West Laurens senior running back Ty Cummings rushed for a state-record 615 yards and eight touchdowns on 19 carries Friday night in a 70-55 victory over Baldwin.
Cummings, a senior who committed to Georgia Southern, scored on runs of 59, 91, 75, 53, 59, 59, 86 and 78 yards in the Class 3A game between Middle Georgia teams.
“They had no answer for him,” West Laurens coach Kip Burdette said Saturday morning. “We couldn’t stop them either. Most of his runs were direct snaps to him. He’d break through the first level, and there would be nobody in the second or third level to touch him. Some of the were 90-something and 80-something-yard runs. He’s got great vision and incredible speed.”
The radio crew that covers West Laurens’ games and keeps in-game statistics alerted Burdette of the yardage total Friday night. West Laurens’ statistics become official only after Burdette’s staff watches the film, which it did Saturday afternoon.
The 615 yards broke the state record of 605 set last year by former Coffee running back Tyrese Woodgett against Sequoyah in the Class 5A playoffs. No other Georgia players have rushed for more than 500 in a game.
The National Federation of High School Associations lists only six games of more than 600 in history, but the records are not well-maintained, as Woodgett’s 2024 game is not listed in the NFHS record books. The NFHS recognizes a 754-yard game in 1950 by a New Jersey player named John Giannantonio as the national record.
Cummings was just named the AJC Varsity/Georgia High School Football Daily state player of the week for his previous game’s performance, a relatively tame 224 rushing yards in a 26-21 victory over 10th-ranked Harlem in a Region 4-3A game.
West Laurens (6-0, 4-0) leads Region 4-3A. Baldwin (2-3, 1-2) eliminated West Laurens from the 2024 playoffs in the first round last season.
The 75 points Friday night made this the 15th highest-scoring game in GHSA history.
Note: This story was updated Saturday afternoon to report that Burdette had validated Cummings’ statistics after watching game film and that Cummings’ 615 rushing yards is an official single-game Georgia record.
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