South Forsyth looked to have its hands full early in Friday’s season opener at Forsyth Central, as the Bulldogs came out of the gate and stunned the visiting War Eagles with a quick scoring drive to open the game.

South made sure that was the highlight of Central’s night, though, dominating the first three quarters with six unanswered touchdowns en route to an impressive 41-20 victory at the Dawg Pound.

Central (0-1 overall, 0-1 Region 7-AAAA) got the ball first, and needed only five plays to travel 80 yards to the end zone. The highlight of the drive was a 60-yard pass between Spencer Transue and Jeremy Kovach to put the Dawgs all the way down at the War Eagle 10.

Three plays later, Transue dropped back, saw a hole and took off, diving at the goal line to finish a 5-yard run. A missed Donovan Pritzlaff extra point left it 6-0 with 9:19 to play in the first.

“Once again, we make an early bust on coverage on the first series and they score the touchdown [right after] the pass,” South coach Jeff Arnette said.

However, the War Eagles (1-0, 1-0) came right back after that disappointment. Central’s kickoff went out of bounds, setting up South at the 35 to start. The War Eagles only needed one play to traverse the 65 yards, as Joe Outlaw took a pitch behind the line of scrimmage and fired downfield to Jason Howard. The senior reciever reeled in the ball around the Central 35 and ran the rest of the way for the score, putting South up 7-6 with 9:03 left.

Arnette said the halfback pass was a big momentum shifter.

“Great call by Coach [Troy] Morris, he put that in early in the week and it was just one of those plays that if it works, it gives you a lot of momentum, and that’s what happened there,” Arnette said.

Central coach Chris Bennett also noted the play as a turning point.

“You could see our kids, the wind kind of went out of our sails [on that play]. We’ve got to work on the mental part of the game, of being able to overcome that,” Bennett said.

From there, it was all South for the first three quarters.

Linebacker Sam McKelvey came up with a fumble on Central’s 29 late in the first quarter, putting the Eagles well into Bulldog territory for the next series. Brett Charron (108 rushing yards, 3 touchdowns) finished off the drive with a standing 2-yard run into the end zone, making it 14-6.

A short punt after Central’s ensuing drive again set the Eagles up on prime real estate, as they began the next drive at the Bulldog 42. With a 15-yard defensive penalty helping them along, the War Eagles ended up scoring again on a 2-yard surge from Charron with 8:14 to go in the half.

South’s defense got in on the scoring act a few seconds later, as Howard hauled in a Transue interception around the Bulldog 30 on the first play of Central’s next series, then took a zig-zag route to paydirt.

Paul Buurman’s extra point was blocked, leaving it 27-6, which was the halftime score.

In all, Central turned the ball over three times in the first half, with South scoring 13 points off the miscues.

“You can’t beat anybody with three turnovers in the first half,” Bennett said.

The third quarter featured more of the same, with South getting the ball first out of the locker room and taking it 75 yards in three plays.

Big running back Kyle Travis (98 rushing yards) rumbled 67 yards for the score, bouncing around defenders and balancing himself with a hand on the ground at one point to stay upright and keep the play alive.

It was one of three South plays to cover at least 55 yards in a single swoop.

“One thing we really worked on this week was mistakes up front [on the offensive line], and I think the offensive staff did a great job fixing that. The kids did a great job fixing it. I think the offense made a lot of big holes, but I tell you what, I saw some incredible runs tonight, I really did,” Arnette said.

Following a Central three-and-out, South scored again, with Charron earning his third touchdown on a 55-yard run.
Charron cut to the sideline early on the play, then found himself needing to cut inside to dodge one defender at the goal line. That score made it 41-6 with 7:18 left in the third.

“To be honest with you, the gap on the run, I could drive my truck through it twice. It was a great block by the offensive line and then it just opened wide from there. I took it from there,” Charron said.

Central tightened things up with two scores during a running-clock fourth quarter. Bradley Godfrey recorded an 8-yard touchdown run to end a long drive that chewed up eight minutes in the third and fourth quarters.

With both teams playing their second strings late in the fourth, Miller Cone came up with a 26-yard scoring run for Central with 2 minutes to play.

“You always got to look for positives and there were a lot of positives. Our kids didn’t quit. We made a few plays in the second half and got some points too little, too late,” Bennett said.

One key difference on the night was field position. South started seven drives past its own 30, while Buurman sent seven kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, pinning Central at its own 20 for each of those drives.

“Paul Buurman was absolutely huge. When you start on the 20 everytime as an offense, that makes it tough and Paul has had a great summer, a great fall. He’s just a great asset for this team,” Arnette said.

Both teams play a full 10-game region slate this year. The War Eagles play their home opener Friday against Woodland (Bartow), while Central has two weeks to prepare for a Sep. 10 trip to Chattahoochee.