The star: Ringgold quarterback Slade Dale had 22 carries for 164 yards and four TDs and passed for 220 yards and three scores.Up next: Ringgold (9-2) hosts Cedar Grove in the GHSA second round.
RINGGOLD, Ga. – Call it courage. Or justice, or karma, or law of averages, or maybe big dumb luck.
Ringgold football coach Robert Akins called it “persistence.”
What matters is that the Tigers took the best sixth-ranked North Hall had to offer and pulled out their first-ever GHSA playoff win Friday night, 55-54 over the Trojans in four remarkable regulation quarters.
“To me, this is Ringgold’s biggest win ever because it’s a playoff game,” said Akins, who learned moments before that the Tigers would be hosting Cedar Grove next week after its four-overtime upset of Elbert County. “This was a rough night for our defense: Trying to tackle [North Hall quarterback Andrew] Smith was like trying to tackle a squirrel. But our offense did everything we could ask all night long.”