PCHS piles up 480 rushing yards in 56-17 region victory
BEARVILLE — Pierce County’s Dylan Johnson followed a career-best performance with another career-best effort leading the thirdranked Bears to a 56-17 Region 3-AAA victory here Thursday night over visiting Tattnall County.
The game was moved up 24 hours with possible effects from Hurricane Isaias expected to impact South Georgia Friday. The PCHS-Tattnall County matchup was one of more that 40 games moved up one day.
Johnson, a junior, followed up a 16-carry, 264-yard, fivetouchdown night in a 65-20 homecoming win over Beach with a 16-carry, 266-yard, five-touchdown 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. Williams had his streak of consecutive 100-yard games end at 15, second-best to D.J. Bell’s 19-game streak during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His school-record 17-game touchdown streak also came to an end.
Junior Jack McClellan gave Pierce County three rushers with 85 yards or better. Mc-Clellan, who set personal-best marks at homecoming (14 carries, 156 yards, three TDs) gained his 85 yards on 11 carries.
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 secondmost in school history behind the 485 yards against Berrien in the first round of the 2022 state playoffs.
The 480-yard effort followed the 467 yards a week earlier against Beach, the third-most rushing yards in program history.
Pierce County fell short of tying the mark when it took a knee for minus-five yards on the final snap.
“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 15play (season-high), 80-yard 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 11-yard 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 fourthand- one from its own 29 on the game’s fourth play to keep the drive alive. The Bears would also converted on third-and-two and third-andone 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.
“That first drive was kind of a statement drive. They lined up in a heavy box that we hadn’t worked on. We didn’t look great, but we looked good enough to get the ball eventually in the end zone. It doesn’t matter if it takes five plays or 15 plays to get the ball in the end zone — that’s the objective.”
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 fumble and scoop-and-score. “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 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 record-tying 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.
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 20-yard 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 in building a 56-10 advantage.
The first score followed an opening three-and-out to start the third period by Tattnall County. 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 a 42-10 lead.
A second three-and-out by the Warriors was followed by a two-play, 58-yard score. 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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