Toombs Clinches 3rd Place

The Toombs County High School Bulldogs football team hosted the Tigers of Swainsboro last Friday night and picked up the big Region 2AA victory locking up third place. Toombs moves to 6-3 on the year and are 2-2 in the Region. The Bulldogs took the lead with about five minutes left in the first quarter on a bomb from quarterback Chandler Lynn to Tyler Heath for a 58-yard touchdown. Julian Marin-Vital added the extra point as Toombs took a 7-0 lead. In the second quarter of the game Toombs extended that lead as they capped off a drive with a 4-yard touchdown run by DJ Mincey with less than a minute left in the first half. With the PAT from Marin-Vital the Bulldogs were on top 14-0 at the end of the first half. In the third quarter of the game the Bulldog defense got a big interception from Julian Mann which gave the Bulldogs the ball at their own 30yard line. They were not able to get the offense going on that series and had to punt the ball away.

Swainsboro was stuffed by the Dawg defense and had to punt the ball back to the Bulldogs, and Toombs got a big special teams play from Heath on the final play of the third quarter. He caught the ball at the Swainsboro 42-yard line and broke to the left sideline. He outran the coverage and was into the end zone for a TCHS touchdown. Marin-Vital added the extra point and Toombs led 21-0.

In the fourth quarter with about six minutes to play the Tigers finally got on the board on a 15-yard touchdown pass. They added the extra point and it was 21-7.

There was a flurry of points late in this game. With 2:30 left in the game Swainsboro closed the score to 21-14 after finishing off a drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass.

Swainsboro tried for an onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds with the Bulldogs taking over. On the first play Mincey went around the left side for a 47-yard touchdown run with 1:54 left in the game. Marin-Vital added the extra point for a 28-14 lead.

After the ensuing kickoff the Tigers had a pass intercepted again by Mann, this time he returned it 42 yards for another TCHS touchdown. Marin-Vital added the PAT for a 35-14 TCHS lead.

Mincey had 109 rushing yards in the game with Lynn rushing for 40 yards and throwing for 88 yards. Heath had 75 receiving yards for the Bulldogs.

This week Toombs will be on the road at East Laurens with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. for the final regular season game of the year.

– Correction– In last week’s issue the stats for the TCHS vs. VHS game were incorrect. TCHS was the team with 12 penalties for 125 yards and Vidalia had 6 for 45 yards.

Brannon Usher lowers his head and picks up key yardage deep in his own territory on the Bulldogs’ way to a Region victory over the Tigers.Photo by Mike Branch