The Creekside Seminoles took care of one of their rivals and announced to the rest of Class 4A that they shouldn’t be discounted because of a couple of early season losses to out-of-state powers.
Creekside routed Mays 31-0 on GPB’s Football Fridays in Georgia broadcast, evening its record at 2-2. The win also leaves the Seminoles tied with Maynard Jackson (5-0) atop the Region 4 standings.
“The beginning of the season for us was just about discovery, discovering who we were and letting the kids understand what the expectations are at Creekside,” coach Maurice Dixon said. “The first two games were tough on us, but I knew we had a really good team if we could just figure it out. And that’s what we try to do every game, just figure it out.”
Creekside reached the Class 5A championship game last year before coming up short against Coffee. The Seminoles graduated quarterback Vinson Berry and playmakers Roderick McCrary, Shane Kelley and Travis Terrell Jr., along with others, and began the season with a lot of question marks.
Th transition has been helped by the addition of quarterback Cayden Brown, a transfer from Parkview. He has thrown for 940 yards and run for 225. He threw for 336 and ran for 77 last week against Mays.
He has been helped by a young, talented group of offensive linemen. Junior tackles Javon Perry (6-4, 270), who already has offers from Florida State, Pitt and Boston College, and Devin Harris (6-3, 259) are converted basketball players. The interior linemen are sophomores – guards Rylan Robertson (5-11, 175) and Lawrence Martin (6-0, 245) and center Kaleb Noel (6-1, 255). The trio has been working with Dixon since they were 10-11 years old.
The playmakers include four-star receiver Dylan Vickerson, receiver Eric Paul, the versatile Damien “Bam” Henderson and running back Anthony “Red” Hill.
The defense is led by linebackers Dillyn Blakely, Zarion Jones and Major Levell, and defensive backs Zack Carter, Sean Williams, Tyree Colzie and Nash Johnson.
The Seminoles suffered a blow when sophomore safety Hayden Dixon, son of coach Maurice Dixon, broke his tibia and had to be helped off the field. He will be out for 6-8 weeks. It was tough for Dixon to watch his son being attended to on the field.
“They don’t teach you about that in coaching,” Dixon said. “You don’t know how to deal with that. You try to stay as calm as possible, but at the end of the day when it’s your child, it’s like, ‘Oooh, it’s my baby that’s hurt.’”
St. Pius celebrates big OT victory
St. Pius (4-1, 3-0 Region 5) won a crucial league game by beating Southwest DeKalb (3-2, 2-1) 28-27 in overtime.
The Golden Lions sent the game into overtime thanks to a last-second 26-yard field goal from Ivan Lipscomb that knotted the game 21-21.
St. Pius then scored on its first possession in overtime. John Taylor, who ran 13 times for 64 yards, scored his third touchdown of the game to give the Golden Lions their first lead. Lipscomb’s extra point made it 28-21.
Southwest DeKalb answered when quarterback Braylon Carter threw a touchdown pass to Samuel Turner. The Panthers opted to go for the win, but their two-point conversion pass failed. SWD was led by running back Joshua Jones, who had 12 carries for 122 yards and one touchdown and one receiving touchdown.
Top performers: Stephen Cannon of No. 3 Benedictine completed 15 of 21 passes for 222 yards in a 31-3 win over Westminster. … Brooks Goodman threw two touchdown passes to help No. 4 Blessed Trinity beat Hebron Christian 24-10. … No. 5 North Oconee defeated previously unbeaten East Forsyth 24-7 as linebacker Khamari Brooks had 10 tackles, two for loss, and intercepted a pass. … Jordan Perkins ran 12 times for 117 yards and No. 6 Warner Robins beat Veterans 41-10. … Payton Shaw threw for 147 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a touchdown to help No. 8 Eastside beat Flowery Branch 48-12. … Quarterback J.R. Harris completed 9 of 10 passes for 241 yards and four touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass in a 70-6 win over Mundy’s Mill. ... Creekside’s Cayden Benson completed 22 of 28 passes for 332 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 77 yards in a 31-0 win over Mays.
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