CALHOUN 41, JACKSON 20
The Star: Calhoun senior Baylon Spector senior passed for 123 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 104 yards and two scores.Up next: Calhoun will host Cedar Grove next Friday in the Class AAA quarterfinals. Cedar Grove, the No. 2 seed from Region 5, defeated Region 3 No. 1 seed Jenkins of Savannah.
CALHOUN, Ga. - It's likely the defensive game plan will change henceforth for any football team facing the Calhoun Yellow Jackets in the 2016 postseason.
Calhoun's two-quarterback system is still in place, but there's a new wrinkle. The team's "running QB," Baylon Spector, was 4-for-5 passing for 123 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Jackets (10-2) to a 41-20 comeback win over Jackson in a GHSA Class AAA second-round game Friday night at Phil Reeve Stadium.
"We're going to have to throw it when he's in there some," Calhoun coach Hal Lamb said of his senior two-way star. "We haven't been doing that, and they were doing one thing when Baylon was in and another when Gavin (Gray) was in, so there were some plays to be made."
The Jackets needed the plays after the Red Devils (8-4) used a trio of big plays to take a 20-14 halftime lead. On Jackson's first possession, quarterback Shaderious Crowder hit Deontae Barlow with a 59-yard touchdown pass on third-and-15.
After the Jackets tied the score on a Ryan Randall 5-yard run, Jackson was facing a third-and-17 when running back Antavius Grier took a short screen pass and raced 70 yards for a touchdown. Calhoun again tied the game, with Spector's 31-yard pass to Jess Ralston leading to Spector's 2-yard scoring run.
The tie was short-lived when Spector was stripped of the ball at the Jackson 15 moments later, with Courtney Stodghill scooping it up and racing untouched into the end zone. The point-after kick was blocked, but the visitors took a shocking six-point lead into halftime.
"We came out stumbling and had a couple of bad turnovers," Spector said. "The defense showed out in the second half, and we proved it's a team game. Play as a team, win as a team."
The Calhoun defense allowed only 54 yards in the second half, 38 of them in the waning seconds when the game was in hand. The offense needed just three plays to take the lead for good when Spector threw a strike to Luke Johns, who bounced off one defender at the Jackson 40 and raced the rest of the way for a 63-yard touchdown.
A Randall interception two plays later set Calhoun at the Jackson 46, and after seven consecutive runs Spector took a handoff from Gray, rolled right and hit Malik Lawrence in the back of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown and a 28-20 lead.
"I've been working on my passing in practice extra hard," Spector said before getting a dig in on offensive coordinator Mike Davis. "Coach Davis doesn't trust me that much, so I'm trying to get him to let me sling it some more. Seriously, this was a great team win."
Randall's second interception early in the final quarter set up a 55-yard scoring drive, with Spector bulling over from the 5.
"We made some adjustments at the half and started communicating better," Randall said. "We're a dangerous team, and if we play to our potential the sky's the limit."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.