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Roberts
and Atkins together make 216 rushing yards
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Jackets strike early to put
Glynn away 42-0
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The Press Sentinel staff writers
By Hank Orberg
STAFF WRITER
BRUNSWICK–Unlike their confrontations over the past two seasons which were
decided in the final 30 seconds, Wayne County High’s Yellow Jackets came
away from Glynn County Stadium here Friday night with a 42-0 victory over
Glynn Academy.
In fewer than five minutes–from under two minutes remaining in the first
quarter to no more than two minutes gone in the second quarter, Wayne
County’s lead went from 7-0 to 28-0.
The dizzying turn of events assured that there would be no dramatic endings
such as Wayne’s 2000 21-20 loss in the final 25 seconds or Glynn’s 2001
21-14 defeat in the last 10 seconds.
Wayne’s offense, which had struggled in its first three games, turned in its
most impressive outing of the season, accumulating 328 yards. Of that
number, 260 came on the ground.
Despite those gaudy figures, it was the Jacket defense, led by linebackers
Everage Lane and Tommy Weatherspoon, which enabled Wayne to salt away
victory early in the second quarter.
Glynn’s propensity for fumbling was particularly acute in the first period.
Lane recovered a fumble by Nick Antczak at the Red Terrors’ 13 which led to
the game’s first score. Then with under two minutes left in the quarter, he
scooped another loose ball, this time 20 yards away from paydirt. That
recovery created the opportunity for Wayne’s third touchdown.
“It was a great team effort,” said Wayne Coach Daryl Jones. “Right now I’m
very proud of these kids. Tonight, we came together as a team, not as a
bunch of individuals playing football. We came together on offense, on
defense and on special teams. We really started to click out there tonight!”
Quarterback Josh Roberts’ three-touchdown performance certainly did not go
unnoticed by Jones.
“Josh played a great game. He’s really starting to come into his own. He
executed the offense efficiently and did a nice job with the passing game,”
Jones pointed out.
Roberts didn’t resort to his passing game on Wayne’s first drive. Thanks to
Lane’s first fumble recovery with the game only 90 seconds old, the Jackets
scored on their fifth play of the drive as senior Antonio Atkins scored the
first of his two touchdowns from a yard out.
Kicker Zac Smith picked up from where he left off a week earlier (five PATs
against Savannah High in a 38-0 victory) and extended his streak of
successful point-after-touchdown placements from seven to 13.
Glynn managed just one first down on the ensuing possession and punted from
near mid-field.
Wayne, starting at its 17, needed nine plays to raise its lead to two
touchdowns.
Faced with a third-down-and-three at his 24, Roberts faked a pitch-out and
scrambled for 13 yards for a first down at the 37. On the next play, he
tossed a 27-yard completion to Roderick Pittman. Aided by a face-mask
penalty and another Roberts-to-Pittman pass, this for 10 yards, Roberts took
it in from just inside Glynn’s 10 to extend Wayne’s lead to 13-0. Smith, of
course, converted the PAT to make it 14-0 at 1:54.
On the Terrors’ next series Andrew Bailey muffed a hand-off from quarterback
Donny Anderson and Lane was on the spot again to recover the fumble.
At 1:29 and the ball resting on Glynn’s 25, Roberts threaded a perfect
strike to Calvin DeWeese. DeWeese hauled in Roberts’ aerial at the 4 and
covered the remaining distance untouched.
On the first play of the second quarter, it was Weatherspoon’s turn to
recover a fumble.
Under pressure at his 30, Anderson retreated and was sacked for an 11-yard
loss. The ball came loose and Weatherspoon came through. At 10:26, Atkins,
on his fourth straight carry, carried it over from the 1. Smith’s PAT boot
hiked Wayne’s advantage to 28-0.
“Thanks to our defense creating those early turnovers, we were able to take
advantage of our favorable field position,” said Jones.
On the Yellow Jackets’ second possession of the second half, Roberts kept it
on the ground and never once attempted another pass.
Taking over 58 yards away from Glynn’s end zone following Joey Bullen’s
50-yard punt, Roberts went to work. After picking up 15 yards on consecutive
keepers, he gave the ball to Atkins who added seven more. At that spot,
Roberts took for a 36-yard touchdown to make it 34-0.
Wayne wrapped up its scoring early in the fourth quarter covering 71 yards
on three plays within the span of 73 seconds. Two plays after Atkins broke
off a 43-yard run, Roberts ran 29 yards for his third six-pointer of the
night.
Wayne, now 3-2, is idle next Friday. They return to action Friday, Oct. 11
with a Region 3-AAAAA-B game against Brunswick at Jaycee Stadium.
Brunswick was to have hosted Jenkins Saturday night.
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