Northside football coach Daniel “Boone” Williams looking for more fight after shutout loss to Lee County

WARNER ROBINS — The central theme of Daniel “Boone” Williams’ post-game huddle was fight.

Not that Northside (3-4, 1-2 Region 2-6A) didn’t show at least some in their 37-0 loss to Lee County (7-1, 3-1 Region); the defense held the Trojans, ranked 28th in the nation, to 23 points of offense — a far cry from last year’s 54.

Williams challenged his team to come back from fall break next week ready to lock in Monday through Thursday, and face what he believes is a winnable game against Coffee on Friday head on.

“We talked about this game last year. I felt like we gave up, and they scored 49, 50-something points,” Williams said. “We played them a lot closer than we played them last year. That’s that fight I’m talking about, just getting better and fighting a little bit more. We got to start making the plays that they made.”

Excluding an outlier 42 allowed to Westlake, the Eagles defense is averaging 18.3 points allowed per game.

They kept up with the Lee County rushing game and chased around quarterback Cohen Lawson enough to force an interception and a couple of sacks.

“This defense has definitely grown up,” Williams said. “You take those 14 points away with special teams … we’re a little bit closer. That’s a great team, we’re playing one of the top teams in the country. But it’s our region, so we know that.”

But for each big positive, Lawson was able to get off a circus throw to Jaden Upshaw or Carter Blackwell.

On the Trojans’ next drive after Lawson’s pick, Northside flushed him out of the pocket and he found Carter Blackwell at the end of a nearly 40-yard pass. Blackwell rose up with a defender draped over him and pulled down the reception at the Eagles nine-yard line. Shortly after Lee County led 14-0.

On 3rd-and-19 with under a minute to go before halftime, Lawson found his favorite target, Upshaw, in the end zone for an incredible contested touchdown reception to push their advantage to 30 at the break.

A solid defensive effort doesn’t matter much if the other two phases of the game don’t match it.

The other 14 points Lee County scored came on special teams.

The opening kickoff was returned 85 yards by Destin Bell for a score, and a few minutes into the third quarter the Trojans blocked a punt and scooped it up inside the five for the final score of the game.

Eagles quarterback Keirion “KT” Tate was only able to break off one explosive run, and the Lee County secondary was all over the deep routes when he looked downfield. The running game struggled, too, no matter the back that had the ball.

In addition, false starts at the beginning of drives set them back on multiple occasions.

“Lee County did a good job being physical at the point of attack. They were kind of beating us up front,” Williams said. “When you can’t handle it up front, you can’t do anything on the back end. Just from talking, I know they respected us in the passing game and KT’s escapability. So that’s one thing they wanted to worry about and make sure they were on top of.”

UP NEXT

At the very least, Northside won’t have to face as good a passing offense as Lee County when they travel to Coffee next week. Coffee beat Houston County 27-13 at home on Friday.

Lee County will finish their two-game road trip at Tift County next week before taking their final bye week. They finish their season at home against Houston County.