PUTNAM COUNTY
Gatewood delivered a dominant 54-12 performance Friday night in beating the visiting Augusta Prep Day (APD) Cavaliers.
The win advanced the Gators to the 2023 GIAA 2A semifinals, and they will host Briarwood Academy out of Warrenton this Friday night to determine who will head to Macon for the state championship game on Dec. 1 at Mercer University.
The game against the Cavs got off to a rough start with a Gators fumble and turnover after the opening kickoff; however, APD was not able to capitalize and had to punt from its opening possession.
That led to a 100-plus-yards return by Gatewood junior quarterback Ames Johnson, who caught the ball deep in his own end zone and then streaked untouched down the right sideline to the Augusta Prep goal line. With Johnson holding, Jayden Daniel added the extra point and just over two-and-a-half minutes in, Gatewood had a lead it would never see threatened.
UNC commit Evan Bennett, recently returned from injury and still sporting a protective cast on his right forearm, scored next for Gatewood, catching a long, high throw from Johnson and backing untouched into the Cavs’ endzone. Bennett looked strong on both sides of the ball, which bodes well for the Gators going forward.
Freshman quarterback Carter Chavous accounted for both Cavaliers rushing touchdowns, with one coming in the opening quarter and another in the third.
At halftime, the score was 27-6 in favor of the home team. By the end of the third quarter, the scoreboard displayed 41 to 12, but just 10 seconds into the fourth it was 48-12, and head coach Jeff Ratliff began playing some of his younger non-starters to provide them some game experience.
Other than the opening fumble, the only other Gators miscue was a blocked extra point kick after the last touchdown of the game that led to the 54-12 final.
“I thought our speed on defense would show up and it did. And I thought offensively we’ve been executing the last couple of weeks at a high level and we had a lot of big plays,” Ratliff said after the game. “I mean, we hit big plays, but the times we had a chance, I thought we got after them pretty good. And again, when you’re playing on both sides of the ball, well good things can happen to you.
“And that’s the challenge, right? You’re supposed to be playing your best at this time of year. We’ve got to clean up a few mistakes on special teams that got us in a little bit of trouble. We’ve just got to be a little more focused. Just got to be a little more sharp and I think we will be next week.”
Looking forward to Briarwood, which beat Brentwood 21-6 to advance, Ratliff said their head coach, Bo Fleming, will have his team up for the challenge. Gatewood beat Briarwood 17-8 in September for its second-closest margin of victory in an 8-2 regular season.
“They’re a physical team, they’re going come right at you. They’re going to pound it at you,” Ratliff said. “And their quarterback, he’s been getting better all year. The first time we played him was pretty early in the year and I think we rattled him a little bit. I don’t know that he’s going to get rattled now. He’s had a whole season and defensively they’re very similar to us as far as they rely on their speed and physicality to make things happen.
“They’re a well-coached football team and it’s going to be a physical game. I’m looking forward to it,” Ratliff added. “I think Briarwood is one of the better teams in the league, but hopefully we are, too.”
The keys to success will be matching Briarwood’s physicality and speed, on both sides of the ball, Ratliff added in his weekly email to Gators fans and families.
“This should be a great football game,” the coach predicted.“It will take a complete team effort to beat these guys a second time. They are playing with a lot of confidence. It will be a great semi-final game with the winner earning a trip to Mercer.”