with a touchdown right here.

Got a player down.

That's Ziggy Credle at fullback.

Number 22.

Wonder if he's related to the other cradles that have come through the Carver program.

JaMarcus played at Georgia State.

Philip who went on and played in the Mac.

I don't know where they are now.

I know they've all transferred from their original origination points in college football, but great players, in fact, Philip Credle played on that 2021 team that lost to Benedictine at Georgia State.

I just remember covering Isaiah Crowell and Gabe Wright and Dill McGee called me one day and going, hey, there's about three weeks of signing day.

If you want to come interview them.

This is the last time no reporters can be back on property.

Per the school district.

Interesting.

So we all went down that day and of course we're not going to say anything, but they literally shut that down.

There were so many people trying to interview those two kids late in the process.

It was wild.

Autumn, what you got?

Hey, I rushed over to Carver Columbus side to check on number 25.

Daijon Daniels junior, and he seems like he's in a lot of pain right now.

Underneath the tent, covering his face.

He's sitting right now and all of the coaching staff is kind of consoling him.

And number 5, Jaiden Taylor was staying close by to make sure he was good to go, but it appears to be a lower body injury as he has his left side wrapped up.

I'm going to keep checking in to make sure he's okay.

Tough news.

Hopefully he can get back.

Handoff goes to Tarver walk in.

Touchdown and Carver gets their second touchdown of the game.

And it might be enough.

Caslin pardon me.

It wasn't Tarver.

It was Caslin Jakobe Caslin.

That's just grown man football.

The last two plays they go i-formation and just come right off and just maul the defensive end there.

Number big number 54.

That's Jason Mayo 64285 pound junior.

Just seals off the defensive end from Hapeville.

And there's no one there for the touchdown for Carver.

Easy walk in for Coby Caslin makes it 16-7 Now the Hornets facing.

A ten point deficit with 6:49 to go.

Don't forget the big play.

There was the freshman.

Zackarie Watts.

Caslin got a smile on his face.

Played a big role in the 2024 state championship.

Scores the touchdown here.

The red ribbon 365.

Curriculum DBHDD scoring drive nine plays 80 yards and might be the one that puts the game away.

Again, if you've tuned in to see the Buford Carrollton game schedule running behind here, Mercedes-Benz Stadium today and that game will start 36 minutes following the award ceremony here at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

So we're probably still a. Good hour away from the start of.

The left handed side of the left hand side of that is the Carrollton crowd and they are coming.

We talked off the air.

I think the three biggest crowds of the weekend are going to be Thomas County, Central, Gainesville and Carrollton.

Buford obviously will be well represented.

There.

But I believe all.

I believe the entire city of Carrollton may be in here tonight.

I've heard they're opening more sections than they typically had planned for to accommodate the crowd for the 6-A state championship.

Buford side too.

I see a lot of people, the Buford side.

Listen.

They're pretty obvious because they're wearing that green.

And they got some suites open over there, too.

Now.

Kick is coming down inside that 15 yard line and a great open field tackle again by this Carver defense.

That was Antavius Watts on the special teams.

And Carver starting to feel perhaps that state championship closing in on them, closing in on their grasp.

Playing in the state finals for the third time since the 2021 season, and Jarvis Jones in his Welcome Back, Kotter moment coming back to his alma mater to take over this program.

Now, just 6 minutes and 44 seconds away from completing a 15-0 state championship season.

If you're wondering, does Hapeville Charter have the comeback ability in them?

They did this against Sumter in the semifinals, came back from a big deficit and won in overtime and intercepted and fumbled.

They're going to rule that incomplete Jaiden Taylor nearly had himself an interception right.

There I love this sophomore linebacker.

My goodness he is everywhere.

Instinctive.

Just want to get that one on top of his helmet.

That's two series in a row for the Carver defenders.

If they had hands on their helmets, they would have had the interception correct.

Second down and ten.

I love this linebacker.

Man.

He's just a sophomore.

Son of Jamonie Fortson who started there at Carver as well, retreating and throwing, trying to come back and make the catch and incomplete.

Not able to set his feet there.

Shamario Johnson was the target.

Third down.

A lot of people tend to see a lot of social media.

Checked it during the commercial there.

Checking in for this Carrollton Buford game.

A good buddy, Eric Richards, down in Naples, Florida, the national recruiting director of the Navy All-American Bowl.

He's watching because he's got a ton of players in this game tonight.

I promise you.

Like you said, Jarvis Jones was the first kid he ever invited to the All-American Bowl.

Played in that All-American Bowl.

Following his career with Carver before heading off to play for the USC Trojans.

Ball to the Edge and picked pick six nail in the coffin.

Antavius Watts no DeMarcus.

Davis JaMarcus Davis with the pick six.

Boy, he jumps this route.

Watch him set this up and he was all over it.

Once that receiver set down in his route, he goes and gets it and he says, ring me.

JaMarcus Davis, the senior corner, young man that Jarvis Jones said this would be a big game for him because he has not yet signed with his signature moment here in the state finals.

What a play, man.

Dough down and distance.

Watching the eyes of the quarterback when he comes back to your side of the field, you got to make a play.

He jumped it.

As you said they've almost had a couple a little different hands on the defensive back.

Yes, exactly.

Illegal substitution against the defense.

Half the distance of the goal.

Retry.

Now here's where I believe we haven't really talked about this, but the sideline roster size for Hapeville Charter is very small.

Yes.

And this is where late in the game.

Penalty for illegal substitution is declined.

Retry your guys.

Get fatigued.

Physical fatigue leads to mental mistakes.

Mistakes there.

And you start pressing.

You start getting out of your game.

JaMarcus Davis 34 yard pick six may have sealed this game.

P.a.t.

Is perfect.

247 Carver Columbus 6 minutes and 16 seconds, perhaps from their second straight state championship and win number 27 in a row.

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I like to buy local and I like to buy healthy for my family.

So I started checking the labels on our clothes too.

Did you know synthetic fibers like polyester are pretty much made of oil?

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Good enough for me and my family.

JaMarcus Davis may have put this game on ice with his 34 yard pick six and a 247 lead for Carver Columbus.

Hard to tell a young man that, but he'll show his grandkids that play.

You ought to watch granddad make that pick.

Again.

No, granddad, we've seen it.

What a play, man.

Big moment, big moment.

And a hate filled charter team that has had only 81 yards of offense on 41 plays.

That's less than 2 yards per play.

Will now try to make up 17 points over the last six plus minutes.

Yeah man.

Tough to to go up right now.

But both teams defensively have been very very impressed.

Back for the return at the six yard line.

That Stiggers.

That'll help.

Stiggers got the kicker to beat.

Gets by him and steps out of bounds.

Boy that is a great tackle by that kicker.

That is a fantastic play.

A great return.

But that kicker right there kills a lot of momentum because that would have been an easy six.

Just get a handle.

Good job.

Good job.

By Pearce-Spencer.

Because if he takes that back.

Yes, sir.

You got an onside kick coming up.

You're 24-14 You got plenty of time with 6:00 to go.

Ray Damond Stiggers, the sophomore running back.

Big return.

Run out of bounds at the 40 yard line.

Let's see if Hapeville can do something offensively that they haven't done all night.

Empty backfield set.

Pope fires to the sideline.

High throw and punishment coming from JaMarcus Davis.

Yeah he's dialed in right now.

Over there.

Anything underneath he is attacking.

You see him.

He's step ahead.

He was going to get him another one.

Second down and nine.

Pope goes this way with it.

They have no problem letting them complete those balls right now.

Everything underneath.

Just run to the football.

Got to take some chances down the field right here.

If you're.

If you're Hapeville Charter.

Steven Wright making the tackle after the catch.

By Xzavier Paige.

And now it's going to be third down.

Heavy rush.

Pope steps up in the pocket, nearly picked again, and it is intercepted.

And that is Makevious Yancie with the pick.

He has played a football game.

He has played a game and don't forget, he's the one that blew it up on the goal line on that fourth down.

That this is a tipped ball.

Number 10 tips it and he goes and tracks it.

Steven Wright with a tip.

Yep.

And this game is going to get away from Hapeville Charter late.

And you're going to look at somebody not going to watch this game and go Carver Columbus is in control.

This was a football game all the way until about 3.5 minutes.

To go.

Yep.

Not until we got into the fourth quarter.

Did Carver Columbus assert themselves and come up with the big plays defensively to put this game away.

And now he's going to put on the headset.

Yeah yeah.

Got the waders on the camo waders on and the headsets.

First and ten.

Hand off goes to Watts.

He gets swallowed up right away.

Helmet pops off.

No.

Think about this last night.

It's tough to win four games in the playoffs and lose that fifth one.

Man it is so hard to win four games to get here.

And then you lose this one.

It's just it's just really tough.

It really kind of sucks the life out of the great accomplishment that you had to get here in the first place.

Appreciate it in a little while.

It's going to hurt for a while, but you'll appreciate that you made a run.

Got to play in Mercedes Benz, but these teams that win over the next couple of days, winning five games in a playoff bracket in any bracket in the state of Georgia is extremely hard to do.

I'll have to go back and look at it, but we're going to have an extraordinary number of state champions that go 15 and zero this year.

That doesn't happen all that often that you have 15-0 state champions hand off goes to Watts.

Not in the abundance that we're going to end up having him this year.

So you got Carver.

They're going to finish up 15-0 The winner of our next game is going to be 15-0 Creekside 15-0 Sandy creek's got a chance to be 15-0 yeah.

So we've got a chance to have and Thomas County Central has a chance to be a 15-0 state champion.

Yeah.

So we've got how many did we count there.

I lost about five.

Yeah we got a chance to have five 15-0 state champions.

Worth County go 15-0 in this one year.

I think Worth County 15 and.

Oh that'd be six.

I mean, that's an extraordinarily big number.

Yeah, that's.

A big that might be the first time that's ever.

Happened of six.

Gandalf goes Tarver slips out of the tackle trying to bounce it outside.

Keeping the play alive.

And goes down at the 40.

And now it's going to be fourth down.

I can tell you what I hope Jarvis Jones has his schedule already done, because everybody is watching him, thinking about playing him with this freshman crowd and his freshman D-lineman and his sophomore d linemen, a freshman quarterback, he's going to have a hard time filling some out of region games.

And let me tell you now, we got the PSR kicking in next year for every classification.

Everybody's going to be facing that challenge of trying to schedule to meet the requirements of the PSR.

Not going to be a lot of people returning his phone calls.

Approaching the 2.5 minute mark on fourth down and one, they'll keep the offense on the field.

And the keeper by beard will pick up the first down and that'll be it.

Not that it wasn't already it, but that should be it.

Where they can just simply get to a point close in time here with kneeling out.

Although Hapeville does have two time-outs remaining time-outs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, he told us today.

I think I may have asked you out there.

This is Buford's first time ever playing in Mercedes Benz.

Do you want.

Now this is Buford's first time playing in.

It is.

It is.

Wow.

It is.

And it was Benedictine's first time playing in the Benz.

So there were a lot of teams.

Benedictine, Buford, I mean, big time programs playing in the Benz.

Sandy Creek.

First time ever playing in the Benz.

Teams that you would think, oh, they've got the experience of playing.

Buford bet for sure.

Gainesville first time playing in the Benz.

A lot of big time programs that you think, oh yeah, they played in the Benz.

No, they haven't.

And so we got Carrollton and Buford, the 6-A state championship and what most likely is, and we're calling it that because we think it is the national championship between these two teams that are ranked number 1 in separate national rankings.

That's coming up 36 minutes following the presentation of the trophy, 30 minutes for the start of our coverage and then 36 minutes to kick following the end of the trophy presentation.

So we're still probably looking at about 930, maybe even a little bit later than that.

For that kickoff.

It's all right.

Hey.

In the air.

Going for the deep ball on the deep shot.

Incomplete flag out.

Right.

No.

There it is.

A couple of them.

Listen, where are the aids?

Remember, you used to see Mike Tyson and all those guys fight late at night?

Yeah, this is a heavyweight title fight.

It's going to be late.

You bought the pay per view and the and the.

In the main event.

Holyfield and Tyson came on about 10:30.

You had to wait up for that.

So you're going to wait up tonight for a national championship.

Everybody around the country.

You had to sit through all those the fights that nobody cared about.

And then you had the paraglider flying into the top of the arena.

Yeah.

And you and you had the John 316 guy with the rainbow.

Colored afro.

Monday Night Football started at 9:00 P.M.

As well.

It did.

It absolutely did.

Well, watch Buford and Carrollton.

You want to stay up for that one?

Yeah.

The original Monday Night Football.

When it kicked off, that was a 9:00 A.M.

Kick.

Used to fight.

Used to say 9:00 A.M., 9:00 P.M.. Used to fight my dad on bedtime.

Like.

Let me stop and watch.

Can I watch the first quarter?

Let me stay up and watch.

You hear that?

You would hear that that that intro.

That results in the first half.

Frank Gifford.

Oh, man, that was the best.

Howard Cosell.

Yep.

The original.

Just just the views were terrible.

Nobody knew any different.

It was great though.

Come here.

We got, you know, 30 cameras in a high school football game.

Got a big screen here at Mercedes Benz.

Every angle.

It was the 1970s for me.

And no one knew any different.

It was great.

There were only three channels to choose from.

Man.

What are you talking about?

I'm not lying.

Two, 5-11 That was it.

And then 17.

Came along.

Yes.

We had four channels and you could watch Andy Griffith in the afternoon.

And then the Braves at night.

There the handoff goes to Tarver, down to the 27 yard line.

Got to say, man, before we we're going to wrap some things up and do Troy.

We'll come back.

But what a performance.

But what a story for Jarvis Jones.

And his first year.

Listen they got challenge tonight.

They got hit in the mouth and they responded.

Just such a great guy.

I've had a chance to know him for a long time.

Really getting getting a chance to meet him when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs and didn't really know him when he played at Carver.

A great story, he told me when I saw him in Georgia was great.

His mama recorded the game on VHS, VHS and they watched it.

They still have.

It, they still.

Have it.

They still have the VHS tape.

He said, my mom will watch the state championship game on VHS.

The 2007 state championship.

She can watch this one on demand as often as she likes, because Carver Columbus back to back state champions, third state championship in school history, and a 27 game winning streak.

On top of all that, as Jarvis Jones and the Carver Columbus Tigers have defeated Hapeville Charter 247 to win the two a state championship.

Outstanding performance man, just like I said earlier, got hit in the mouth, responded all the momentum in the world was against him at one point in this game.

Found a way to stop a fourth and one.

Sears that young freshman quarterback who did not even know until the Monday before the first football Friday night of the season that he was going to be the starting quarterback.

So afraid to tell him he's like this, don't mess him up.

Let's just tell him Monday morning.

And here he is on the last night of the season, 15-0 as a starting quarterback.

Do you think he has any idea of what he just did?

He thinks he does, but he don't really.

The magnitude of.

What he did.

Historically will kick in at some point later in his life.

But as a 14-year-old, you just led Carver Columbus to the state championship.

They'll let him enjoy this for a couple of weeks.

And about that second week in January, they start lifting again.

They'll suck that right out of him for a while.

Outstanding young man.

State championship as a freshman.

Can't even imagine on TV.

You know, Jarvis Jones told us that he kind of felt like not only is he carrying the flag for his alma mater, Carver Columbus, he's carrying the flag for all Columbus.

Yes.

That West Georgia area down there, no doubt.

They have definitely proven themselves to be the Kings, not of just Columbus, but the entire state of Georgia.

Outstanding run there.

A lot of talent coming back.

And they get the hardware.

Another for the trophy case.

Take that home.

Got to be a surreal moment, man.

To win it your first year at your school.

Well a lot different than that day when he won it in 2007.

In Cairo, Georgia.

Let me tell.

You, I can't confirm that Wayne Gandy didn't bring his shoulder pads tonight because I was waiting on him.

I heard you last night.

Say, going to bring you helmet, shoulder pads.

It's a big boy game.

You're about to do.

I will call you out.

I got a minute.

I was like, this is a big game.

Wayne Gandy is bringing his equipment tonight.

He's already taped up.

He's taped up, man, I black, but no shoulder pads and helmet.

And just for a moment, let's just extend our congratulations to another great season for the little engine that could.

The team that gets more out of less Hapeville Charter getting to the state finals and putting up a gallant fight here tonight.

It was a close game until the fourth quarter when Carver Columbus finally turned some miscues, broke some big plays on offense and pulled away for the victory.

Tough.

You know, Coach Gordon's got a he's going to eat at him for a while because you're going to know you had the ball in the fourth and one.

Then you have a punt return called back.

Both times that happened it was 10-7 Matt you got a chance to take the lead, kind of seize the momentum.

Felt like you kind of had Carver dialed in.

Yeah, Zion Crawford took that punt back and at that point, barring the penalty, it would have been a 1410 lead for them.

Freshman running back, big play kind of momentum.

Tim Scott Alfa Insurance this year.

So Tim Scott up there with Hapeville Charter right now on the podium to get the runner up trophy.

See big number 72 Chris Booker.

He'll be in Tuscaloosa.

I promise.

The not too distant future.

I promise you within 48 hours he will be in Tuscaloosa, probably practicing a lot of these kids that signed with these power four schools get a chance to go in and do some of the bowl practice.

Clock starts ticking right away.

And now it is Carver Columbus turn.

Yeah.

Let's see who they get up there on the podium.

So.

Obviously they're they're saying five get to come up there.

So the five who get to come up there, it's a big honor here.

You want to make sure you get the guys up there.

Yeah.

You got your quarterback Sebastian Heard.

You got JaMarcus Davis who had the pick six.

You got Nic'quayvion Simmons, who has signed with Tennessee, had a huge game.

This time a little tournament championship presentation.

And look at big Ole Triston Favors number 11 Triston Givens.

Pardon me.

Look at how long his arm.

He is long, man.

They'll like him in College Station, that's for sure.

Let's send it down to Jon Nelson.

Thank you very much.

Matt Stewart time to present yet another trophy here.

We'll have one game left after this one.

This is day.

This is day two.

Championship number 4.

First and foremost, shout out to Hapeville Charter fantastic season once again proving that Winston Gordon and Hapeville Charter really do have it going on, as does everybody there at HCAA.

But it is time to present a trophy for the second year in a row.

To our friends at Carver Columbus, and to do it the Executive director of the Georgia High School Association, Dr.

Tim Scott, and our friends at Alfa Insurance.

Hey, Carver Columbus, what about these great fans?

Coach, we're very proud of your team.

You guys competed well.

And on behalf of Alfa Insurance, we'd like to present Carver of Columbus with the state championship trophy.

Yay!

Yeah.

Rick.

You tell me.

You asked me how I'm doing, how you're doing now.

Yeah, we're amazing man.

Joel watching the Carver Columbus, baby.

This for.

Us.

This one for us.

And it's extra special, obviously, for you, because of you being an alumnus of the school, it means that much more.

It hits you that much harder, especially with all of these folks that are down here, all the seniors that are with you first year as a head coach and you go all the distance.

Is amazing, man.

Look at all these guys.

They bought into everything that we were trying to do.

It's been a long season.

We got to know each other.

Man, I love these guys.

I'm going to miss these guys.

But man, this was our goal when we set out this summer.

And man, it's such a blessing to be able to be here today to hold this thing up in front of all our beautiful fans that traveled all the way from Columbus, Georgia.

Mission unlocked.

This is going to go down 185, and it's going to go into a trophy case.

Carver Columbus State champs back to back here in 2025.

Matt and Rusty put a bow on this one.

Georgia Cotton Commission player of the game coming up in just a little bit.

All right 247 the final.

What the what a mission here by Carver Columbus to complete it.

They've now won 20-7 in a row going into the 2026 season.

Your thoughts on that.

And we'll give you let you give you a thought on that Carrollton Buford game.

Well I can say this unbelievable run by Carver Columbus.

I'm not sure they're going to go anywhere anytime soon.

Look, I want to talk to Jarvis a couple of weeks.

I don't want to ruin his night.

Who are you going to play you outside of the region?

I'll be interested in.

I can't think of a better representation from the state of Georgia right now.

We have so many great programs.

We have so many great teams.

But to be able to put Carrollton versus Buford, Joey King Coach Appling right here on the national stage for a national championship, so many people are tuning in.

I'm glad I get to go down the sideline.

I get to hear a little paint.

I'm going to let you and Wayne handle this one.

But like I said again, this is a heavyweight fight and everybody's tuned in around the country and you start arguing about Texas and Florida and all that.

I want you to watch the level.

These two games.

This is big boy football coming up.

Rusty.

Great to work with you.

See you tomorrow for the three A final that will put a wrap on this one Carver Columbus 247 winners over Hapeville the Tailgate Party show is coming up next.

And now we are just a half hour away from Carrollton and Buford.

The big show, the 6-A state championship game, and the National Championship.

And now for Rusty Manziel, Autumn Johnson, our entire GPB team.

For now, I'm Matt Stewart.

We'll be back in half an hour with the big game.

Football Fridays in Georgia is presented by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, reminding you to park your phone while driving.

Saves lives.

Heads up, Georgia.

You wouldn't take a call during the big game.

Oh, hey what's up man?

You wouldn't be texting while cheering on your team.

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So why would you drive a car while distracted driving isn't a game when you lose on the road, it could lead to a crash.

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George is a major supplier of cotton worldwide, so if you'd like to buy local to support Georgia, buying cotton is a great place to start.

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Welcome in to Mercedes Benz Stadium.

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The best place for when it comes to high school football in the great state of Georgia, especially Jon Nelson.