Stephenson holds off Tucker in rivalry shootout

Several DeKalb teams won close games during week five of the high school football season, which also featured three all-DeKalb games and a rivalry win for Stephenson.

In addition to Stephenson’s win, Dunwoody kept its record perfect with a one-point win over Lakeside, Druid Hills rallied back for an overtime road win, and Arabia Mountain and Columbia also picked up wins.

Stephenson 48, Tucker 41

Stephenson High School senior running back Devin Ingram had four second half touchdowns and 191 yards rushing to fuel Stephenson’s rally to defeat Tucker 48-41 at Hallford Stadium on Sept. 22.

The Stephenson Jaguars (4-1) were trailing 20-13 at halftime as Jamar Graham threw two touchdown passes in the first half—one was 38 yards to Rashard Martin and the other was 27 yards to Christian Whitmore—to go along with a 90-yard kickoff return by Jordan McCoy for the Tigers (2-3).

Stephenson forced three turnovers early in the second half to take a 34-20 lead in the first seven minutes of the third quarter. The first turnover stopped a Tucker drive at the Stephenson 20-yard line when Kaleb Bristow recovered a fumble.

Two plays later, Ingram cut outside to the right sideline and outraced the defense 80 yards into the end zone to tie the game at 20-20 when Anthony Zelaya’s extra point went through the uprights.

On Tucker’s next play, a mishandled ball was pounced on by Stephenson’s Andrew Perry at the Tucker 12 to set up Stephenson’s next touchdown. Quarterback Marte Barton faked a handoff and went around the end for a 12-yard touchdown run with 8:09 left in the quarter to make it 27-20.

Two plays later, Donterious McKenzie picked off a Tucker pass to give the Jaguars possession at the Tucker 45. Seven plays later, Ingram got his second touchdown on a 12-yard run and Zelaya tacked on the extra point to up the lead to 34-20 with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

Tucker answered by putting together a 78-yard scoring drive finished off by a three-yard dive into the end zone by Kendall Beard with 9:27 to play. Eli French hit the extra point to cut the lead in half at 27-34.

The Tigers got in on the turnover train by recovering a Stephenson fumble at the Jaguars’ 21. Graham finished the short drive with a three-yard scamper into the end zone. The Tigers decided to try for the lead only to have the two-point conversion stopped short by the Jaguars’ defense keep Stephenson ahead at 34-33.

Ingram had a 33-yard return on the ensuing kickoff to put the Jaguars inside Tucker territory at the 47. Ingram found the end zone on an 11-yard run to extend the lead to 41-33 four plays later.

Stephenson then forced Tucker to punt and went to Ingram for all four plays, including runs of 25 yards and a 34-yard run around the right side for the touchdown.

McCoy closed the gap again as he took the following kickoff 80 yards to the house. French hit the extra point to close the gap to 41-48.

Stephenson recovered the onside kick and ran out the final 1:19 of the clock for a fifth consecutive win over the Tigers. Ingram—in just two quarters of play—had 13 carries for 191 yards and four touchdowns. Corvalli Jackson ran for 81 yards and had two first half touchdown runs on 12 carries.

McCoy had 24 carries for 107 yards and caught three passes for 67 yards and had the two kickoff returns for scores to lead the Tigers. Graham threw for 167 yards on 10 of 18 passing with two touchdowns and one interception.

Druid Hills 21, Southeast Whitfield 20 

The Druid Hills Red Devils rallied from an early 14-0 deficit to win a 21-20 overtime road game against the Southeast Whitfield Raiders on Sept. 22.

Druid Hills’ Akeem Cunningham started the rally by returning the kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. Wyatt Bennett’s extra point made it 7-14.

Still trailing 14-7 with 33 seconds to play, Druid Hills went to the air with quarterback Kai Robinson connecting with Zach Manning on a 60-yard touchdown pass play. Bennett’s extra point tied the game at 14-14 and the game went into overtime.

The Raiders opened the overtime by scoring a touchdown only to miss the extra point, resulting in a 20-14 lead as Druid Hills got possession.

Druid Hills was facing a third down at the Raiders’ six-yard line when Cameron Ezzard found the end zone to tie the game 20-20. Bennett was true on the extra point to close out the rally for the 21-20 victory.

Dunwoody 16, Lakeside 15 

The Dunwoody Wildcats (5-0) overcame three turnovers by putting up a stout defensive game to upend the Lakeside Vikings 16-15 at Adams Stadium on Sept. 22.

The Vikings had led 9-0 in the first half and were trailing 16-9 with 6:48 to play when quarterback Kyle Davis connected with Kelly Anthony (nine receptions, 76 yards) for touchdown to close the gap to 16-15.

Dunwoody held on to the lead as Luke Phillips (seven total tackles) broke through to block the extra point attempt to get the Wildcats out of the game with a win.

Columbia 31, McNair 6 

Lamaze Williams and Jaden Baugh both scored two touchdowns to lead the Columbia Eagles to a 31-6 region 5-2A win over the McNair Mustangs at Godfrey Stadium on Sept. 22.

The Eagles (3-2, 1-0) jumped out to a 19-0 lead over the Mustangs (2-3, 0-1) on the way to the win.

Williams finished the night with 140 yards on nine carries and had one reception for 20 yards to go with his two touchdowns. Baugh added 131 yards on six carries along with four receptions for 71 yards to go with his two touchdowns.

Results for every DeKalb team that played on Sept. 21 – 23 are listed below:

Sept. 21

Adams Stadium

Harvester Christian (2-3) 34, Cross Keys (0-6) 0

Godfrey Stadium

Arabia Mountain (4-1) 41, Locust Grove (1-4) 16

Hallford Stadium

Charles Drew (2-3) 34, Stone Mountain (0-5) 0

Sept. 22

Adams Stadium

Dunwoody (5-0) 16, Lakeside (3-2) 15

Avondale Stadium

Callaway (4-1) 38, Redan (1-4) 6

Godfrey Stadium

Columbia (3-2) 31, McNair (2-3) 6

Hallford Stadium

Stephenson (4-1) 48, Tucker (2-3) 41

Away games

Colquitt Co. (5-0) 50, Cedar Grove (2-4) 42

Heard Co. (1-4) 37, Clarkston (1-4) 6

Druid Hills (3-1-1) 21, Southwest Whitfield (1-4) 20

Cass (3-2) 40, M.L. King (1-4) 0

Sept. 23
Away game

Douglass (4-2) 52, Lithonia (1-4) 6

The Champion Editor Jay Phillips contributed to this article.