By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Gators survive 24 penalties, six overtimes to win, 38-36
BA football
Bulloch Academy running back Maddox Lee goes in for a touchdown in the first half of the Gators matchup at Robert Toombs Thursday night in Lyons.

For the Bulloch Academy football team, 300 yards is a decent offensive outing. But 300 yards in penalties is a different matter. Thursday in Lyons, the Gators were flagged 24 times for 280 yards and had to battle through six overtimes before they finally knocked off Robert Toombs, 38-36.

“I feel like we were the better team, but nearly 300 yards in penalties makes it difficult to win,” said Gator coach Aaron Phillips. “I think we ended up getting flagged for almost every penalty you can imagine and things just escalated when our kids starting showing their frustration from all the calls. We let them hang around and no matter what the circumstance we just have to learn from this one and move on.”

The Gators jumped out to a quick 21-7 lead with two rushing touchdowns from Maddox Lee and one by Danya Garvin, then penalty flags atarted to fly. Robert Toombs took advantage of a 24-6 discrepancy in penalties and came back to tie the game, 21-21.

With just under five minutes to play in regulation the Gators marched downfield to the Crusader 15-yard line. The Gators then got an unnecessary roughness call on a pancake block on an offensive lineman. That was followed by a pair of holding calls pushing them all the way to midfield. The Gators were still eventually able to move the ball to the three-yard line, but were unable to punch it into the end zone at the end of regulation.

With the game tied instead of playing the GIAA overtime rules the officials implemented the GHSA overtime rules. Both teams scored once in the overtime sessions and were stopped four times. Eventually in the sixth overtime, RTCA scored and missed their two-point conversion and the Gators scored and made the two-point try for the final of 38-36.

“In GIAA we are supposed to put the ball on the 25-yard line and you get one timeout and play like a regular game,” Phillips said. “In GHSA you put the ball on the three-yard line, then you end up having to go for two later which we had to do last night and it was frustrating.

“I feel like we could play that game 15 times and the outcome would be very different, “Phillips said. “The same Hinesville association crew will be at all of our home games so we have to just find a way to overcome this. The good thing is we won and now we have to get ready for a very good John Milledge team this Friday.”