North Gwinnett nursed a 14-6 lead at the half and took some time to get momentum on the offensive side.
Enter quarterback Ryan Hall.
He’d passed for the Bulldog’s opening touchdown on a 25-yarder to Nick Bookman but after throwing for an interception late in the second quarter, Hall gathered himself at the half.
Once in sync, he passed for two more touchdowns and finished 8-of-16 passing for 127 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs to a 39-17 victory over McEachern in the penultimate game of the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Kickoff Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“It means a lot to kick off our season right here,” said North Gwinnett head coach Eric Godfree.
The key to the game was the Bulldogs’ ability to control one of McEachern’s biggest weapons in running back Jay Campbell, who was held to just 24 yards on seven carries by the North Gwinnett front seven.
“I am overjoyed,” Godfree said. “I would have told you he is going to get his yards and punch away. I watched him on film, and nobody could get him on the ground, just one person. But our defense was relentless. Our front, the linebackers were freed up to make tackles and our secondary did a great job with coverage.”
McEachern cut into the lead 7-6 on a 5-yard run from Zah’lyn Bell with 9:10 left in the second quarter after a failed point-after try. Tommy LaFayette scored on an 18-yard run with five minutes left in the first half to put the Bulldogs ahead 14-6.
Constantine Dallis was 4-for-4 on extra-point attempts and kicked a 47-yard field goal with 9:34 left in the third quarter to extend the lead to 17-6. Hall passed to Nick Bookman on a 7-yard touchdown pass with 4:08 left in the third quarter to give North Gwinnett a 25-6 lead.
Bell passed to Zavion Harrison on a 33-yard touchdown and Jon Rodriquez made a 21-yard field goal to lead McEachern trailing 25-17 with 9:31 left in the game, but the Indians were thwarted from that point on.
Hall passed to Erik Ronning on a 62-yard touchdown, the proverbial dagger, with 6:12 left in the game and when Jalen Gist returned a fumble 18 yards for a touchdown just 10 seconds later, the game was over.
Godfree knows the importance of pre-region scheduling and in the upcoming weeks, North Gwinnett will be on somewhat of a redemption tour of sorts. “We got a bit of a visitor tour coming up,” he said. “Five teams on our schedule had beaten us the last time we played them, whether it was five years ago or one year ago. So this is good to get started right here.”
