Northeast offense dominates as Raiders topple undefeated Dodge County 40-19 on Senior Night

On a Senior Night that was almost as perfect as a team could ask for, the Northeast Raiders used an explosive offense and stout defense to stifle the undefeated Dodge County Indians in a convincing 40-19 win at Thompson Stadium in Macon Friday night.

“We just wanted to come out and dominate and focus on us. We had real good practices. We wanted to finish it on a good note and finish it off in the seniors’ last home game,” Raiders head coach Jeremy Wiggins. “We might have a home game in the playoffs, we don’t know yet, but we just have to keep playing. I’m proud of them boys, they answered the challenge this week.”

The home playoff game looks a lot more likely after such a thorough victory. Northeast moved to 7-2 with the win and, importantly, 7-1 in Region 2-A Division I, putting them in second place above Dodge County. 

It looked like the Indians were destined for a de facto region title game against Dublin prior to this game, but the Raiders had other plans and cruised to a win.

Senior star running back Nick Woodford stole the show. He finished with 198 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the ground, including one from 57 yards out. Tack on his 20-yard catch for a fourth score, and the Raiders’ biggest playmaker had more than 200 yards of offense.

While Woodford often finished off drives, quarterback Reginald “Bam” Glover had one of his best passing games of the season, regularly hitting receivers for big plays of 10 or 20 yards. He finished 7 of 12 passing for a 154 yards and a touchdown, a statline not even accounting for two ghastly drops by Northeast receivers on wide-open, would-be touchdowns.

“Nick had a great game, the offensive line did a great job for him tonight,” Wiggins said. “We mixed it up a little bit, we had a beat on what they were doing and so we wanted to execute on that.”

Glover also rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown.

The defense matched the offense’s energy all night as well. Northeast thoroughly shut down Dodge County’s typically lethal rushing attack, holding Alabama commit Duke Johnson and the rest of the Indians offense to just two scores all night. Dodge’s other touchdown came just a few minutes into the game when Jerimiah Burns returned a kickoff 85 yards for the Indians.

That score, which came after a Raiders touchdown scored a touchdown with their opening possession on just three plays, gave the impression the game would be a shootout. Northeast dominated from that point forward.

“We were mad we gave up the kick return, but we were in a different defense than we normally go in. We fixed it, and then the rest of the game we got ourselves where we needed to be,” Wiggins said.

Sophomore defensive back Kortnei Williams highlighted the team’s defensive performance with his 10th interception of the year, a tally that leads the entire country, according to MaxPreps data. The free safety went high up the ladder to make the grab, snagging the ball before it could reach Duke Johnson for a fabulous play.

The win should comfortably ensure a home playoff game for the Raiders and, with new power rankings in place, hopefully a slightly easier opponent than last year — Northeast had to face Appling County in last season’s opening round, one of the stronger No. 3 teams.

Those power rankings also mean the Raiders have to keep the foot on the gas in next week’s game against East Laurens to close out the regular season, though.

“It depends on the power rankings, and everything can fall differently or change… we won’t know until after the last week of the regular season. So we’re just goin to take care of our business and focus on East Laurens,” Wiggins said.

An explosive offense

The Raiders wasted no time on their opening possession, needing only three plays before Woodford did his thing and tore off a 57-yard touchdown run. A two-point try was stuffed to make it 6-0 Northeast.

Dodge County had an answer almost instantly when the Indians’ Jerimiah Burns twisted out of multiple tackles and took the ensuing kickoff back 85 yards for a score. Dodge County missed its PAT, keeping the game tied at 6-6.

That was just about all the momentum the Indians would get in the first half, however. After both teams traded empty drives and Northeast blocked a Dodge field goal try, the Raiders rode some more nice Woodford runs inside the Indians’ 30-yardline before Glover connected with Zahkie Denson for a 29-yard touchdown pass.

Dodge County fumbled the ball right back to Northeast on the first play of its next sequence, teeing up the Raiders for another Woodford rushing score to make it 19-6. The Indians chewed some clock on the next drive and moved the ball a bit, but could not finish the job.

Northeast took advantage of one last first-half possession and gained yardage in nice chunks with passes to Keandre Jackson before Woodford struck again, this time from 20 yards out to give the Raiders a commanding 27-6 lead at the break.

It looked like Dodge County might get back into the game when Kain Mincey threw for a long touchdown pass on their first drive, but Glover responded with a 45-yard jaunt to the end zone for the Raiders after he pulled the ball on a draw play and fooled the entire Indians secondary.

Williams then snagged his 10th pick of the year on Dodge County’s next drive, and the wind went out of the Indians’ sales. After some more scoring from Northeast and a late touchdown for Dodge, the Raiders came away with a 40-19 win.