BEARVILLE — Pierce County’s Dylan Johnson followed a career-best performance with another career- best effort, leading the third-ranked Bears to a 5617 Region 3-AAA victory here Thursday night over visiting Tattnall County.
Johnson, a junior, followed up a 16-carry, 264yard, five-touchdown night in a 65-20 homecoming win over Beach with a 16carry, 266-yard, fivetouchdown night against the Warriors.
Senior Jae’Veon Williams returned from missing a game with a foot injury to rush for 87 yards on 16 carries. Junior Jack McClellan gave Pierce County three rushers with 85 yards or better. Jashun Faison darted 47 yards on his lone carry for a touchdown.
All total, PCHS piled up 480 yards of offense — all on the ground on 46 carries. The rushing total is the second-most in school history behind the 485 yards against Berrien in the first round of the 2022 state playoffs.
“Dylan and Jack have really stepped up their game the last two weeks,” said head coach Ryan Herring. “I’m proud of those two guys — they ran hard. We’re (coaches) trying to slowly ease Jae’Veon back from his injury.”
“On the defensive side, Tattnall (County) came out with a good offensive game plan. They (coaches) changed up some stuff on offense. They had some running backs who made us miss in the open field multiple times.”
“I’m happy we won the game. My focus is we’ve got to do a lot better job tackling. We’ve (coaches and players) got to embrace the fact that we need to work on it, especially our perimeter guys and back end guys. We’ve got to improve on tackling.”
Pierce County, which scored on seven of eight possessions, put together a 15-play (season-high), 80yard drive, eating up the first 7:13 (season-high) of the game to take a lead it would not relinquish.
Williams (seven attempts), Johnson (four) and McClellan (four) alternated in to get carries. Williams had the biggest run of 13 yards on the 13th snap with Johnson capping the drive with an 11yard run off left tackle with 4:47 remaining in the period. Jayme Perez kicked the first of his eight PATs for a 7-0 advantage.
PCHS converted a fourth-and-one from its own 29 on the game’s fourth play to keep the drive alive. The Bears would also convert on third-and-two and thirdand- one later.
“They (Warriors) had shown an even front on film and changed to a true Bear 46 look,” said Herring. “It was almost verbatim of Buddy Ryan’s scheme with Chicago. The only difference was Tattnall played a safety deep. Their guys just looked like they played a lot better and harder than they had on film. Somehow we bring the best out of people. So my hats off to them.”
Demontrey Clark delivered a bone-crushing tackle on the Warriors’ Michael Murphy, separating the ball from his body at the Tattnall County 15 on the ensuing kickoff. An alert Chance Williams picked up the pigskin and darted 14 yards for a touchdown just 11 seconds after the opening score for a 14-0 lead with 4:36 left on the clock.
“That was a big play in the game for momentum’s sake,” Herring said of the fumble and scoop-andscore. “That was the play of the game.”
Tattnall County’s offense finally took its first snap with 4:28 left in the opening period. The Warriors found a gap on the perimeter when Murphy (eight carries, 133 yards) sped 47 yards with an option pitch around the right side moving the ball to the PCHS 34.
The drive hit a snag and stalled back at the Bears’ 35. Jean Maignan drilled a Bears Stadium recordtying 52-yard field goal, pulling Tattnall County to within 14-3 with :58.3 showing on the first quarter clock.
Pierce County responded quickly. Johnson raced 79 yards on the second play after the kickoff pushing the margin to 21-3 just 10.9 seconds before the end of the quarter.
YARDSTIICK
Tattnall County 3 7 0 7 - 17 Pierce County 21 14 14 7 - 56
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter PCHS - Dylan Johnson 11 run (Jayme Perez kick), 4:47 PCHS - Chance Williams 14 fumble return (Perez kick), 4:36 TCHS - Jean Maignan 52 field goal, :58.3
PCHS - Johnson 79 run (Perez kick), :10.9
Second Quarter PCHS - Johnson 6 run (Perez kick), 9:37 PCHS - Johnson 5 run (Perez kick), 4:16 TCHS - Michael Murphy 45 run (Maignan kick), 3:56
Third Quarter PCHS - Johnson 2 run (Perez kick), 6:39 PCHS - Jashun Faison 47 run (Perez kick), 3:57
Fourth Quarter PCHS - Johnson 4 run (Perez kick), 9:07 PCHS - Murphy 32 run (Maignan kick)
TCHS PCHS
First downs 7 19 Rushes-yards 33-168 46-480
Passing yards 0 0
Total yards 168 480
Comp-Att-Int 0-1-0 0-4-0
Punts-Avg 3-37.3 1-40.0
Fumbles-lost 2-2 0-0
Penalties 4-34 8-85 3rd
Down Con. 2-of-9 6-of-8
4th Down Con. 0-of-0 1-of-1
Time of Poss. 24:18 23:42
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – TCHS: Murphy 8-133, Jones 4-43, Melvin 2-9, Guest 127, Monroe 6-(-18), team 1-(-5).
PCHS: Johnson 17-266, J. Williams 16-87, McClellan 11-85, Faison 1-47, team 1-(-5).
PASSING – TCHS: Monroe 0-1-0.
PCHS: McClellan 0-3-0, Johnson 0-1-0.
The Bears turned a second forced turnover into points early in the second stanza. Colby Coates pounced on a Tattnall County fumble at the Warriors 28.
PCHS followed with a three-play drive to open up a 28-3 lead with 9:37 remaining in the first half. Johnson followed a 20yard run by McClellan with a run off left tackle for six yards and a score.
After the Warriors’ next possession ended with Pierce County blocking a 54-yard field goal attempt by Maignan, the Bears followed with a 90-yard drive in six plays.
Johnson raced 52 yards on the second play with Williams picking up 26 on the ensuing snap, moving the ball to the Tattnall County 12. Johnson scored his fourth touchdown of the opening half three plays later, swelling the margin to 35-3 with 4:16 left before intermission.
Tattnall County would cut the deficit to 35-10 just one play after the kickoff. Aided by a 15-yard penalty, the Warriors covered 45 yards when Murphy took an option pitch the distance with 3:56 to play in the half. Maignan’s tacked on the PAT.
Pierce County opened the second half with scoring drives of 57, 58 and 54 yards to build a 56-10 advantage.
The Bears needed seven plays to punch the ball across the goal line. A 51-yard gallop by Johnson was followed by his two-yard burst for the score with 6:39 left in the third stanza for their first score of the second half.
PCHS covered 58 yards in two plays for a 49-10 lead on its next possession. Faison went untouched on a reverse, covering 47 yards at the 3:57 mark of the quarter giving PCHS a 49-10 lead.
A third punt in as many possessions by the visitors was followed by Pierce County’s final touchdown at the end of an eight-play drive. Johnson did the honors, scoring from four yards out, running up the gut of the Tattnall County defense with 9:07 left to play in a “mercy rule” final period.
The Warriors found the endzone one last time with 2:46 showing on the clock. The seven-play, 63-yard drive was capped by Murphy’s 32-yard run off a toss sweep.
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