Injuries, defensive penalties too much for Southwest as Patriots fall to Macon County 26-19 in thrilling season opener

The Southwest Patriots, down to their fourth quarterback and their final minute, failed to come up with a last minute miracle Friday evening in Fort Valley as the they fell to the Macon County Bulldogs 26-19.

The second game of Bibb County’s inaugural Gridiron Classic was a barnburner filled with big plays, lots of willpower and some untimely flags.

After Southwest took a 19-14 lead into halftime, Macon County blanked the Patriots in the second half while scoring two touchdowns. With a little more than a minute to play, Southwest fought their way into Bulldog territory to get a shot at the endzone, but none of their final plays could connect.

“We just tried to get it into the endzone. We tried using all our timeouts to get in that position clock-wise, so we were just hoping we could come up with the ball, but it didn’t happen,” head coach Joe Dupree said.

Macon County took the lead thanks to some issues on defense for the Patriots, who had four penalties on the Bulldogs’ two crucial scoring drives, including two encroachment penalties during the same sequence that gave Macon County their first lead of the second half.

“We just have to be more disciplined, it hurt us,” Dupree said. “We have to watch the ball up front, that’s the bottom line. We kept moving.”

The Patriots suffered a tough loss, but they were fortunate to keep it close late after losing a quarterback to injury and moving to their fourth-string signal caller. Southwest already lost their standout starting quarterback, Dupree’s son Chase, to a preseason hand injury.

In the wake of the quarterback issues, wide receiver Steve Robinson stepped in to sling the rock and surprised the crowd with two deep touchdown balls, both to Jamarea Watkins. The scores went for 43 and 58 yards, respectively.

“Steve stepped in and did a great job, that’s a big thing to take from this,” Dupree said. “He really did not have any work at quarterback and did a great job for us. He obviously wasn’t perfect, but he kept us in there.”

The Patriots will have to regroup before a big matchup against Northeast next week to begin their region schedule.

“They’re a great team, and we can’t let this one get to us,” Dupree said. “We have to work some stuff out, get cleaner on defense, change the offense and be ready for that game. That’s all there is to it.”

Macon County’s second-half defensive stand

The first quarter was all defense, as both teams forced multiple turnovers and capitalized. 

Southwest struck first when, after what appeared to be a botched trick play where Macon County’s offensive lineman froze in place on a screen, big man Kaleb Taylor came away with an interception and took it all the way to the house for a score.

The Bulldogs got revenge on the next Patriots drive when Jamarian Leghorn threw an interception, then picked another one off. The second INT came courtesy of Macon County’s Jeremiah Solomon, who returned it roughly 90 yards to put the Bulldogs on the board.

Leghorn injured himself on the interception return as well, and had to leave the game on a cart. He was not putting pressure on his left leg as he exited.

The Patriots turned to third string quarterback Johnathan Hurley, and things looked unkind at first.

Southwest coughed the ball up again on their next drive when an all-out blitz by the Bulldogs caught Hurley flat-footed. The Bulldogs returned it all the way to the 4-yardline and punched it in on the next play to take a 14-7 lead, one that held into the second quarter.

The Pats then decided to slide Robinson over to quarterback, a choice that changed the game — he took direct snaps for nice medium gains on the ground and gave the offense some pace.

The real impact came from his connection to Watkins, however. Robinson connected with the wideout on two bombastic touchdown throws, one for 43 yards and the other for 58 yards, in the second quarter alone. Missed PATs meant the Southwest lead was only 19-14 at halftime, but the Patriots took lots of momentum into the break nonetheless.

After some empty posessions to begin the second half, Macon County took a long drive through the rest of the third and into the fourth quarter. Aided by foolish Southwest penalties, the Bulldogs pounded the ball on the ground and moved downfield to take a 20-19 lead.

Later in the fourth after the Patriots failed to capitalize on opportunities to score, Macon County moved into Southwest territory. The Patriots forced a fourth and long, but the Bulldogs offense subbed in a new quarterback, Dayvon Mathis, who dropped a perfect toss in to Solomon to extend the lead on a surprising pass play.

On their next drive, Southwest drove downfield with some solid chunk plays in an attempt to tie it up, but Robinson made a crucial error. Committing the age-old quarterback sin of throwing across his body while running the opposite direction, Robinson heaved a ball toward the endzone that Macon County intercepted.

While Southwest managed to get another stop and try again, the Bulldogs knew the pass was coming all the way. Robinson threw four tough incompletions as Macon County sealed the 26-19 win.