Union coach Brad Breland had a dilemma heading into the Yellowjackets’ game with J.Z. George. A number of starters were out with injury, and Breland had to call on a number of young players to fill those gaps.
The young guys rose to the occasion and led Union to a 30-12 win at home Friday night. The win improves Union’s record to 2-2, as the ‘Jackets prepare for rival Newton County this Friday night on the road.
“We had a lot of starters out, our quarterback hurt,” Breland said. “Those guys stepped in there and fought hard. You know, the guys we put in did a great job, and some of them are going to stay right there. They did a great job, and I’m proud of them.”
One guy in particular that stepped in and made a difference was freshman quarterback Kenyon Clay. While the Jackets only threw it five times, he helped solidify a dominant rushing attack that gained 331 yards on the ground. Of that, Clay accounted for 231 yards on 24 carries with two scores.
“He played well for us tonight,” Breland said. “He made a couple of bad reads and missed running behind his blockers a couple of times, but he’s going to be a good one.”
J.Z. George got on the board with a 50-yard touchdown by Malik Christian to give the Jaguars as 6-0 heading into the second quarter.
Moments into the second quarter, Union faced some adversity when the refs failed to change the down marker on a third-down play that should have been punting situation on fourth down. The Jags took advantage on Deriaun Townsend’s 69-yard run. That set up the Jags in the Union red zone.
However, the Union defense didn’t break, holding J.Z. George on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line. From there, it only took Union three plays to capitalize. Kenyon Clay got into the open and raced 92 yards for the touchdown with 6:35 remaining before halftime. The failed PAT left the game tied at halftime.
Union then went on a 91-yard drive in the third quarter, as Jaylon Buckley scored on a 37-yard run, giving Union a 12-6 lead.
Fifteen seconds later, the Jags return the kickoff 80 yards for the touchdown to knot the game up again.
However, Union took control of the ground game as Clay rumbled for a 41-yard touchdown to give the Jackets the 18-12 lead heading to the final stanza.
Clay put the game away by completing first pass of the game, a 20-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Harrison with 3:02 to go.
Mark Jones iced the game with a scoop-and-score touchdown with 2:19 remaining for the final margin. He also had a sack.
Buckley added 64 rushing yards on eight carries while Malcolm Clay also had 36 yards on seven carries.
Garrett Posey led the Union defense with five solo tackles and 10 assists while Eli Rigdon had three solo tackles and six assists.
