Pack beats Richmond Hill 41-14, finishes regular season 10-0
Nov. 5—RICHMOND HILL — Colquitt County again got off to a slow start against a Region 1-7A opponent on Friday at Richmond Hill, but quickly righted the ship and roared to a 41-14 victory and perfect 10-0 regular-season record.
The Packers, who already had clinched the region championship, now will have an extra day to prepare for its first-round state playoff meeting with Pebblebrook at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12, on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.
Pebblebrook is the No. 4 team from Region 2 following its 17-14 loss at East Coweta on Friday.
Also on Friday, Camden County claimed the No. 2 spot in Region 1-7A with a somewhat surprising 48-21 victory over Lowndes in Kingsland.
Valdosta finishes third in the region and Lowndes is fourth. Both will travel to play first-round games next weekend.
Colquitt looked early as if it was feeling the effects of its emotional region championship victory at Valdosta a week ago.
Richmond Hill, which finishes 3-7 overall and 0-4 in the region, drove 79 yards on the first possession of the game, scoring on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ty Goldrick to Andrew Matthews.
The drive featured a 49-yard pass that put the Wildcats on the Colquitt 7 three minutes into the game.
But the Packers scored the next 34 points to put away the pesky Wildcats.
"You know we are always going to get everybody's best shot," Packers coach Sean Calhoun said. "But when we play Packer football, we are pretty good."
Calhoun added that he was proud of his team despite the sluggish start and another batch of penalties.
Starting running back Charlie Pace was held out of the game after sustaining an elbow injury in the victory over Valdosta, but Day'Shawn Brown, Ramsey Dennis, Chad White and Antonio White all filled in admirably.
Brown, Dennis and Chad White all had rushing touchdowns as the Packers had an unofficial 201 yards on the ground.
Neko Fann was 13-for-25 for an unofficial 177 yards and touchdown throws to Ny Carr of 18 and 42 yards.
Carr had eight catches for over 100 yards.
It appeared as if the Packers would not be able to get out of the first quarter with a lead.
After falling behind, Colquitt drove from its own 20 to the Richmond Hill 5 on its first possession, but stalled there.
Brett Fitzgerald got the Packers on the scoreboard with a 22-yard field goal with 2:10 left in the quarter.
The Wildcats hurt themselves on their next possession with a holding penalty on the kickoff runback followed later by a 16-yard punt.
Packers took over on the Wildcats 31 and got a 7-yard run by Brown, a pass completion from Fann to Carr and an 18-yard touchdown run by Brown.
The Packers needed another Fitzgerald field goal, this one of 44 yards, to finish off their next possession to make it 13-7 with 8:13 left in the half.
Colquitt's defense got a big fourth-down stop five minutes later and Fann and Carr combined to cash it in with an 18-yard touchdown pass.
The 20-7 halftime lead looked comfortable, but the Packers padded it the first two times they had the ball in the third quarter.
Chad White finished off a 13-play, 80-yard drive that started the second half with a 16-yard touchdown run, his first of the season.
After a Richmond Hill three-and-out, the Packers needed just three plays to add to its lead on a 26-yard touchdown run by Dennis that put Colquitt up 34-7.
It was Dennis's first of the season as well.
Goldrick threw his second touchdown pass of the game to Matthews, a 42-yarder, on the first play of the fourth quarter, but that was the final score of the season for the Wildcats.
Fann threw his second touchdown pass to Carr minutes later for the final Colquitt County touchdown.
Ethan Ramirez added the extra point.
Goldrick completed 10-of-17 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
Ravon Grant had six pass receptions for 56 yards and finished the season as the school's all-time leading receiver.
Zion Gillard had 17 carries for 88 yards and Nick Bliss added 48 more on seven carries.
The Wildcats finished with 294 yards of offense.
