[Music] that's a championship team right there and welcome inside the georgia dome for game three of four title games today here at ghsa championships we've got a great one for you the class 5a championship it's the seven region seven champion raw wolves against the wolves of you for the champions out of region 8 rome you can see they're in their red and beaufort always travels well trying to avenge again their 10-nothing loss in the finals here a year ago larry's here alongside john nelson for this a call tonight it's the battle of the wolves as john has already said so we'll put that one together christmas with red and green and there you go exactly it's uh but it's what a great matchup this is let's start first off with uh the the rome wolves and again a team that didn't think they would be here in fact this was uh as one coach put maybe one of the worst programs in the state two years ago what a difference a couple years making john reed came over from tift moved north took over at rome and the guy to pay attention to jamaius griffin on the offensive side of the ball you see right there leading rusher averaging a little over 101 yards a game he's the bell cow when it comes to running the football and then there's one guy who's going to be handing it to him the quarterback and it's a bit of a family affair when you're talking about knox kadum absolutely these guys here you're just uh a couple of sophomores it's the younger guys leading uh rome and there he is right there and knox will talk a lot about him only a sophomore more on what he has done this year and you see his numbers right there for the wolves 16 touchdowns only four interceptions a nice running game as well again the children the kids if you will bringing them here to the title game for rome on the other side for the beaufort wolves meanwhile 11 state titles trying to go for an even dozen right now and buford after losing their opening game against 7a finalist roswell they've run the table and speaking of run the table guess what they're going to do today if they have it their way they're going to run the ball they're going to run the ball and then they're going to run the ball it's a two-headed monster in the back anthony grant averaging just under eight yards of carry 24 touchdowns on the year just over 1400 yards on the ground and you pair anthony grant with number five christian turner christian turner's numbers are even better when it comes to average almost nine yards of carry 18 scores almost 1100 yards for christian turner so you combine those two you're talking 2500 yards north of that on the ground so guess what beaufort may run the ball they might run the ball and guess what they'll do run the ball run the ball they have their way so that's what we're looking at when it comes to buford stout defense as always from the wolves as well i'm pretty quick on these things yeah and we're gonna outstanding lines we'll talk about them as the game goes on right now it's going down to the third member of our team sam crenshaw for more on this matchup sam all right john here on the sideline of course for beaufort this is almost an annual thing but not for the wrong wolves back in the day it was east rome and west rome east with a paris back-to-back state championships in the late 70s west arm with four in a row in the 80s and all seven they merged the two schools in 1992 the same year they built this building folks thought that the united rome high school would be in this building a lot they waited to come here this year they're only going to get one chance to win a state championship in the georgia dome because next year this building is gone let's see if they can get it done today sam you're so right thanks so much we get ready for this one class 5-8 matchup right now again the uh rome versus beaufort you see the royal wolves there and as you talked about again this east and west and for years all those championships over the years and they've been on the field now as you can see and hear the roar of the crowd we talked about them coming down here uh from north georgia and of course buffer the crowd they're always traveling so well as the wolves the other wolves prepared to come out of the field 11 state championships seven of those coming in the last decade and the wolves right through once again as they have made on an annual trip here to the doors of dome and sam was mentioning trying to close it out and stop before moving next door to the mercedes-benz stadium beaufort won the toss by the way and they will receive in their green and trimmed in gold it'll be rome on the other side in white speaking of rome let's take a look at john green and what a job he's done as nellie was talking about second season now 20 and six 30 and 94 and 38 and 11 seasons overall for john reid and more on what he has done interesting uh tattoo as well we'll talk about that it's hidden well it is hidden and we'll get to that later a little little tease for you on the other side jess simpson uh way too familiar with this 164 wins only 11 losses in 13 seasons and 10 of those losses as head coach came in his first season as a head coach at east paulding wow let's take a look right here at the series history first ever meeting between these two schools buford and rome good crowd with both event here floyd county has emptied in force it has the schools out there they let out at noon today they're trying to let everyone get down here and it looks like many taking advantage on both sides so we get set to kick this one off game three in this one game one earlier a double overtime thriller is why we're starting a bit late in this one we're almost almost 40 minutes behind schedule right now i know i know you don't mind eagles landing christian academy winning that first game in double overtime over fellowship and there's a senior grove winning our second game just moments ago and that's anthony grant grabbed to midfield france got some blockers trying to go the distance anthony grant 95 yards to the one [Applause] anthony grants one more look at it john you talk about that kind of speed cuts it back 35 has the angle and the blockers to go with him they can't get the angle to track him down it just ends up being speed to trip him up trey hodges the junior defender tracks down anthony grant at the one anthony grant gets a breather and well deserved on that one 95-yard return so buford their first time with the ball first and goal on the roam one [Applause] nick [Applause] touchdown and just like that 25 seconds into the game it's the beaufort wolves drawing first blood remember in the pre-game larry we talked about raise the roof with mick and td mick the east carolina commit hands off to his brother 25 seconds in six points on the board senior to senior three feet in the score how about that for the roof family [Music] pick is up and good that's fernando burgess tcsg touchdown replay dog this is easy power power and power but it took two efforts to get it second effort goes across the plane and that's all you need ball came out but across the plane get you the six once again power set two tight ends a lot of bodies in that first five yards and td gets the td [Laughter] well done 25 seconds in i think that's one of the easiest graphics we've had when it comes to our tcsg scoring drive tcsg learn more earn more easy does it [Music] but that's the way to wake up this crowd not that they needed to took 25 seconds for buford to score more points than they did last year great point i barely had the uh cap off by water and they've already scored a touchdown you were working that cap hard trying to get it off i was hurrying i was trying to hurry now how does rome respond that was a haymaker yeah thrown by buford coming out of the blocks so how do the red wolves respond on kick return that's a great call so here we go it's progress here ooch get a little pooch kick right there comes up short in the hands of marquez kirby and the short return for the junior rome start first and 10 on their own 34-yard line 17 green there's jake simpson the youngest of jess we'll see a lot of him today the leading tackler for that defense he'll be in the middle of it for the green walls there's knox kadum the sophomore once again 4-1 tdd interception ratio and there's a lot of sophomores on this red wolf side yeah i love what coach was saying about that in terms of his second year they're all kind of growing together in this offense so here we go rome gets the ball 31 seconds in already down 7-0 that's kate him in the shotgun xavier robertson motion and he's going nowhere zach waters in on the tackle waters with a big stop right there as we take a look at the starting lineups right now let's take a look first the roman wolves up top we talked about zach kadem right there davey norton bradfield and loving good the big 275 pound junior uh on the right side right there the receivers watkins griffin in the backfield kirby in the backfield as well martin and xavier roberts as well he's the tight end also just a sophomore so second down play right here not going very far and so it'll be third and long now for rome that's griffin on the carry three touchdowns last week in that semi-final win over stockbridge that was quite a thriller this wrong team also i gotta get a play like it's uh back at home they haven't left to varys stadium in over a month 10 home games for him this year third and lemon right now kaden getting a call from the sideline jamie is griffin behind him the two sophomores going left and looking deep he's got a man there and he's got the capture the first time xavier roberts but he's gonna say no good he bobbled it and dropped it great throw there by kaden john the target a lot of time for caden to wind up couldn't quite hang on to it and end up getting knocked away nice job there by bryson richardson 6-1 junior so fourth down and time for rome to punt john cromer is on to punter off the side of his foot takes a wrong bounce sarong goes three and out and buford takes over to 37-yard punt by cromer here come the other wolves nick roof there there's your quarterback senior as john mentioned the east carolina commit you see his numbers on the year 1358 yards 56 completion rates for beaufort so first and ten now beaufort wolves from the 31. roof looking right being chased he can't catch up to him finally throws out of bounds great defensive uh pursuit right there by demarcus chapman big six three junior there from the left side let's look at this beautiful offense right now hank white mills garrett scoggins that's dean powell and tyler thurman he's committed to go to west virginia next year meanwhile uh split in tanner alexander we talked about grant edgar bravo kj johnson and d.j pinkert is your tight end to make 6-4 senior that offensive line 265 290 260 295 275 protecting mcroot they bring some big beef up there that's anthony grant lining up he's got the ball finding some moon great move there's room there great blocking nice tackle right there by number 44 edgar bravo look at this anthony grant finds the edge left guard and tackle and by the way that left hand side of the offensive line hank white heading to columbia connor mills heading to princeton white voted most likely to succeed national honor society they handle all the testing [Applause] high grades brother that's right third down and four roof nice bro right there and a catch we've got a flag in the play let's see if it stands up great catch there by number six as jameis griffin sorry not jamaica's wrong team bryce and richardson there on the catch eleven yard gain if it holds up nemo reddish on the tackle look at the officials here ronnie melton with the call pass interference on the defense 15 yard penalty from the previous spot distance is enough for a first down so one more look at it john reed doesn't like it they're on the defense man coverage on the edge and you saw would look like nemo reddish ripping the jersey gripping the jersey and gripping the jersey before bryson richardson came up with the catch yeah so buford now with its first first down of the game if you just joined us they scored 95-yard kick return and then a one-yard run to start the game for buchanan hand in motion the handoff and that's richardson that check that that's christian turner the other thousand-yard rusher back there let's take a look at their own defense right now as we get ready for second down we talked about jamarcus chapman there in the front he's got several offers jaquan griffin t.j kemik and uh adam anderson who are admitted to georgia griffin uh davis and hicks are your linebackers secondary hodges another griffin reddish and plantarius kennemur as well the 510 junior four brothers who were named griffin plus a cousin on their own roster it's a family repair question incomplete pass their roof trying to hit a big number 41. mcrees another one of those guys a lot of guys josh mentioned play both ways for buford and he's one of them watch the spin here rolling against body throwing against his body had it just a bit of a wobbler in and out of the hands so brings up third down and eight right now from the rome 46. you for trying to add to this early lead 7-0 [Applause] nick roof goes out great catch and the dive did he make it austin turner the sophomore wide receiver let's see what they mark it yard to half shore one more look great isolation camera here wide open down the scene now tanner alexander is also there but yeah the underneath route was there and it was whether or not they were going to spot it for fourth down the lunge or when he got out of bounds they said he got out of bounds first just shy of the 44 and they're going to talk about it so the timeout on the field with fourth down and two and 752 to go here in the first quarter we'll take a timeout as well game three out of four in this first day of the state championships here from the georgia dome the battle of the wolves it's beaufort with the early lead ghsa football championship is made possible in part by regions it's time to expect more georgia's electrical membership cooperative the official energy provider of the ghsa the technical college system of georgia learn more earn more cigna go you heads up georgia and the governor's office of highway safety dot com and viewers like you thank you [Music] back here at the georgia dome in downtown atlanta 7-0 beaufort on top of rome thanks to the early long kickoff and a short touchdown run by td rooftop on top the buford resume here's what the wolves have done as we uh take a look they've been uh well as we said before tenth straight finals appearance for them they've won the state championship 10 of the last 13 years seven 15 or no seasons in the last 15. look at the record right there since 1999 245 wins and they have dominated their region over the years as well 27 region championships in the last 42 years one of the premier programs john in the entire state of georgia one of the entire country really and two of those losses were forfeits so you can take those out and jeff simpson took over for dexter wood dexter wood the athletics director at buford and since you had dexter and jess it has been an amazing run for buford when it comes to this time of year they are here they market on their calendars every year second weekend of december let's go down to the dome and see what happens so fourth down and two let's see what happens here as we're installing the opening minutes of this game there group under center this time takes the hand off instead the quick throw i think that was a look back at the pass that we saw where tanner alexander was wide open down the sideline play action dragged to the marker on the out route overthrew him so the rome defense holds gets the ball back at their own 40 and they'll try again first offensive series was a three and out for rome let's see what they learned against his viewer for defense knocks caden number 12 quarterback the sophomore man in motion hand off the middle instead that's the jamias griffin for the short game that brings up second down about this view for defense now zach waters dean powell mcrees the front man that's 3-4 defense look at linebackers mcmorris swansley td roof we talked about he scored the touchdown on the has a fullback jake simpson mentioned before he's a commit to go to wake forest next year in the backfield it's neil richardson and yanbu and singleton [Music] second down now hate him with a quick throw it was tipped intended for jordan watkins it'll bring up third down hands in the passing lane dj pinkert that time six four 260 pound senior looks like they had it sniffed out pinker put his hands up deflected it didn't get to the target view for defense looks very good in their first five snaps here's the sixth third and seven now [Music] that's jamaica griffin in motion katum overthrows his receiver trying to hit jordan watkins for the first down but instead it's fourth and seven and second straight three and out for the roman wolves so john reed's defense again trying to turn over you know we talked to coach reed a couple days ago john who's talking about their defense and the advances they made we'll talk more about that at this point right here cromer gets away a good one makes his bounce out of bounds that's where romer the goofer will take over 29-yard punt for cromer and so here comes his rome defense but johnny was talking about the defense how two years ago they were giving up 36 points per game uh and they have cut that considerably now that one of the best defenses in the state just two years into his tenure top ranked defense in 5a that's left on the board when you've got a guy like chapman who's being looked at by byu colorado state and cincinnati and anderson who's right now looking at georgia over alabama [Applause] big work up front with that front seven with their hands cut out for him here seven nothing down early on after the again the long kick return here we go first down to ten rough with a handoff and that's turner looks like he's gonna come back flag on the play and that may come back we talked about anthony grant's what christian turner as you mentioned averaging almost nine yards per carry and it is a hold as john mentioned this will be a first in 20. and these are the things that jess simpson most coaches in general offense 10 yard tony from the spot of the foul repeat first out effort penalties they'll be okay with these kind of penalties not so much yeah because you put yourself behind the sticks and going up against the defense that is as stout as rome's has been this year it gives you more work than you need and you give that rome defense a little confidence after getting smacked in the opening minute first and 20 now that's grant in motion he catches the swing pass gets it out and the short gain over the 20. nifty player right there to get a few of those yards back good tackle right there by number 10 kj pretend to trey hodges it is for rome kj hicks also involved they had it sniffed out so you see two guys right there third guy coming to the ball that's this attacking rome defense if you haven't seen it this year you've got eight guys easily trying to head to the ball as much as possible two defenders had that screen swing pass sniffed out pretty quickly so a four yard gain and celebrates up second and 16 so a long way to go for the first down here these beaufort wolves four in the pattern nick roof putting anthony on the other side now he switches brandon motion he's covered well proof and trouble he's brought down big time sack right there by big jaquan griffin the junior look at all that painting he's been trading he didn't want it redone watch what jaquan does right hand side of your screen [Music] beats the double team comes back and puts roof on the floor well that's that was a great spin move right there you said he's double team spins out of it and leaves roof with nowhere to go six foot 260 pound junior tulane has offered and i figured moore may be coming that his way third down pay right now handoff to grant is going nowhere again it's jaquan griffin there malik davis in as well once again two guys quickly to the football right there 995 immediately davis the mvp of the region maybe five eight five nine john reed loves guys like that and there's jaquan griffin and the lack of paint that's right it's a battle scar it is that's right you look at that front eight that rome has there's been a lot of paint traded and a lot giving back mcroof for his first punt of the day gives that away watkins there lets it bounce out of the 43 35-yard punt for mick roof and his first try about these rome wolves and how they got here when their first region title in 2016 you mentioned uh west roman east rome combining in 1992 with eight region titles overall before they did combine westworld winning five state titles east wrong two but none since they combined in 1992 and so again what a what a year it's been there but he's rom wolves first and ten now the 433 it's a running play hand off right there that's jamis griffin short game and to your point larry the chieftains of west rome 82 83 84 and 85 in that four year run they had three different head coaches wow mike hodges 82 and 83 and john reed has been a uniter at barron stadium they didn't even have championship banners of east and west rome he made a point to hang them there bringing back that picture right there that's an incomplete pass there as that was kaden looking for tyrish martin his junior receiver brings up a third down now for the roman wolves and as you mentioned it was something that you know again like you said to bring this together it hadn't happened before uh and that stayed in taking over there it's a great stadium up there but bring that history back and some pride to the program 84 rodney walker was the second head coach year four of that run charlie winslet went 15-0 so you look at that four-year run for west rome 15 30 45 59-1 keeper here for cadem and it's going nowhere and so rome struggling on offense here [Music] in the first quarter as they go three and out clinton skinner tackle six foot sophomore 260 pounder and to be fair on the east road side the gladiators titles in 77 and 78 under jerry sharp who would eventually then go and coach the darlington program and bring them some titles and some title appearances and single cromer good job into that low punch and a little snap away this is roof td ruth on the return he's got some blockers if he can tip down on the sideline and he can't get all the way but a very nice return there for td roof who scored the only touchdown of the game 47-yard kick and watch the six yard return here little juggle to start good focus to bring it back found the edge and just went up before he got bumped out of bounds by blake bradfield the senior lineman working on special teams and so it's another run for buford and i think larry it's safe to say that rome has settled into their experience here at the dome it took him a while they saw the kick return the first seven on the board but since then rome has settled in yeah i would agree with that a good defensive battle so far after that opening a few seconds uh for buford on the pitch here this is grant he's got the carry and some room and he's got the first out and more anthony grant his biggest run from scrimmage 12-yard game got to the edge watch you're gonna go from left to right the toss they got grant in motion to get a little speed under him get to the edge so buford sealed really well and it turned into a chase big gain for anthony grant well what a tough match have you seen now you've got grant and turner both thousand yard rushers in the game at the same time right now before the buffered wolves at his grand he split out to the left right there now he's in motion first down play roof keeps it himself might have been a busted play there john he's trying to maybe hand it off zone read that time so let's take a look you'll see the decisions it's dive keep and pitch and there you saw that extra little lunge that time he wanted to hand it to christian turner but turner sped through it before he could hand it off and so he had to kind of stick with the football for little gain if anything yeah big malik davis number nine on the tackle also adam anderson as well on that play second and nine who keeps it to td roof nick to td he's got the first down and he's in rome territory at the 47 yard line buford working play action here early on you'll see it again roof play action drag no one had the roof that was in motion until he was at the second level raising the roof 15-yard pickup on that and a nice play as well like we talked about the rut the running game of this everyone focusing right there on ground with a fake handoff left td roof wide open so beaufort on the move now inside two minutes in the first quarter scored a one-yard touchdown on their first play from scrimmage handoff to turner [Applause] good vision there to fight through some tacklers and brings up second down right garden tackle once again trying to get to the edge and seal off those eight guys that you know from rome that are going to be chasing the ball dean powell heading to heading to army tyler thurmond to west virginia 295 275 on the right hand side as we're coming up on 65 seconds first quarter second and seven this beaufort running game churning along right now trying to find some holes in the stout rome defense turner again tripped up still make something happen there a lot of white shirts around him josh mcginnis number 94 in there number 19 as well anderson in the mix anything between the tackles it looks like rome is sending eight and there's a lot of work going on in that five yards the two behind the line of scrimmage and the three beyond the line of scrimmage and you're seeing a lot of bodies in there and it looks like buford's gonna call it a quarter or they call a timeout actually there's a timeout and that's their second already they burned one on that fourth down play earlier and we may have a little bit of an injury it's number 62 dean powell as you mentioned the army commit six one 295 junior [Music] as we talked about buford starting the year losing to roswell they'll play tomorrow night to the 7 8 championship game uh in their own opener 24-7 and they ran the table the rest away 13 consecutive wins they won region eighth in dominating fashion good wins about the playoffs couple of close games against carrollton in the quarterfinals 34-27 and last week beating kell 28-16 in the semifinals something like playing against three teams from the same region this is the third team that they will have played from region seven in consecutive weeks in the playoffs isn't that something now remember we only mentioned it only took them 35 seconds to beat their scoring total from last year last year in the quad a title game it was cartersville purple hurricanes go at it last year get three on the board and cartersville turned it into a short field a fumble here pops up right into the hands of folks and they would go on to lose 10 nothing cartersville would claim the title here's a touchdown pass on a fire route lawrence to miller forestall who's now at alabama and that's what they're trying to avenge that 2015 loss where they didn't get any points on the board third down play great uh loose and rome has it we've got a fumble on the player and the flag of the play as well i think so let's see what happens here kj hicks with the recovery i was just about to say john boy he had a a lot of time and then that pocket just collapsed on him no flag it is rome football and here it is again and once again because of what they've had to do had to juggle the offensive line a little bit with dean powell being out for that play got penetration got the fumble got the football tj come actually 52 was one with the strip i mentioned kj hicks with the recovery so rome's defense provides the first turn over here in the final seconds of the first quarter maybe the final play of the quarter caden fakes the throw avoids the rush now wants to go deep he's got a man picked off put the interception and that's how we end the first quarter so how about these beautiful wolves they start the quarter with the bang and they end the quarter with the bang special teams on defense 22-yard return the interception right there by and wanyu it's a battle of wolves right now and so far it is beaufort getting it done seven nothing is right through one quarter here at the georgia dome [Music] [Applause] [Music] what is by moonlight an empty field is by the magic of electricity sacred ground as the official energy provider of the ghsa georgia's electric membership cooperatives proudly support our student athletes we're there illuminating the glory moments fans just have to see capturing the hustle elevating champions sharing the win georgia's emcs so much more than electricity today companies in the aerospace advanced manufacturing and film industries need skilled workers and the earning potential is high go build georgia can show you where the jobs are and what skills you need to get them and the technical college system of georgia has fast affordable training for these great paying careers build your blueprint for success at gobildga.com and look to the technical college system of georgia to put your plan into action scalpel i have no idea what i'm doing i'm just a tv doctor i never went to college [Music] i don't do blood but now thanks to cigna i can do more than just look the part is that a foot we are the tv doctors of america and we're partnering with cigna to help save lives by getting you to a real doctor for an annual checkup so go no and take control of your health doctor poses cigna together all the way here we believe when you study hard you need to play even harder bring your a game rock the weekend climb your way to the top and find your inner champion world world-class faculty and coaches plus access to over 100 majors continue our winning traditions at vsu you get off the bench and in the game to succeed discover valdosta state university a hidden gem in higher education right back here at the georgia dome it's the battle of the wolves rome and buford the class 5a championship and beaufort has the early advantage right now but uh what a great play on defense here john into the first quarter a lot of pressure and it looks like knox keita might have slipped a little bit through ended up throwing it off his back foot too much air and the easy pick by chian yanwu who's heading to richmond one of the big fcs programs who's been on a roll the last couple seasons so that's a big pick right there for anyone buford good size 6-2 190 good athlete for this program you were talking a moment ago about last year's tata game in which buford lost 10 nothing that cartersville win avenged the semifinal loss to buford in cartersville in 2014 they were able to come back and avenge that loss for the championship here last year in the title game [Applause] one quarter down right now he is joining us uh fireworks to start this game anthony grant with a 95 yard kickoff return on the opening kickoff down to the one yard line td roof took it in from there and then it was scoreless rest away the final 11 minutes and 25 seconds here as we end uh this uh first quarter with a pair of back-to-back turnovers the former recovery by rome and as you mentioned just saw the interception by buford as we start now the second quarter beefed up seven nothing only the fifth interception knocks kadum has thrown all season long he's been outstanding only a sophomore grant nothing doing there that great defense led by tj kamik number 52 a lot of white shirts there this rome defense pitching four shutouts during the season including a 45-nothing win over bainbridge to start the playoffs and in all seven games he gave up a touchdown or fewer if they can hold this it'd be eight we'll see one yard gain for grand second down right now that's roof under center takes the pitch rolling right he's going to keep it and fumble it but he gets back on top of it oh boy cool nick roof there's a lot of spin and a lot of boogie in on this play so you see him he's carrying that thing out wide and when you do that that's what happens like maybe change hands maybe he was lucky to get back on top of that was jalen griffin number four the linebacker for rome right there trying to recover that loaf of bread was too far out and for any coaches like that was we made that right-hand turn uh in the end a two-yard gain brings up third and seven now for buford austin turner in motion to the top of your screen nick roof looking down field fires and he's incomplete too fast flag on a play intended for the tight end jake simpson in the pile back at the 47. probably a hole we'll come back and you'll see him roof locks in throws to a point in and out of the hands top of your screen it looked like it might have been a holding call possibly a number that penalty's declined and that's what it is fourth down holding call and uh looked like it was logan kessler number 79 it's declined so fourth down from the rome 47 and we'll see if beaufort will punt now mick roof the quarterback for buford also has their punter so in these situations kind of keep an eye on things you could have a pooch punt here that's what they saw that something might be up coming out of a short huddle when the quarterback is the punter and he was lining up more in the shotgun than in punt formation so john reed's john reed wants to talk about it we talked about this rome defense and as john was mentioning number one of the state and 5a 11 points allowed per game and he said really you know it's funny we talked to the coaches all week long and so many were saying really your defense is your heart and soul you know all the principles you talk about in terms of being accountable and being focused starts on your defense john reid no stranger to playing in the last game of the year two titles at alcoa high in tennessee in suburban knoxville had an appearance in the early 90s he started his coaching career up in indiana at fort wayne wayne high school and the last time that john reed was in this building was in 2006 wearing a different wardrobe he was the head coach at east paulding brought them to a game 14 but mayors pretty much had their way with east paulding marist would go on to win the semifinal 27-7 that big wingt running game the beer marist got to east paulding and john reed's appearance back for a final appearance in game 15 for a change and there's your pooch punch there it is very effective and a good beaufort roll too inside the 10 and still going still going and now well but when you do when you do a pooch punt in these situations all you're trying to do is get top spin yeah it's not trying to get underneath it and get a tail dragger and figure something out we've got a flag at the 50. so we'll see what happens here they moving forward five on a fourth and two and give the ball back to beaufort or is it back another five once you get the call here from ronnie melton illegal motion on the kicking team it's a five yard penalty re-kick that's a no-brainer there let's see free kicker take it at the fourth on our own four yard line or re-kick we'll take the re-kick no question about that good look at jeff simpson right there just getting a bit of an explanation tenth straight year jeff simpson has his beaufort wolves playing in the final game of the season here in the georgia though they've won a state championship in some class whether it's two three four or four this year now that they're in 5a 10 of the last 13 years they had a state title in 1978 before the run of runs so fourth and 12 now to the penalty it's a regular punt formation now for buford mick roof still in there as your putter rugby right in another top spin and wise let that go jordan watkins watches it roll down to a stop 38-yard punch for roof and rome will try again the rome offense has been has really struggled no first downs yet and in fact only six yards of offense in the first quarter and the penalty took them back 10 and they gained 10 so it ended up being a wash getting the penalty yardage to start it from the 14. here comes the roam offense trying to get something going in the second quarter down 7-0 that's jameis griffin short game pick up about four yards jet sweep just trying to get something moving going from camera right to left on your screen you get jameis moving get him to full speed by the time the defense has to move you get some yards you got your six big six yard pickup second and four caden with a roll out to his left avoids the pressure can he get away again he can he rushes for the first down and more knocks kadum the sophomore out to the 33-yard line and rome has its first first down of the game a 13-yard pickup for cadem you'll see pressure coming from the left off the spin trying to throw against his body again then escapes pressure coming back the other way he's got over 600 yards rushing on the year does katum so him scrambling and getting out of the pocket for positive yards is something that rome has seen a big uh dj pinker there number eight six four 260 chase them down griffin again finds the scene gets hit stays on his feet with the spin a little momentum now for the rome offense eight yard pickup for jamis griffin on first out and we knew this was going to be pinball inside the in the trenches and you'll see it right here jameis gets a handoff bang bang bang bang and then all those bodies go in there from both sides that's what you're going to see all day long they say football's a contact sport it's a collision sport you saw it there that's right second out on two now for rome the wolves on the move trying for another first down and they've got that close see where they mark it griffin again on the carry you know talking to coach reed he was saying that and there's a first down you know you take this team over you see you've got a sophomore quarterback uh you got a sophomore is your top running back he said you'll usually take over a first year team but struggled the past three years you don't put a freshman at a quarterback heading off to a freshman at running back that's what they ended up with and certainly they've grown up in a hurry and they're just young across the board wildcat look right there that's xavier roberts getting the direct snap in the run changing things up just a little bit short game brings up second down now for rome one more look at it here happens about twice a game fakes the zone takes the jet stays with it on zone reed just lowers his head look at that great job and yanwu another sophomore yeah [Music] second down now that's kaden looking back to pass looks over to the side he's got a man complete that's watkins close to a first down and it is a first down given in distance seven yard pickup leading receiver on the team averages about 16 yards of catch kadem locked in the entire time and you see the swipe by mikey mcmorris trying to get in over the top got in a little too late to knock the ball loose first completion of the game for knox caden the sophomore first down and they were in beaufort territory for the first time at the 46. handoff again and no they're gonna blow it down [Applause] momentum stopped for a moment for these roman wolves that russian game going well john griffin 24 yards and six carries so far they'll come back five yards and replay that first down you can't get behind the sticks going up against this buford defense you've got some horses as well up there how about remove foot of georgia tech simpson wake forest richardson tennessee first and 15. kanem looking downfield he's got a man watkins complete first down tomorrow inside the 25-yard line first down for roll that's the 16 yards per game the per catch average north of 50 receptions on the year north of 800 yards and you see right here it'll be in the center of your screen katum rolling out to give himself a little time wide open settled right in the zone right there middle of the field for the big game and john you mentioned a few moments ago this rome team starting to kind of get comfortable and feel their way through and they're often starting to move now first down from the 24 of buford takes the handoff looking downfield being chased that's kaden throws it deep and throws it away smart move there by the sophomore brock madison in high pursuit we'll see how 48 got to him kate him once again two play fakes rolling out there's madison in pursuit and just get rid of it any play right there but the sophomore live to play another day against this bunch that's right still seven nothing net score coming in the first minute of the game for beaufort it's been scoreless ever since jerome trying to change that already in field goal range handoff to roberts oh madison almost hands out another tackle instead and roberts gets back to a lot of scrimmage maybe gains a yard great job by another sophomore xavier roberts john what a play all right jet sweep going to your left in and out of the hands there in and out of the hands there and make something out of what could have been a four-yard loss well those are two really good defenders he just avoided two made a lot of tackles for buford this year turned into a one-yard gain to a third and nine right now big play for rome [Applause] give the griffin lateral to roberts he's gonna throw back across field to cadem he gets away from the tackle avoids another tatum down to the 15-yard line sometimes you've got to pull stuff out of the back of the playbook if you don't think that you can move and they certainly did there look at this lateral throwback and i believe that was still a lateral force so it goes down in the books as an eight-yard run [Music] fourth down and one and they're going to go for it direct snap to jamaius griffin second effort forces his way in for the first down great job probably going to measure old eagle eye up here thinks it's first down and he got it but uh oh i think you don't want to see from jamaica griffin right there watch six in the wildcat coming through now watch the right leg grab that twisted he was in the pile still trying to get stuff done they're having to look at that right leg well he kind of gets caught he's not on the ground but he has some beaufort players kind of fall on top of his leg right there now the question is is it a cramp or is it something from being in that pile yeah it looks like it's from being in the pile that's a good sign that's a great sign one of the many young stars in this team we talked to coach reed about all the sophomore stars he said really all of our guys are sophomores because we're in year two of our program what we're trying to do here so did you see one of the first guys who's helping him off his brother jaquan i love your piece and the uh they all access the pregame and they're all saying who's the they're all the better players they're all saying they are jim griffin boys have been a big part of the rome's success this year what a job they've done what a drive this has been for rome it's first and ten now kayden with the handoff [Applause] nick burge on the carry averages about seven yards of carry burge does but watch it's just all those bodies and leverage and pushing everybody forward if you know where you're going first you've got advantage verge again just powering their way through john third down to four looks like they're spotting between the six and the seven the seven and the eight let's see where they put it you know not only is this a nice long drive for rome when they're gaining some confidence on offense they're keeping that beaufort offense off the field as well chipping away at this beaufort defense he's done a great job all year 13-game winning streak under four minutes to go now third and fourth play for rome trying for their first ever state championship 5-8 title game knocks kanem looking to the end zone great defensive play mikey mcmorris on the defense tatum looking locked in the whole time and you see matt morris reaching coming from underneath to reach over the top to get the deflection in the incompletion trying to get it to number 11 tyrus martin but incomplete now so a fourth down that brings on uh the kicker emmanuel gonzalez 24 yard attempt is up and it's good and rome gets on the board in the battle of wolves it's been all beaufort early on but rome comes right back with the long drive kavanaugh for the field goal we've got a ballgame here in the georgia dome 7-3 in the second quarter when you're in control of your finances i just feel like you're in control of your future when we were getting ready to open the business we shopped around a couple different banks but when we went to regions they treated us the best [Music] the customer service is i mean amazing our region's banker stacy has great advice for the business and our personal finances you walk in they treat you right you makes you just want to keep going back we're ready to take our next step [Music] [Music] 5a title game here the georgia dome larry smith john nelson sam crenshaw down the sidelines just joining us right now this was the opening play of this game anthony grant from his own four yard line takes him all the way down to the wrong one and td will take it in from there one play later seven nothing that was the only score until just a moment ago when finally roma getting on the board emmanuel gonzalez with the 24-yard field goal capping off a 15-play 79-yard drive that took six minutes and 22 seconds so more than half the quarter on that but john not just the points but again a bit of confidence against a team that didn't get a first down uh in the entire first quarter scoring drive brunch was by our friends at the technical college system of georgia tcsg learn more earn more and rome certainly earned it taking out what 75 of the second quarter and just about so beer for now we just showed you what happened the first time uh that they had a kick return here's their second jamal singleton back deep for buford and they won't let him return it that's a free ball it is a free ball on the ground and uh it's still loose buford says they have it let's see they do it is beaufort ball and that way you know you pooch in a bunch of different ways you keep it out of the hands of the the deep returners that beaufort has yeah now all you're doing is you're asking your defense to hang on for the last three and a half of the second quarter there you go they've settled down too forced a couple of punts here for buford by the way austin turner on that recovery for the beaufort wolves they start in their own 30 first and ten rick roof your senior quarterback number 11. fitz turner is running back in motion short pass complete number 28 brighton walker for the short game and that's second down simple settle down into the zone that's all that was find the find the weak point settle down and that's walker's second catch on the season 20 different receivers for buford quarterbacks this year it's called spreading the ball around everybody gets up second and four handoff here and a great defense oh my goodness adam anderson and number four jalen griffin another griffin yeah look at the penetration right up off the edge beat the tackles went around them [Music] and two white jerseys in the backfield in a hurry bryson richardson on the carry he got no game so a third and six it again the rome defense you could see griffin they're feeling it now and another griffin that's colby griffin number three jalen griffin number four urging the crowd on their feet [Applause] so keep an eye on the blue ticks at the bottom of the screen beaufort's only got one if they're going to work their way down the field from their own 34 with 2 14 to go we talked about looking at uh jess simpson again than what he's done and the other side john reed he talked about that getting that wolf tattoo he made a bet he said you gotta with young kids you gotta hold on and you gotta be true to your word he said listen if you guys win our opening round playoff game this is last year i'll get a wolf tattoo they did and he did he's telling his guys right there you have one job right now he held up one finger he said one job you got one job to do and that's hold them on this third and six to get the ball back and we talked about paint trading look at all of the the paint that has been lost on all those defenders helmets you know it's a source of pride for a defender to to trade paint with somebody it's almost just shaving it all off they talk core values about hustle and want to and all that kind of stuff and you've seen that on display ever since they gave up that kickoff return on the one yard plunge hustle and want to has gotten them in the backfield and kept buford from doing a lot so far in the first half yeah they've been outstanding another test from right here on third and six after the view from timeout everyone's covered he's gonna keep it himself but he's brought down instead by big adam anderson well short of the first down fourth and four once again check the penetration from all of the white jerseys you see how they're lined up right there they're keeping an eye looks like two shadows are looking at roof from the absolute beginning then he comes up the middle and he gets grabbed by adam anderson that's outstanding again this is game three of four games here today the 5a game right now takes a timer timeout by rome now with 140 to go one uh and here until uh halftime game four coming up next matt stewart chuck smith on the call class 6a finals he's coming up next the tucker tigers and the valdosta wildcats coming up right here on gpb and for the record i think the entire town of valdosta is is going to show up for this next game and one of the interesting things that i saw on social media valdosta and lounge everybody knows wintersville classic one of the most heated primaries in the country the lounge vikings twitter feed actually said to valdosta their their biggest rival win the title and bring it home to south georgia really yeah wow i know that's that's the kind of stuff i mean that's what game 15s mean [Applause] to have the support and there you go they're here early a lot trust me a lot more folks than just those two were here early for to see the wildcats return to a championship game for the first time since 2003 and what a season they've had and how about the tucker tigers brian lamar it's coming up next year in gpb our fourth and final game four more games tomorrow we'll start at 10 a.m as well fourth down play right here mcgrew from the punt again the end over end this time watkins would field it at his own 26. he's got a little bit of room flips it across the 30 and so suddenly things have turned right now for rome that outstanding defense forcing out some three an ounce and getting the ball back 37-yard punt right there for roof and so now 90 seconds to go can rome get down the field and get another score and what you're seeing on special teams is they're pinning the return game for rome into one corner so everyone has less real estate to go to every front from the left-hand side swept right and you saw how four guys were there ready to tackle jordan watkins first down play in a handoff right there we still have not seen griffin he's out of the game still instead number 36 mark has kirby the 510 215 junior in a full back and he's got the carry-on first out once again you see all of the just all the bodies going on there in that big offensive line for rome directing traffic kirby averages only a carry a game so far this season and over the top again mcmorris second down throw that was tyrus martin looking for a flag it wasn't coming the clock does stop on this with the one minute mark john john reed wanted something watch again 26 came in a little early and that's what john reed wanted mike morris climbed the ladder a little early that's what john reed saw one of the penalty call didn't get it third and three [Music] knocks katum with the handoff oh first time or more marquez kirby out to the 46. that'll stop the clock while they move the chains in the first down play once again you see the offensive line watch the bounce to the left kicks it out instead of going center guard goes around left tackle and found real estate to close to midfield anthony grant there on the uh tackle going deep right now and over throwing his receiver he tried to hitch to try to throw him off a little bit couldn't quite get it there jordan walken's intended receiver and brings up second now and obviously rome's offense having to adjust on the fly not having jamias griffin their leading rusher in the game jalen sykes their number two rusher was injured a couple weeks ago john reed said he didn't want to give jamaica griffin all those carries but jamias doesn't mind nice play right there caden to martin looks like he's got a first down and he does that'll stop the clock inside the 44-yard line of beaufort first down averages about 12 yards a catch just settled down with all those extra defensive backs found a gap move the sticks quick snap after they get the change set up high and another first down that's a completion there number 29 jamar roberts the sophomore from the low level locked in throws it a little high anthony grant on defense so you're seeing anthony grant playing both sides of the ball for buford under 30 seconds to go 12 yard pickup clock is running getting to play in from the sideline they got a hurry one time out still for rome getting down to halftime trying to go the board again for the second straight series tatum under pressure throws it up high oh my goodness picked off second time in this game by and yanwu and he's still on his feet still in bounds finally knocked out of bounds by jamar roberts and the second intercept of the game for knocks kadum second time pressure has gotten to knocks kadum and he tries to create and throws off his back foot and chi and yanmu playing center field gets the pick and brings it back the other way for a gain of 36 on the return so there's one play for buford let's see what they do here do they just sit on it and go or do they wind up and throw [Applause] well cadem that was one right there would've been better off again you said to throw it away or keep it i'm just going to just take a knee on this play and there they go well not just yet hang on flag we got here you don't see that every day illegal motion on a kneel down if you weren't set for a second illegal substitution on the offense 12 in the formation it's a five yard penalty remains first down okay do it again okay 12 minutes on the field we will watch here after halftime the status of jamias griffin now standing on the sideline there at the 40 number six in white that right leg injury that he did walk off into his own power but he has not been back since then at last offensive series sat on the bench the entire time as this time it is uh roof who does take a knee successfully and that ends our first half here and what a ball game buford with that touchdown on the opening minute of the game and they have not seen the end zone since field goal meanwhile for rome they found their offense in the second quarter to get the one field goal but a couple of interceptions thwarting their efforts they now stand 7-3 rome down to buford at halftime it's going out of sam crenshaw 7-3 the halftime scorer coach jeff simpson thought about the first half of this game and the way things started yeah we well we had a great start but you know like i thought two great teams going back and forth it's gonna be a four-quarter war those about your defense coming through and getting the takeaway for you before you go to the locker room yeah two big takeaways after when we had the sudden change and got it back on the gadget and down here with the takeaway was big and then the force field goal obviously things you're working on for the second half bunch everything all right good luck to you thank you that is coach jeff simpson let's go to mark and jackie thank you sam we got a defensive struggle on our hands an old-fashioned slobber knocker i like these kinds of games it's going to be a tough one out there in the second half too coming up on the gbp championship weekend halftime show we'll hear from both marching bands plus visit both principals and find out what's going on at buford and up in rome we'll also check in with some proud parents and get a social media update all that and more coming up don't go anywhere [Music] whether you plan to attend a two-year college four-year university or go straight into the world of work the georgia career technical and agricultural education programs teach students essential career skills through real-world experiences and on-the-job training hi folks butch miller from milton martin honda and gainesville we want to wish all the teams in the state playoffs the very best of luck and if you think milton martin honda is a proud sponsor of georgia high school athletics you got that right is it on and it's on all right we're going to be doing the blindfolded run across the street challenge guys there you're pretty secure bro it's going to be great it's going to be really good i'm really not bro bro it's only going to take like two or three seconds put the blindfold okay there's no cars right now ready three two one go [Music] uh it should be one way of a football game tonight this program on gpb is made possible in part by supporters of the georgia high school association including the following support for gpb comes from georgia farm bureau mutual insurance from front porches to back roads down the street or around the block georgia farm bureau is there with the protection families need whether it's home auto or life insurance or something more georgia farm bureau is dedicated to providing the right coverage to all the friends families and neighbors who make this state home more at gfbinsurance.com georgia farm bureau always the home team all right this is adam take two mark i guess [Music] i go like this [Music] the best part about playing football in texas has to be the reaction from the community i want to encourage others to play volleyball or choir because you get to experience new things and do stuff that you've never done before my reason why is passion my reason why is pride [Music] welcome back to the georgia dome welcome back to the ghsa championships welcome back to the gbg halftime show we're at halftime of the class 5a game third of eight big games this weekend right now rome trailing buford seven to three in a defensive battle yeah it's gonna be a tough one so get ready for the second half but before we get to the rest of the game let's get to some social media we've had tweets coming in don't forget that you can find us on facebook twitter and snapchat at gpb sports let us know who you're rooting for in all the matchups this weekend we have a poll going on twitter right now so make sure you find us and cast your vote in the game that you're looking forward to and so far the majority rules here with rome versus buford so got one more after this and then it's on to tomorrow now tweet us who you think this person is i'll give you a hint he plays for one of the teams out on the field right now so tweet us and let us know who you think this baby picture is one of the players on the field a few more tweets coming in this one from clark saying thanks for broadcasting the championships always a great weekend and then landon chiming in saying still haven't seen a running back like jd king quite yet these games have me ready for tomorrow too yeah that will be a great matchup as well so a lot of great games to get to and we are halfway through this third game of the day now it is time for our are you smarter game holiday edition this time as we celebrate movies tv specials and music that make us marry this time of year and right now mark you are joined by dr phillip brown of rome high school take it away absolutely dr brown thanks for being here and tell us what is the feeling in rome i hear you had a huge pep rally yesterday we did and we're bringing the town with us if you haven't noticed so it was exciting for us to have that pepperoni what else is going on at rome high school these days um football undefeated girls basketball um lots of the band playing right now so there's lots of students working on lots of different activities all right it's time now to play are you smarter and so here's your question in the movie a christmas story ralphie uses a special little orphan nanny decoder pin to reveal what secret message is today be sure to drink her oval team b be sure to eat your vegetables or c be sure not to shoot your eye out i'm gonna have to go with a and i think you're absolutely correct be sure to drink your ovaltine a crummy commercial ah commercials are never crummy dr brown thanks for coming on good luck to you thanks for the opportunity to be here all right now let's check in with the rome marching band brought to you by regions bank oh [Music] the sound of the seven hills the row marching band brought to you by region's bank great job there time now for a segment we call rent check where we check in with the parents and jackie take it away thank you mark joining me now are jackie and maury white the parents of hank for buford and you know i think we might just make this the jackie and jackie show what do you think oh i don't know all right well they are ready to play rent check what is hank's favorite subject in school history mr ding ding ding we have a winner all right and his dream job would be a supreme court justice attorney something like that okay that's pretty close lawyer we'll give you that one favorite pre-game meal oh i think they're doing ted's hamburgers wow she is on it okay that's correct and his favorite quarterback his favorite quarterback oh tom brady that was an easy one all right man they're too good at this game i don't know if we can have them back thank you guys you did a great job we appreciate it mark will send it back over to you the parents bringing their a game for the championships i love that there's much more to come on gpb championship weekend we'll hear from the beaufort high school marching band plus we'll play another round of are you smarter than your students plus john nelson's joins us for johns georgia he'll visit a regular season undefeated stockbridge team you are watching the halftime show of the ghsa football championships live on gpb we are back right after this time out don't touch that dial this program on gpb is made possible in part by supporters of the georgia high school association including the following support for gpb comes from georgia farm bureau mutual insurance from front porches to back roads down the street or around the block georgia farm bureau is there with the protection families need whether it's home auto or life insurance or something more georgia farm bureau is dedicated to providing the right coverage to all the friends families and neighbors who make this state home more at gfbinsurance.com georgia farm bureau always the home team it should be one way of a football game tonight [Music] i remember in middle school where we were learning about ecology in the marshlands and went down to tybee island and were waiting in the marshes i think through that i had teachers who just encouraged encouraged me as well as like my fellow students to to go for it if those are things that you're interested in at 60 miles per hour you go the length of a football field in five seconds but would you do it blindfolded when you text and drive that's what happens heads up georgia texting and driving is against the law [Music] cotton contributes 2.5 billion dollars to the state's economy annually it takes more than 60 cotton gins and manufacturers to bring cotton into our everyday lives kids always like to stay in the pool a little too long and when they do get out covered in goosebumps you feel the urge to wrap them up the cozy embrace of cotton does the job cotton the natural choice for georgia welcome back to the 2016 ghsa football championships halftime show we're live on gbb and live from the georgia domer midway through the 5a championship score battle of wolves it's buford leading rome 7-3 and jackie you've been doing a sensational job with the social media we've got fans get this watching as far away as hawaii the uk new zealand and even my brother jay up in indianapolis i know well they need to tweet us yeah fans in new zealand as well and just a lot of yeah a lot of photos coming in on twitter everybody watching the game on all kinds of different devices so a great game here a lot of people anticipating a big one here looking forward to the matchup here so definitely a lot going on social media all right now let's see speaking of screens let's see how closely people pay attention to what's on their screen and as we get ready for another round of are you smarter holiday edition doctor thanks bitterman thank you very much for joining me oh it's my pleasure to be here you've been here a few times you know the drill it's it's been fortunate it's been fortunate definitely blessing what's going on at beaufort these days well you know what at beaufort high school we strive for triple a exits accidents and academics athletics in the arts you know academically the ccrp escorts just came out we topped the state at 101 artistically kim staples and our incredible thespian group won the state championship and then athletically volleyball and softball won the state championships with coach daniels and coach wolf winging his 10th straight championship i tell you you know what when you have a incredible community a family an incredible board uh board of education and city commission and the support and a superintendent as dr guy hamby i tell you you can't go wrong yeah well coach simpson trying to get his 12th title out there so maybe that add that one to the collection i'm so hoping yes ma'am all right well it's time to play the game you know it very well all right listen to this which classic christmas themed movie was the subject of investigation by the fbi for promoting communist propaganda was it a rudolph the red-nosed reindeer b miracle on 34th street or c it's a wonderful life i do enjoy rudolph okay however i think we're gonna go with c it's a wonderful life you are correct ding ding ding in 1947 an fbi analyst said it was a wonderful life was an obvious attempt to discredit bankers and therefore was communist in intense so there you go you learned something new oh i do yes ma'am all right well thank you very much for joining us it's time now to listen into the beaufort marching band brought to you by regions bank [Music] [Music] great job by the beaufort high school marching band brought to you by regions bank part of the pageantry of high school football isn't it great it's even better this time of year it is time now to check out the scoreboard on the georgia's emc scoreboard we had a great game to kick things off on championship weekend here on gbb single a private school it was eagles landing christian academy winning in double overtime over the paladins of fellowship christian 34-27 cedar grove wins its first ever state championship title in football 30-19 over greater atlanta christian we're halfway through the battle of the wolves at 7-3 beaufort over rome right now and coming up in prime time tonight a great game tucker taking on the valdosta wildcats and then tomorrow it's another full day of great action kicking off at 10 a.m with the single a public game between macon county the bulldogs the mcintosh county academy at buccaneers and then our double a game starts around 1pm with the undefeated benedictine cadets and the 13-1 purple hurricane of fitzgerald then at 4 30 it's 4a action between cartersville and their top-ranked junior quarterback trevor lawrence taking on thompson and then tomorrow at 8 p.m the 7 8 showdown between the undefeated roswell hornets they were here last year and then the top ranked and 13-1 grayson rams a lot of great stuff to look forward to as we continue on throughout the rest of the season we now beamed the author of five books two on high school football in the great state of georgia our own john nelson for another edition of johns georgia brought to you by george zmc and john this time you have a story about a team who had the best season in school history we're gonna spend some time in central georgia and snapping shoals emc for this one and it has to do with this particular class and one school who has actually a very close tie to yours truly before kevin whitley and his staff showed up in stockbridge in 2009 the most wins in the season was seven picked up three times 1968 1982 and 1993. frankly the team had more ties eight than most ever wins in a season and the tigers had only been to the playoffs once since the school opened in 1964. but with this staff the team has had double-digit wins the last five years and have been to the quarters each time winning 12 last year and winning 13 this time around the difference i think when parents see that you care about their kids they're more inclined to help you so i think that was the biggest thing just being a trust factor the first group of seniors that i had i probably was their fourth coach in four years so when the kid when the coach was one and done one and one and done kind of lose faith in the system so i had to let them know without plan on being here for a while and i've been here eight years now so things worked out well the tigers consistently scored in the 30s and have had four shutouts into the semifinal round for this group of seniors they've been a part of the tigers success from their eighth grade year we were a team that had a lot of guys look up to i want to say that we're supposed to be followers back then i don't say this bad thing but it's a good thing to have coming um seniors leading you to show you the right way we knew since january 1st when we've been putting in work we knew that we were going to have a test and we lost a lot of boys so we knew us as seniors we had to step up and play and our main focus the last three or four years we were coming too close and now we want to finish the mission and stop coming close the guys who play at tiger stadium feel that they've been surrounded by doubt and doubters they're changing that especially when they remind you on the field when their helmet meets your number jones county gaming i hit hit the running back blew him up hit the quarterback and my helmet popped out and i just went crazy and the closed tie head coach trey harden the assistant schoolmates of mine at lakeside dekalb that hard-hitting defense made it all the way to the semifinals before losing in a shootout mark to rome high and now you know the rest of the story back downstairs thank you paul harvey john nelson's always good to check in with you great story on the stockbridge tigers but now it's time to get back to a pair of pack of wolves you know and coach simpson was talking about his team earlier this week and he said they've done a really good job this season of overcoming adversity and injury and they haven't had the same lineup really each week so they've been battle tested and as we expected or as you know he kind of anticipated it would be kind of a tough tough game and a good defensive battle you know and coach simpson said this is the last game he'll be coaching his son his youngest son he's coach's two older sons and that's always kind of a emotional moment right it's gotta be a little weird but then also kind of maybe a relief because he's only his coach for another few hours and then then he goes back to being a dad yeah you know his son heads to wake forest on a college scholarship so that's good news too a lot of great stuff all right well it's time to head back up to the booth with the guys who are going to call this game john nelson and larry smith for the second half up first we will go to the tcsg career play of the game and we'll see you after the game i like figuring out how things work like how computers and systems work together with the skills i've learned i can get a job in manufacturing industries from automotive to pharmaceuticals my industrial maintenance classes were free and my credits may transfer if i decide to get my bachelor's degree in mechanical or electrical engineering [Music] the technical college system of georgia creating a better future for you and for georgia every tv doctor knows when preparing for surgery use an overpronounced washing technique for dramatic effect [Music] they also know you need to get your annual checkup now prepare for your checkup with one touch using the mysigna app where you can find a doctor in your plan's network to save money manage your health and more need to be thorough cigna together all the way when you're in control of your finances i just feel like you're in control of your future when we were getting ready to open the business we shopped around a couple different banks but when we went to regions they treated us the best the customer service is i mean amazing our region's banker stacy has great advice for the business and our personal finances they walk in they treat you right it makes you just want to keep going back we're ready to take our next step [Music] every year across the united states teen drivers get into car accidents because they are texting and driving by taking their eyes off of the road they are putting everyone in danger life is a precious thing that can change in a matter of seconds [Music] safe driving saves lives halftime here the class 5a game buford on top of rome in the battle of wolves 7-3 as we rejoin you here you can read the second half larry smith here with john nelson as we take a look at what happened to this first half a tale of really kind of two quarters beaufort early on and all rome after that brought to us by the number six and the number seven when you look at the halftime stats it really was two quarters six yards for rome in the first quarter seven yards for buford in the second quarter and you see the big difference rome i think finally got into the rhythm of being here in the dome yardage 129 to 52 but the two picks by knox kadum both off his back foot both under pressure ended up being huge so we'll see how everyone's adjusted and especially the injury to jamis griffin for rome in the first half caused him to do things a little differently absolutely a 7-3 score but it could be a lot different one for those two interceptions no kid by caden our third member of our team sam crenshaw talked to john john reed earlier sam [Applause] spent some time with coach john reed from rome on the way out of the locker room he says hey we got to make some special team adjustments obviously after what happened on the opening kickoff they're going to do that and also re-do some things on the defensive side of the ball so they want to come out get a good first drive get some points on the board and take the lead in this game and then play better defense also eliminate the turnovers if possible he likes their chances they're in the fight all right sam thanks so much 7-3 your score right now and so it's buford they got the opening kick off and took it down that uh kickoff return was 95 yards at the one yard touchdown run by t.d rook their only score of the game and so they will kick off now to lead off the third quarter battle of the wolves can roam keep the momentum going and take a lead and get their first ever state championship title [Music] short kick rome has it and going nowhere fast [Music] and shidelle mishap milsat there's your answer about jameis griffin that's not good had a moment there in the second quarter where he went in on that fourth down play and just got it banged up there as some players jumped on top of the pile and he has not been seen since and looking at that you don't know if we'll see him again tonight the star sophomore running back and on first down there and prior to the snap penalty against rome and there it is five yard penalty first down first and 15. and what we saw from the running game in rome in the first half once jamias griffin was lost you saw nick bird you saw xavier roberts you saw marquez kirby so they went down the depth chart to show buford a bunch of different looks at running back and do it again here with birds number 22 just a freshman but you're right you get the lion's share of carries after griffin went down and carried there in first down gets back to five yards they lost in the penalty and we mentioned how rome is just a young team across the board especially in a lot of the experienced positions sophomores all over the place and hanging in there with the story programs in the state tayden looking left now on second down it's under thrown incomplete trying to get it to jordan watkins brings up a third down and 10. and katum had those two interceptions in the first half rome wolves 20-6 the last two seasons made the playoffs last year tayden keeps it himself he's past midfield still on his feet oh almost broken great job to save the touchdown by number 23 jamal singleton but knott's tatum is there 40-yard pickup on the ground for tatum hey you know what griffin's out just take it yourself once again beaufort sends a lot of folks and all you have to do is keep them occupied for a second or two katum saw a gap right garden tackle and took it and went for 40. big pick up here and so the rome offense continues to roll as we're back to live action now kate i'm looking up top left it's incomplete intended again for watkins well covered right there [Music] by the buford secondary mikey mcmorris the linebacker dropping back into coverage good luck there at chiawanyu two first half interceptions to stop a couple of rome drives there's tatum's first half plus four for 16. very uncharacteristic averaging 12 yards of carry 40 on the last one second down play now good move power move by marquez kirby the fullback there's the bounce again the interior lineman keeping buford occupied watch right garden tackle up top he bounced it [Music] once again to get to the second level bryson richardson on the tackle third down and four hand off again inside short of a first down and that was kirby once again and so a decision now for john reed at fourth and a long two with the confidence that he's had in that offensive line this seems like just go ahead and do it tatum on the keeper he's inside the turn 15 10. that's tatum go on top for the first time in this game knocks kaden 68 yards on the ground on two carries to put this rome offense on his back with jameis griffin injured on the sideline and now the extra point by emmanuel gonzalez and just like that rome coming back with 10 points here to take the lead tcsg touchdown replay once again the same area of attack right garden tackle caden saw something to get the big 40-yard gain sees it again you saw him turn his head slightly just before he asked for the football saw the gap and went after it and they gave him the plunge that double clutch with his head just before he snapped it he saw the gap went with it and there it goes crossing the plane but what a great replay john as you could see he never his body never hit down he landed on the defender and they gave him the extra yard he needed to reach out for the end zone and that's why they gave him the touchdown instead of just a first and goal there at the one what a great job by knox kaden to come in the 6-1 180 pound sophomore quarterback as we take a look at the tcsg touchdown uh replay the scoring drive right now actually seventh place 77 yards in just two minutes and 13 seconds and they take this opening kick right down the field and we've got a different ball game now john two carries 60 yards on the drive and it's been right guard and tackle and then the running play was a bounce off of right tackle and right edge so it looks like rome saw something on the right-hand side of that beautiful on the right-hand side of their own offensive line left side of the beaufort front squib tick this time in their hands once a bit of anthony grant and he's on the move spins out tackle and then he is buried under right there at the 24 yard line it was anthony grant that took the opening kickoff of this game 95 yards down to the one and one play later the only score beaufort has managed in this game and now suddenly they find themselves behind for the first time adam anderson in on the tackle once again no surprise that you're seeing a lot of the studs for rome playing on special teams anderson their leading tackler leading tackles for loss almost doubling the next guy online leads him with sex with six let's see what they do here so nick ruth now at quarterback the senior committed to go to east carolina next year 16 at 185 trying to jump start this beautiful offensive really struggling in the second quarter as god mentioned at halftime only six yards make that seven yards in the entire second quarter and that's christian turner on the good run there in first down powering behind the left-hand side of that line hank white at 265 connor mills 290 garrett scoggins the man in the middle number 55 260 pounds scott scoggins is the one that makes all the calls quick muddle huddle set here let's see what they do again good pursuit defensively look at all the white shirts right there led by anderson yet again on the big stop jamarcus chapman number two also there toss the screen look at all the white shirts as you said larry count them i count seven at least at the point of attack they're all getting to the football very very quickly against the beaufort offensive line but john as we talked about after the first quarter you mentioned it they've really found their rhythm they've settled down they're in the dome the jitters are gone whatever this is they've got the crown behind them playing very well right now another big third down here for this rome defense roofing the shotgun that's turner next to it make that grant francine motion now looks the other way he's got the first down or more uh big symptoms simpson i'm sorry jake simpson he's got the first down slow to get up once again they just settle down this is this second time at least that they've done that where they settle in the zone just find a spot get to the marker turn and go complete to jake simpson and it looks like jake took a shot yeah he's going to come off a little slow comes off the field a big tight end coming into the game 15 carries a couple of touchdowns first down for beaufort and off the ground smoke on the right side can he get around the defender he can there is on the ground but they said no no fumble it was down right there good call by referee he was right on the spot and here's an injury that's bryson richardson he plays both ways wide receiver and defensive back and he is down and in a lot of pain right now nellie going after that left knee but once again you're seeing the success of buford buford gets to the edge and the speed takes care of it and on the dive right there right at the end of the play the helmet diving into the pile chasing after the football went right to the side of bryson richardson's knee richardson right now heading to tennessee only in junior 52 tackles on the year coming in we talked about so many of these viewfor players do play both ways and he's one of them outstanding defensive back now we're gonna look at it one more time watch the end of the play after the scrum richardson dives on it he's got it and then all the bodies coming in the helmet right there all the activity and their knee right there [Applause] and richardson trying to put some weight on it can't do it right now we're going to look at him on the sidelines we have not had a lot of penalties called in this game but we've had some some key players brought to injury number six on both sides richardson here and of course jameis griffin on the wrong side we've not seen him since the way through the second quarter after that back to live action now second down and three after the seven yard pickup by grant man in motion handoff to grant nothing again how about big tj kamek right there in the middle once again it's stuff in between the tackles tackle the tackle rome seems to be winning at the point of attack right there bounce and down they get to the edge they're getting their yardage yeah it's a great analysis john that's right [Applause] speed to the edge advantage buford anything up the middle advantage wrong well that's front four just outstanding you mentioned before 255 260 255 225 9 in the box there you go a lot of guys right here third and three looking for the the short run handoff here to ruth he's got the first down and a yard to spare and a flag comes in late let's see what this is about td roof on the third down carry personal foul against jerome defense that's a killer flying came in late and was not near john reed obviously not a fan of the call yeah after the play personal foul late hit on the defense lean hit that's a 15-yard penalty from there add 15 yards so all of a sudden this roman defense that has been spectacular for the past uh two quarters plus let's find it right here now you see td roof bounce it to the left to get the first down yardage now nothing in the pile where the play itself happened with the ball so it was away from the ball where the flag was thrown first down yeah okay from rome 38 buford's offense now on the move roof great play there the nice tip by adam anderson and that'll be an incomplete pass john let's look at this one more time here left side of your screen so you can pick it up all right plays over left-hand side of the screen right looks like yeah right there and the play's over with the push once the play was done malik davis looks like number nine but once again anderson hands up on first down knocks it down second down buford three receivers foot to the right that's turner in motion to the bottom of your screen handoff here to grant but again to your point john he tries the middle there is nothing there number 44 kj hicks and adam anderson as well on the stop no gain picks averaging about four tackles a game about five and there's one of them right there getting right into the pile once again right garden tackle the penetration that roams defensive front is getting and then throwing in the three linebackers behind it stuffing the middle for buford's run game [Applause] great play there by hitch to do that just just come in and fill in the gap that hole disappeared quickly so the ticks got there bit of a blitz again they go up the middle nothing gets hits again on the tackle davis there as well nothing for anthony grant the star running back for the beaufort wolves fourth down they got the punt again off the screen left there you go tried to cut it back but once again rome's sending everybody they're sending every appliance short of the kitchen sink right now to defend themselves against this buford run and so far they're doing a great job five minutes to go third quarter number four jalen griffin also in there on the tackle he was the guy that had the initial penetration uh from the side now the punt angles it over to the right sideline and it's great kick rolls out of bounds at the eight-yard line and that's where rome the defense holding up again 30-yard punt for roof but what a change we've seen in this game roma and tom they've got the ball when we come back introducing the 2017 mercedes-benz stadium now with retractable hardtop 58-foot halo video board and 16 story window to the city this tremendous stadium opportunity is now available to everyone book your mercedes-benz preview center appointment now at mercedes-benz stadium dot com [Music] so okay 454 here in the third quarter rome on top ten seven let's go down to sam crenshaw it's down here on the roof inside line looking at bryson richardson he's up and trying to put some weight on that left knee that's the injury he has and the training staff has been working on him he's up trying to walk around some hoping to get back into play meanwhile coach reed told me when he came out of the locker room but jamias griffin who also wears number six for rome has a knee injury they're working on him but his return for the night is questionable sam thanks for that yeah we have not seen jamias in quite a while star software running back just joining us this rome team again loader with sophomore talent leading the way to this incredible season that they've had a rebirth of football up there in rome town has shown up as we heard at the half and as we've seen floyd county showing up in force on the far sideline there's jeremiah griffin coming out on crutches trying to be moral emotional support extra set of eyes [Music] on the season for him this entire team he had three touchdowns last week and that semi fought a win over stockbridge that was not decided until another sophomore jumped on a muff punt at the end of the game by stockbridge and covered it up and sealed the win the youth movement for the wolves up in floyd county first down play here that's a run there by number 22. nick burge the freshman seen a lot of him since griffin went down pick up a four freeze down second and six that's all you're looking for right now if you're wrong you're looking for 10 feet every single time that you're gonna run the football three and a third yards ten feet you do that three times you move the stick there you go and the clock keeps running this time it's kirby in the game kirby keeps his feet moving helmet comes off that still doesn't stop him marquez kirby now they got to shuttle somebody else in because kirby's out for a play aj wansley on the tackle heading to your right lowered his head into that big pile of bodies not a couple kirby comes out hopefully he's okay we'll shake him up morton in his place number 34. handoff is to burge and he stops big defensive play big zach waters 6-2 230 pounds senior on the tackle once again we knew that there was going to be a lot of activity in and around the line of scrimmage all day long great penetration that time by the buford front four yeah anthony grant there as well he knew that was big big stop there and so uh this beaufort offense it's really gone pretty much what they want except for a couple of interceptions uh punts for the first time i think since the first quarter john cromer is on kick almost wow and that's roof 41-yard punt picked up by t.d roof you know i don't know how turbo comes up a little worse for where yeah john cromer figure out how how does this they came in clean you had at least three buford guys coming in clean he pulled his arms back [Applause] that's what happened there pulled his arms back did austin turner the sophomore it looks like cromer landed funny we'll have to keep an eye on that for special teams for rome as we go further 49 first and ten oh good throw out the td real quick couldn't hang on to it colby griffin in on the defense once again play action finding stuff to the edge in and out of the hands well but great job right there not just uh by number three uh jacob colby griffin but also number 19 adam anderson forcing mick roof to get rid of that ball the second pastor that he wanted to and you saw jakolby point after he made the defensive play the person he pointed to on the sidelines his brother jamias of course second down handoff here on the right side to grants just a couple of yards good defense there chapman jalen griffin we're calling a lot of names on offense and defense because there are a lot of bodies in that yeah five yard area in the in the box you're going to see probably seven or eight rome guys and they're trusting their defensive backs to go man coverage [Music] you can tell this beautiful dolphins that has really struggled here in the last quarter and a half almost two quarters now third and seven of the big play for the rome defense roof and [Applause] cramp up after that player did he land funny and so look at it right here what a great effort by the senior jake simpson they sniff it out rome's defense does almost stripped there and the one two by jake simpson for that final six yards and they're checking him down they're giving a massage so it's a cramp [Music] for the youngest son of that man right there what a play there 14 minutes 14 minutes and 14 seconds left and that gentleman coaching that gentleman jake simpson the senior three-star espn three-star recruit headed to wake forest next fall i mean on that play rome had the screen sniffed out they did send a couple of bodies that's good to see you see jake getting up there you go down i'm all right sorry i'm all right dead still working on richardson number six there in the beaufort sideline as well he's on the trainer's table so buford once again getting a little momentum here first down on the roam 41. pitch to grant's left side getting some room but good pursuit there again by this rome defense nemo reddish and they're among the tackles you see everything slide to your right everybody's shading on their blocks so therefore all of the rome defenders shading with it on the second level to help out you can't say enough about what the rome defensive front has been able to do in keeping the offensive line in check so the running game has to go where rome wants it to go as opposed to where buford wants it to go that's right second down and seven to the third three-yard gain by grants woof fakes scrolls to his right he's got a man and overthrows him intended for tanner alexander uh but you know to your point nelly talking about it and we had a shot there of big number nine malik davis you really watch him on these running plays especially you mentioned before we had a great end zone angle kind of seeing almost two shadows kind of watching where the because it's it he's got the beaufort run so many plays so many rushing plays to really watch number nine davis and he was every time he's the guy right there kind of filling in that gap uh when any time there's that sweet play he's done a great job of going filling the gap and keeping it from being a long game voted mvp of the region as we said in the first half john reed calls him a short stumpy guy but he really knows what he's doing third and seven now mick roof up high for alexander incomplete but there's a flag on the plane to the line of scrimmage to the 41. let's see what that is trey hodges on the defense holding send it backwards during down play see if they uh decline it brings them fourth down [Applause] he's going to decline it [Music] nick roof one of his last five passing holding offense that penalty's declined fourth time he's on fourth down and so the rome defense holding again was four of eight in the first half and he's one of his last five here as we get toward the end of the third quarter john reed making sure that punt return is positioned correctly don't go any further back than the 10-yard line to receive the punt [Applause] and if memory serves and if they continue to do what they've been doing you'll see buford once they get the snap run to the bottom of the screen just do a little rugby right with some top spin on it yep straight away this time to the left that's a very short kick it's trying to keep it away from jordan watkins but it's going to turn out to be a very 12-yard punch yeah oh my goodness so instead of pinning this roam offense deep they give them the ball with decent field position right here that's what rome will take over on its own 26. buford scoreless since the opening minute of this game look at knox cadem when he's done four of 16 two interceptions but it's on the ground with that uh 68 of those yards on two plays on that touchdown drive earlier this quarter move the pile and pass the 30. that's kirby again you're just joining us the star sophomore running back jamias griffin for rome leaving the game in the second quarter with a leg injury has not been back since sex she's on the sidelines on crutches right now there he is and what this has done since jamaica's has been the bell cow this season for them especially after the injury to jalen sykes it's kind of forced rome to spread the wealth of when it comes to handing off the football catem incomplete again now four of 17. jordan watkins the intended receiver and then brings up a third and six and kaden that time you saw him running to his left didn't have the chance to square his shoulders well enough and that kind of forced it higher than he would have liked in the incompletion so katum now with an empty backfield five receivers in the game kaden's gonna take it again first down and more knocks caleb stays in bounds to the 45-yard line how about knox kadum 15-yard gain and keeps the drive alive on and where is it right garden tackle again third time rome lets buford's defense get past the edges off the tackles which creates a big gap at center tackle on the right hand side three times knox kadum has gashed them for big yards been huge that's the final play of the third quarter knox kate and seven carries 103 yards and the lone touchdown for the royal wolves they are 12 minutes away from their first state championship there's the class a 5-8 title game one quarter to go we return to the georgia dome right here on gpb [Applause] providing safe affordable and reliable electricity requires more than bucket trucks and utility poles these are the faces behind your power for more than 75 years georgia's non-profit member-owned electric cooperatives have been on a mission to brighten the lives of more than four and a half million georgians we are georgia's emcs proudly serving our members so much more than electricity [Applause] [Music] coming up next only on gpb it should be one way of a football game tonight this program on gpb is made possible in part by supporters of the georgia high school association including the following support for gpb comes from georgia farm bureau mutual insurance from front porches to back roads down the street or around the block georgia farm bureau is there with the protection families need whether it's home auto or life insurance or something more georgia farm bureau is dedicated to providing the right coverage to all the friends families and neighbors who make this state home more at gfbinsurance.com georgia farm bureau always the home team all right this is adam take two mark i guess [Music] i go like this [Music] the best part about playing football in texas has to be the reaction from the community i want to encourage others to play volleyball or choir because you get to experience new things and do stuff that you've never done before my reason why is passion my reason why is pride what a game right here it's the class 5a title game larry smith john nelson sam crenshaw and the entire gpb sports team with a third thrilling game of the day and one more still to come it's valdosta versus tucker in the 6a game immediately following this one here in downtown atlanta at the georgia dome our final year in the georgia dome before moving next door to mercedes-benz stadium it's in the construction right now joining the fourth quarter right now switching fields rome now going left to right first and ten that's knocks katie after his big run and what a there it is takes it again and he's got some room across midfield and another first down for knox cadem and the rome wolves 11-yard pickup john all right he's going to run to your left once pressure you see double-team double-team push cam finds a hole and gets away from the first wave of tacklers eight carries for 114 for number 12. he's taking this under his wing and letting things happen marquez kirby this time on the run gets a couple of yards here and it brings up second down you begin to talk about this rome team we talked to john reed this week and he said really one of the keys to the game for us is really just to force your will and they're doing that certainly on defense we talk about no score since the opening minute uh but how about on offense now how they've really turned things around settling down uh and really moving even without their star running back griffin and once again you talk about the depth that rome has in the running back core and you're seeing it on display flagging the pile it means it's probably going to go backwards the fresh left guard to tackle nick burgeon to carry but as you said it's probably for naught you get the official call [Music] yep look at john reed boy talking to him he loves holding offense 10 yard turning from the spot of the foul replay second down when his team doesn't make penalties like that no just kidding he loves georgia football as you mentioned he's coached in indiana and tennessee and georgia and boy he said you know i know texas folks may think they got something there but this is some of the best football in the country but right here in georgia big fan of what we do i will match the best teams in the state of georgia against the best teams in texas any day of the week and twice on friday yeah i agree with you i'm with you on that and we john we see it all the time second and eighteen out to the holding penalty put rome back 10 yards into their own territory through 48. knox katum what a second half he's had going deep now with his arm in the coverage and it is almost done incomplete anthony grant was right there threw it into double coverage he was trying to hit number nine jamar roberts and lucky he didn't get his pick for the third time john throwing center field and this is where the two interceptions have been previously and you see the double team once the receiver makes it down the seam this almost was the third pick on the same route for knox kadum but good defense on the way up knocking it away from anthony grant to keep possession in rome hands yeah all three of those passes the two interceptions and that one a bit under thrown he certainly roberts had the advantage had to slow up though to them running play here and that's by kirby just to kind of get things going back into beautiful territory but it's far short of the first down and number one fourth down and we'll see if john kromer is okay to find he looked a bit a little bit after that last one after his last punt he landed kind of funny kind of limp his way off the field so we'll see what happens here yep chrome is in 13 in white back at the 41. that's td roof number one back at his own 17 to take this punch he scored the only touchdown for buford kromer gets it away it was tipped though uh i think it was mike i think you're right it's gonna come way back oh my goodness all the way back just a 10 yard punt net i'm so beaufort with some good field vision they come back turn it back on the scoreboard ten minutes to go in this game after this nothing prepares you better for a great career than the technical college system of georgia tcsg colleges produce graduates with the knowledge and training today's top employers are looking for with campuses across georgia state-of-the-art facilities and outstanding instructors with real-world experience it's the kind of affordable college education that will fast-track you into a rewarding career we're building a better future for you contact the tcsg college in your area today or go to tcsg.edu 10 minutes to go here rome 10 buford seven the class five a championship game and boy what a game it has been uh as nelly and i've been talking about here in this game buford starting off for that big rushing game uh 2 000 yard rushies rush running backs there in the backfield grant there's one and turner is the other christian turner but boy they have really been shut down look at that combined as john mentioned more than 2 500 yards in the season tonight only 44 yards combined with these two outstanding running backs and we've seen the penetration that rome's defensive front seven has been getting against that man's offense that has traditionally got them to play in a week 15 game as you mentioned beaufort here in the title game for the 10th year in a row looking for their 12th state championship overall in program history 15th dome appearance wow [Music] it's been regulars 11 and 6 in state title games that's impressive on the other side rome since west rome and east rome consolidated schools in 1992 no state titles of the two programs had seven combined before then trying for the first one as they all come together first and ten now for the beaufort wolves it's a pitch to grant that a hold in there where it looks like it could be i'm sorry penalty could be a holding call on buford and now it's grant is slow to get up as well and keep an eye on that but i think it's going to go back 10 from that point grant trying to get his footing and it will we're seeing malik davis go in there and there goes grant going down he's going to need some help yeah hope that's just a question see what happens keep an eye on three green toward the end of the play you see the motion and the toss on the jet sweep so keep an eye on that right knee and it might have been in the rg bargy right after the fact right there at the end of it his team's already lost bryson richardson earlier he's still out we saw jake simpson cramp up the star senior so beaufort when play it looks like that's what it is you see the massage there at the calf and the point was made in the previous game for those who who didn't watch the previous game the triple a game with cedar grove and greater atlanta christian that the humidity here inside the georgia dome lends itself to athletes cramping up more in this situation here in the middle of the month of december they're used to playing outside they're used to practicing outside not a whole lot we had a holding on the offense that was a 10-yard penalty from the spa the foul remains first down we'll go into an indoor facility to prepare for this game 15 situation so as you're watching this weekend don't be surprised if you see more cramping than you're used to and a consistent cramping up of athletes just because of the atmosphere that you have here hope we get some fluids in them and grant comes back for now first and twenty after the holding penalty that's mick ruth got lots of time good thrall the ball is tip great job once again by malik davis there he is again he's everywhere john you got eyes on the quarterback and you're spying the entire time we know that at least one if not two are spying mick roof watch down the middle of the field roof locked in winds up and throws right there hands in the pass lane [Music] john you're i'm sorry i was gonna say malik's ready to get fed again yeah he is he's eaten and now we've got another player that may be cramping that was a receiver on that play tanner alexander has not gotten up since the end of that play there it is north the calf to your point john getting back to again that malik davis if he wants to on that replay just then as soon as he saw it was a pass play they only rushed four he comes right back into and starts watching what's in and uh spying the the quarterback and was in position to make the tip drops back into coverage and once again it hands in the passing lane if it's a defensive lineman it's hands up in the air if you're getting to the quarterback if you're in pass coverage it's hands and passing lanes making sure that you can make sure that the ball doesn't get to its desired target and we're seeing that with rome's defense a tenacious defense that not a lot of folks outside of northwest georgia have been able to see this year and you're getting it first hand with what john reid has been able to do in two seasons for the rome wolves outstanding 20-6 on a program he said one coach told and coach you're taking over really uh one of the one of the worst programs in the state and he said well we're gonna make some things happen came in changed the philosophy about the kids who said really to buy in and listen and be coached with what they wanted to do and they've done that and mcdavis runs the show for me said kind of a stumpy guy but don't discount him and what he does for this roman wolves often it's good to see alexander about now getting up and walking off for his own power and spoof gets ready for a second and 20 play 9 30 four to go here in this game again the 6a tata game still to come valdosta versus tucker we'll do four more games tomorrow beginning at 10 a.m here on gpb empty backfield now that's darian brown in motion mick roof makes the call puts it to brown but it's low had to go down to one knee to catch it he does throw brack screen didn't get you a hole yeah they actually lose yards on that and so it is third at a bunch for buford talk about number four jalen griffin 10th pitch of the year for brown has a touchdown to his credit well behind the sticks here on third and 23 for jeff simpson what a job by this rome defense third and 23. got to get to the 45 for a first down handoff nice call that's turner he's well short great play there by nemo reddish the senior linebacker brings up fourth down for buford and lot to punt again if i was mark harmon i'd mention something about finding nemo which is what the beaufort running backs have been doing this evening but i'm not mark harmon so i'm not going to use that no no no fourth down make roof to punt almost yeah he did watkins one he can return too many green shirts great pursuit right there 35-yard punt nothing on the return but it's been all roamed for the past two and a half quarters can they hold on 10-7 you're in the 5a title game they're back on offense after this the ghsa football championship is made possible in part by regions it's time to expect more georgia's electrical membership cooperative the official energy provider of the ghsa the technical college system of georgia learn more earn more cigna go you heads up georgia and the governor's office of highway safety dot com and viewers like you thank you [Music] scalpel i have no idea what i'm doing i'm just a tv doctor i never went to college [Music] i don't do blood but now thanks to cigna i can do more than just look the part is that a foot we are the tv doctors of america and we're partnering with cigna to help save lives by getting you to a real doctor for an annual checkup so go no and take control of your health doctor poses cigna together all the way at 60 miles per hour you go the length of a football field in five seconds but would you do it blindfolded when you text and drive that's what happens heads up georgia texting and driving is against the law [Music] from now on i wish to be called victoria queen victoria [Music] it should be one way of a football game tonight welcome back to the georgia dome rome on top ten seven their defense has been outstanding but how about the play of the young sophomore quarterback uh knox caden he's been outstanding uh john 114 rushing yards beautiful by the way as a team only 95 yards in this game six rushing yards in the first quarter 57 more in the second than 108 yards in the third quarter alone and a lot of it has been on the legs of knox cade a lot of it has been when the offensive line for rome has kept them away from the right-hand side caden has seen gaps at right guard and right tackle taken advantage of the entire situation gashed them for 15 gashed them for 40 at 40 gaston for 28 to get him to here and really doing it since his start running back and class made the sophomore classmate jamia striffin went down the leg injury in the second quarter on the sideline crutches playing cheerleader right now for his rome wolves as they're getting closer to this eight minutes just over and counting right now as we begin play again here from the thirty first and ten cadem can they hand off to the freshman nick burgs it's a few yards tripped on his way through over his lineman he's a young man that i think has a really bright future for this rome team and look look who's right there yep that's where you go for advice yep [Music] go to the sophomore who's done a lot of the work for you just a one-yard gain for birds so second down and nine man in motion all kinds of much [Applause] equally important right now for john reed's rome wolves as the clock get a couple of first downs right here run that clock turn it back over give your defense a rest and let them do the rest from there against a view for the offense that has really struggled outside of the first couple of drives in this game five-yard penalty makes the second and 14 now [Applause] kayden rolling right oh grant almost had him he avoids that tackle goes in the middle of the field caught this time by watkins jordan watkins the first down 24-yard gain to midfield once again knocks kadum avoids the pressure rolls out to try to give himself some time anthony grant with the miss and again he throws against his body as a coach you're sitting there going no no no no no great pass that's right maybe his best pass of the game he's really struggled down the middle he has struggled two picks in almost a third nice playing rhythm had his man in single coverage put it on the money and they're on the move under seven minutes to go first down rome handoff that's to nick burge the freshman not much doing get you two move this clock yeah how about uh knox caden his first completion this half [Music] straight plunge right there just move the pile those biggens on the right hand side bradfield at 295 loving good at 275 jackson norton the man in the middle at 295. that's the biggens right there yeah that's kirby the big full back in the backfield with him i smell a run by kate in the next couple of plays here what do you think throw completion flip screen morris is there jamar roberts another sophomore on the catch brings up third and long now for rome claw continues to run under six minutes and that's why i think what you were thinking was why chrome went ahead to try to do that little slip screen to see if they could create something out of it but once again you're on the beaufort side of the field usually if you hang on to the ball for an entire possession and don't get a first down you take about two minutes and 20 seconds off the clock so think in increments of two minutes and 20 seconds if no team uses a timeout and it looks like somebody has yeah [Music] rome's gonna think about it okay [Applause] this rome defense we've talked about put this in perspective buford since losing in week one to roswell 24-7 roswell the hornets they'll play tomorrow night class 7-8 title game since losing that game they have never failed to score fewer than 28 points in a game and yet if you take away the first 35 seconds of this game they've been shut out and really remember last year shut out yeah in the last game of the year [Applause] in case you just joined us here's how it all happened electricity started with a very opening kickoff anthony grant from his own four yard line takes it all the way down to the run one [Applause] almost made it in the td with the td second effort too because you see all those bodies pushing in there yeah davis had the initial first that's been it and then knocks kadum [Applause] special k for rome tonight great job there third down play here it's nick burge left guard left tackle behind zach kadum knocks his older brother and lejay davey at 230 pounds at left guard so really john already you're about three minutes burned on this drive as they're gonna let this tick down so they won't have to snap it till about 4 40. let's see if they take the whole clock [Applause] fourth and four that leaves them with one blue tick at the bottom of the screen that could come in handy late buford's got all three remaining and you wonder how much of this is just bringing everybody back to place everything's cool we're up three we got five minutes we've shown what we can do do you punt here do you pooch kick do you trust your offensive line to try to get you 12 feet do you pin them deep and trust your defense that's probably what you do that's the key you know what the way this defense is played pin hmd that's what i would do um this is a bend but not break the worst thing they've done this defense in the second half was a 15-yard late hit fiddle otherwise it's been slim pickings for buford's offense in the second half [Music] all the pass breakups that these guys have 15 different players have pbus this year seven different guys have had sacks all right jess simpson calls punt safe she'll pull her out to punt no block here tail dragger whistles kind of flagging the play false start moves him back five that's not necessarily a bad thing unless of course john reed just thinks that it was a bad thing right you saw that first reaction all right i was watching it jeff simpson here on the near sideline is they actually had their fourth down defense and not their punt return team and so very quickly shifting up bringing special teams in here for the return [Music] cromer would try again now what maybe too many men flying is back here at the backfield illegal substitution on the defense that's a five-yard penalty yeah he could got 12 men you do second time they've had 12 guys out there today all right we'll try it again fourth and five again sean cromer on the punt [Music] grant back deep got a rescue rescue to save it and he does [Applause] wow and look who's there 43-yard punt adam anderson here's the end of it touched yep touched it at the one before he went into the end zone connor bullard he's a sophomore once again to you another sophomore comes through for rome you never forget that he's traded some pain now he has they all have 99 yards for buford here nick roof under center high formation changing the play two seconds on the shot of this play clock he's got a hurry gets it away that's turner on the carry [Music] gives him some breathing room down there that that clock that play clock's about to run out there john and these are dangerous times if you're a defense because if you sell out to the run and you're sending eight or nine guys once you break through the first level it's done four minutes to go buford looking for their second score since the opening minute second and five roof handoff to grant right side stream out nothing happening and look who's there number nine davis number 95 jaquan griffin trying to spread it wide on the suite but look at the dive right in there jaquan griffin going for the ankle tackle and that's another thing with rome's defense you've seen the sound fundamentals of this defense all day sure-handed tackling for the most part big play here for view for third and four ticking down under three and a half minutes to go they're down by three roof keeps it all he's got under pressure makes the catch in a five minute play jake steps in the catch check out the flag and see what he got beaufort stays alive i think you're good at the serpentina where's there where's the flag flag went down and he must pick it up something's shiny not a flag once again you watch roof on the roll out play action rolling back off his back foot finds jake simpson [Applause] we have some shiny pieces of pum pum in here sorry that guys first down turner nice spin move gets it out for the 25 big play on first down brings up second and two but the clock again begins to move you're under 240 now off to your left the big right side of the line dean powell 295 title thurman 275 260 in the middle now to your point if you're a defense you can't you got to make sure you uh go give up the home run ball time ticking second and one nine yards on that carry roof looking for turner all off his hands couldn't quite get turned around had his back to him the flare was there it's been there for most of the day when they've gone to it christian turner looking over his right shoulder bending back a little bit trying to grab it in and out of the hands bad angle third and one now here you just move the sticks and start it over change of personnel two tight ends in the game now for buford the lineup here third and one trying to get this first down clock is stopped at 209 they've all three timeouts left fine for the 12th championship in school history mick roof changing the play three seconds on the play clock gets it away run it's grant did he make it it's gonna be close half the yard short from our look up high let's see where it's measured could be one of those right foot left foot spots yep you don't see here he had to get to the 27 and that looks just past the 26 from that angle watch the push again from rome selling out to the run here great ankle tackles again yeah and again big malik davis jamarcus chapman and malik davis they're looking at links here look how close it is they are they are an inch looking short half a chain half the link itself the fastener you're talking an inch literally an inch for fourth down i've never seen the fastener be the holding point right there look at that oh my goodness fourth down and literally a link of the chain yeah yeah so they get the chains back in place your clock's gonna start you know they're gonna go for it fourth in an inch here we go watch the sell out here once again you get past that first level nine in the box for rome this is all hands on deck you're gonna see 22 guys [Applause] having a meet and greet at the 27. third and one inch fourth and one inch they're not gonna mark it he's not gonna get it did you get it they're gonna say he lost the yard [Applause] rome wolves the defense quintarius kennema five stops five on fourth down and a link of the chain unbelievable against a rusher a thousand-yard rusher one of the top running backs in the state shaquan griffin in there there's kenmore he knows how important this is john how about this rome defense two years ago they gave up 36 points per game and tonight they've got this team a minute 44 away from their first state championship in school history beaufort has three timeouts rome takes over on downs on the 26th of buford they've got a kicker by the way who can kick up past 40 yards if it comes down to that the freshman nick burge in the place of the injured sophomore of that defense for buford he's done well at tight end tonight outside linebacker jake simpson the youngest of jess simpson's sons to go through the buford program remember how jake had the big catch on third down when buford was trying to score earlier here in the half all the one two all the second effort and one of the coolest moments of the weekend so far jake gets up his dad first guy there to slap him on the hand that's what it's all about [Music] 95 seconds to go and i'm going to use the r word regulation well you look at roman and offense emmanuel gonzalez is their kicker his range coach reeves is up to 45 yards he can't hit a 42-yarder earlier if they don't get another yard from this point it'd be a 44-yard attempt his first field goal for more than 40 yards that he hit this season everything else under 40 gonzalez was perfect [Music] [Applause] that's a freshman an immediate timeout by coach simpson second short time out of the half once again all these bodies gonna move to the right watch the cutback saw a hole but then he gets hog tied and grabbed otherwise not doing anything td roof middle linebacker in the defensive setup heading to georgia tech [Music] we've mentioned before mentioned in the tailgate party mentioned in the open this is chieftains and gladiators uniting to be the red wolves today we say red wolves because we got red wolves and green wolves and john reed has been a part of unifying chieftains and gladiators and getting everyone behind this team in their silver anniversary season as rome high school you're looking at larry kinnibru's history ray donaldson's history two super bowl winners for east and west rome championships on the east side in the 70s west roma had one in 65 the rest in the 80s oh my goodness xavier roberts another sophomore come out for rome and the third and final timeout watch xavier roberts dodge one tackle dodge two gets grabbed and it's fourth and two from the 18 at 80 seconds what do you do do you try to kick and add to a lead or do you just go for it and if you if you go if you make a first down it's game too much has gone wrong in either punt situations that beaufort has been a part of here under the big top for those that might remember buford was trailing calhoun [Music] bad snap from midfield back by dylan lee to create a tie to send the game to overtime too much can go wrong and you've seen on special teams beaufort has been getting penetration on rome especially in punch situations but once again it's a long snap back that's a good call trust your offensive line in this situation 295 davey 230 norton 295 and your backup is this real defense has given them nothing bradfield 295 on the right side 11 good 275. this is close quarters here it is fourth and two for the game and a timeout the last one yeah why not you see something john reed didn't like what he saw he's got the timeout no problem to your point you've got a lot of young players if nothing else calm them down call them over and say listen we're okay that's what we're going to do there's jameis griffin sixth and white leading rusher and you thought this one was exciting to northwest georgia all south georgia is locked in if all south georgia isn't actually here for the 6a final for valdosta under first year head coach alan rodemaker chasing after title number 24 or 25 depending on which list you look at and they're already here they've been tailgating the tucker tigers and brian lamar representing dekalb county again today this is the third title game of eight and you've seen this already they've been thrillers double overtime to start today east the eagles landing christian academy wedding here on the keeper no yes on the keeper touchdown rome fake the dive hit the left edge [Applause] knox he has been dictating it the entire day when to sit on it when to hang on everybody bit on the dive tatum wide open one grab didn't catch him touchdown rome i really thought nellie he had one more in him nine carries 132 yards for kaden two touchdowns the extra point by gonzalez off the upright 16-7 but it's nine points it's not eight and that's the key knocks kadem what a job he's done the sophomore quarterback second year as a starter and where did he where did he run behind his older brother at left tackle your tcsg touchdown replay everybody cinches down selling the dive cadem untouched except at the second level [Applause] and the silver wolves your tcsg scoring drive went 26-4 took up 32 seconds the silver anniversary wolves are 72 seconds away and what a job by this team as a whole on both sides of the ball we talked to coach reed he said every time their defense pitches a shutout they get them donuts you get it four times what happens this time you get you get rings well you i think they'll take wings instead i think they'll be a swap we'll pass up the donuts for this too much can go wrong in any kind of a field kick situation so they stuck with what got him here the run game how about kaden 214 total yards 132 on the ground 82 through the air he'd be your offensive mp mvp for sure as we have the kick here from gonzalez and they'll just go to the pooch we expect that fair catch called that penalty and there it is fair catch interference yeah brent parker jr tied in calling for that fair catch and getting run over and that'll be a penalty so when they sort this out beaufort will have the ball they're down two scores with no timeouts left against a defense that has been as stingy as we've seen in any title game that we've done as john mentioned this is the third game of the day eagles landing christian academy in double overtime winning the first game over fellowship cedar grove holding off uh gacs in the second game and then here we are rome closing in play we had a fair catch [Applause] [Music] griffin second quarter injury which kind of forced rome to go to their depth chart you saw a lot of different running backs get some reps so here we go 70 ticks to go minute 10. buford's got get something going and fast and they're sacked the big jacquan griffin number 95 griffin jim griffin boys coming up all over the place buford's got to do stuff in a hurry we're under a minute no timeouts second and 16. sacked again anderson adam anderson this time the big defensive end mcrove slow to get up time ticking away on beaufort season and rome can smell it third and long first down and more inside the 30 inside the 20 down to the 19 but we've got a flag watch the flag back at the 40. we'll see what that is oh it's going to be against buford 38 yard pickup is negated yep right tackle everybody flinches trying to get the play off brother the brother on the completion but it's all coming back formation offense not enough middle to line of scrimmage that's a five yard penalty from the previous spot replay third down very rarely will a school put up eight championship banners in one year but that's what rome is about to do seven to honor the championships of the old west rome and east rome high schools that happened before 1992 and they'll be another to put up here in about eight seconds gladiators plus chieftains turning into wolves and what a hunt it's been in 2016. maybe the final play of the game mick roof completion out of bounds it's over [Applause] [Applause] and that's what it's all about right there wins titles in tennessee been in championship games in indiana john reed two years at rome and they're the 5a champs what a job hats off to the buford wolves first year in 5a because of reclassification yep have won titles in double a triple a and quad a [Music] and don't come out in the future in 5a they just get it done year in year out 13-game win streak comes to an end and depending on tomorrow night's game and roswell if roswell can win buford get leads can say well the only two teams that beat us were both state champs [Music] congratulations to the rome high school wolves and john ray did you mention what he has done just incredible let's go down to sam crenshaw here coach john reed coach at halftime you told me you needed three things from your team you need to make up a good drive get scored take the lead the defense to hold on and eliminate penal eliminating any turnovers they did it for you and you're a state champion yeah it's incredible what a long season that's been culminating this i'm so proud of our kids the defense was top-notch all night knox came in the second half kind of did some things that he can do what a what a brave effort by our team it's incredible man i'm about to have a heart attack don't do that coach you got to do it you got to do without your top running back we had to do it with our top two running backs uh we lost one in the first round of the playoffs and then uh jemiah jammed his knee up a little bit tonight we got kids that got a ton of heart they love each other they love the coaching staff coach zapp loves them they'll fight there's a lot of fight in them they opened the georgia dome in 92 the same year they merged these it took you 25 years to get here and this bill is gonna be gone next year it was destiny man i put up seven straight championship banners and left a spot for an eighth one on our face of our stadium and i'm putting one up there this year all right congratulations [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] it gets uh no better than that john rome and again we talked about again where they were two years ago and coach reed talked about his kids buying into the program uh being accountable the coaches being accountable to them holding up to their their words he got the wolf tattoo last year after they won their first year what's going to happen now you finished my thought exactly what he'll do this year he might do another one 2016 state champs why not and rome has had successes in the past under sid fritz in recent history they've made it two playoffs and had playoff runs but to see northwest georgia come out the way that they have today what do the kids say floyd county represent yeah there's jeff simpson great job by beaufort to get a 13-game win streak [Music] only failed to score less than 28 points twice that was again to roswell in the opener and tonight to rome held one touchdown in each game eight and four last year was john reed before that franco perkins then you had sid fritz in the mid 2000s with david humphries before that [Music] seven double-digit win seasons in an eight-year span and there it is after the last double-digit win season in 2008 john reid is taking a trophy back to veterans memorial parkway [Applause] downstairs to mark harmon for a very special trophy presentation thank you larry it's time now to present the 5a state championship trophy to the rome wolves the first state championship in school history and for that i turned the microphone over the executive director of the ghsa gary phillips coach reed congratulations on a great win i know the city's going to be excited great win for you and your school you all through a bunch congratulations this is our friends from georgia farm bureau they're going to present the trophy to you and your players all right on behalf of georgia farm bureau and the floyd county farm bureau and ron moyes fans everywhere congratulations coach i don't think i've ever seen a bigger smile than when you held up that trophy and that football and looked at all the fans there's nobody left home at rome nobody's left tell me what's going on inside coach look at that crowd it's so unbelievable fans hey this is a combination of a ton of work a ton of love these kids are awesome there's no quit in them we had a few warriors go down tonight but we just kept coming at them what a great victory for rome the city of rome the school our high school and all these boys and fans where'd it go rome wolves malik davis malik davis you've got the trophy there in your hand talk about how tough a defensive game it was out there tonight i mean it was everything we expected we knew it was going to be a low scoring game and we knew that we would score on them we just had to keep them from scoring on us there's a defensive game that's what we specialize in and that's why we got this w zach talk about being a senior and going out on top uh we came a long way i mean we bought him as soon as coach reed got here yeah i mean this is amazing and we shut down brad street tonight and how about little brother he did pretty good oh he played his hey he played a hell of a game he played great i mean he was amazing i'm going to be his brother all right how about you when you look over at all that red over there and all that enthusiasm and all that support you had the big pep rally last night what goes through your mind man i'm just glad we won some you guys bro we came a long way we came a long way coach we changed this program i love them for that love you coach love you man well you know coach rome wasn't built in a day but in two years you've taken him to the mountaintop it took about 20 months but man it's been awesome i love this place i love this team i just want to get that crowd up one more time get him out all right congratulations rome is at home in the georgia dome congratulations to the 5a state champs and now it's time to go to the gbb tailgate party and jackie britton