The Newton County Academy football season came to an end on Thursday night.
The Generals fell behind early as River Oaks used a stingy defense and big-play offense to take a 42-12 win in the Class 1A Division I semifinals.
NCA finishes the season with a 9-2 record while River Oaks improves to 10-0 on the season.
The Generals fell behind early and saw the game turn when Cooper Savell got hurt with an ankle injury, just as he passed the 2,000-yard mark for the season. NCA coach Stevie Nelson said losing Savell was a huge blow for his team.
“When Cooper got hurt, it really took us out of our game,” Nelson said. “Then you are limited with one guy on offense. Cooper getting hurt took a lot of energy. It was just hard to get going on offense and they pounced on us early. I was pleased with the effort in the third quarter. We had a chance to score a couple of times and didn’t get it done like we normally do. We competed with them a lot better in the second half than in the first. I just don’t know how you have an eight-man team with 38 kids. They are just circumventing the rules and that’s the bottom line. They had 13 seniors and 38 players, those aren’t eight-man numbers.”
River Oaks got the ball to start the game and scored on the first play from scrimmage with a 61-yard touchdown run and also converted the two-point conversion to take an early 8-0 lead.
NCA then turned the ball over on downs as they failed to convert a fourth and 5. River Oaks then scored two plays later on a 5-yard run and scored the two-point conversion to go up 16-0 early in the first quarter.
The two teams then swapped possessions and NCA finally got on the board as they went 40 yards in four plays. Taylor Burt hit Josh Fletcher on an 18-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed and NCA cut the lead to 16-6 early in the second quarter.
River Oaks then scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass to make the score 22-6. After NCA turned the ball over near midfield and the Mustangs added a 1-yard run to go up 28-6 at the half.
NCA finally found the end zone again after a short punt by River Oaks. Taylor Burt then scored on a 9-yard run. The try or two failed and NCA led 28-12 on the last play of the third quarter.
NCA then recovered the onside kick but failed to get a first down and turned the ball over on downs. River Oaks then scored on a 16-yard run and ran in the two-point conversion and led 36-12.
River Oaks added a 19-yard run for the final margin of 42-12.
“I thought we kept on getting better every week and just kept playing,” Nelson said. “We had a bunch of blue-collar guys that really liked to play smash-mouth football. That was our style and once you start that and start winning, everybody expects you to win. The future is bright. We have to find four guys to replace. Those four seniors were tough guys. They played football the way the old timers played and that’s something you don’t find a lot these days. I hate it ended the way it did for those four seniors.”
NCA had a season-low 162 yards of total offense with 144 rushing and 18 passing while River Oaks had 236 yards rushing and 141 passing for 377 yards of total offense.
Burt led the Generals with 85 yards on 21 carries with one TD while Cooper Savell had 31 yards on four carries. Eli Herrington had 28 yards on 12 carries. Burt was 1-for-4 passing for 18 yards and one TD.
On defense, Grady Bergeron led the Generals with seven tackles while Cooper Thrash had six tackles. Josh Fletcher had 5.5 tackles while Amos Castillo and Eli Herrington each had five tackles. Burt had 4.5 tackles while Ethan Woodham 3.5 tackles. Campbell Tune had three tackles while Maddox Jackson had two tackles.
