The Gatewood Gators held a slim 28-26 advantage at the end of three quarters in Eatonton Friday night, but their grip slipped in the fourth, allowing the Piedmont Academy Cougars to take a 42-28 win home to Monticello. It marked only the second win in nine games for the Cougars this year and left the Gators 4-5 with one game remaining in the regular season.
“My guys gave it their all and I’m proud of them for that, but we had multiple chances to score a lot of points and we just didn’t do it. And it’s frustrating,” Gators head coach Jeff Ratliff admitted. “When you’re up 28-26 going into the fourth quarter, your defense needs to make a stop, you’ve just gotta’ find a way, but we just didn’t make it.”
Gatewood took the lead in its first possession with a 15-yard sweep on the left side by senior running back Justin Jameson, followed by the extra point from kicker Jayden Daniel. Piedmont followed suit a few plays later, although its kicker missed wide left, leaving it 7-6 as the opening quarter came to a close.
The Gators returned with a second touchdown early in the second quarter after defensive lineman Gage Rainey intercepted an errant Piedmont pass. That led to sophomore wide receiver Tanner Johnson hauling in a 20-yard bullet from quarterback Ames Johnson before completing a 10-yard run to add another six points, with Daniel boosting the Gatewood lead to 14-6 after another good PAT attempt.
But again, Piedmont answered, taking advantage of a Gatewood fumble and running the ball downfield to score, followed by a successful two-point conversion late in the quarter to leave things tied at 14 just as halftime began.
When the game resumed, Jameson figured again in the next Gators touchdown, although this time from behind the line of scrimmage. In a set play, Johnson immediately lateraled the ball off the snap and from the Cougars’ 45-yard line Jameson completed a 33-yard toss to sophomore receiver John Wallace Thompson, who took it the final 12 yards for the TD, followed by another successful PAT by Daniel to reach a 21-14 Gators advantage.
It was a short-lived lead as Piedmont again responded with another touchdown of its own, but only securing six points to reach 20 as this time their two-point conversion attempt failed. A second touchdown, followed by yet another failed two-point attempt drew Piedmont to within one point of tying, but the see-saw play continued with Gatewood coming right back with a 40-yard pass from Johnson to junior tight end Lawson Wooten, who took it standing up into the endzone. Daniel then followed up with the extra point to give Gatewood what turned out to be its final 28-point tally.
With the score 28-26 and just one 12-minute quarter left to play, Ratliff admitted it was closer than he expected at that point, but he remained confident his team would prevail.
However, on the first possession of the last quarter, Gatewood was forced to punt and Piedmont picked up the ball deep in its own zone.
The Cougars managed to drive all the way downfield with a solid running game and eventually earned another touchdown to take their first lead of the game.
Piedmont scored 16 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to finish with a 42-28 advantage.
Ratliff said the loss won’t prevent his team from entering the playoffs; however, it does take away some of the leverage a win would have provided.
“In the old days, you only worried about playing your region and then your non-region schedule was kind of up to you. But now you need to include all division games because if you get into a scenario where you and another team are vying for a certain seed and you didn’t play them, then there’s nothing to base it on except what the computer says,” the veteran coach explained.
“So, you want some head-to-head matchups if you can get them because the league tells us that those head-tohead matchups mean more than the computer ranking. But we’ll see how they determine it at the end. Right now I think we’re seeded fifth, but I think we deserve the four seed, even though our record doesn’t really show it. The team that’s ahead of us and the team that’s behind us, we beat both of those teams. So, if they reward head-to-head stuff, we’ll get the four seed, and if we get consistent and take care of the football, I think we give ourselves a chance against anybody in the league,” Ratliff added.
Gatewood will close out its 2022 regular season play Friday night when it takes on defending region champ Brentwood Academy in Sandersville.