DOUGLASVILLE — Russell Hailmon rushed for 243 yards and four touchdowns as Allatoona used a strong second half to pull away from New Manchester 42-27.
With the win, the Buccaneers (6-1, 5-1) stayed in first place in Region 5AAAAA.
Allatoona came through in a seemingly impossible situation early in the third quarter to change the game’s momentum.
With the game tied at 14 early in the third quarter and facing a third-and-25 on the first possession of the second half, Brandon Rainey connected with Michael Pynes on a 47-yard pass to set up a 1-yard run by Rainey to give the Buccaneers their first lead of the game at 21-14.
“Sometimes it’s good to be lucky,” Allatoona coach Gary Varner said. “It kept the flow of the game going. They came back and scored, but then we answered it and took control of it after that.”
Allatoona put the game away for good with 21 unanswered points after the Jaguars’ Tabashi Thomas tied the game with a 3-yard run.
On the ensuing play, Hailmon’s electrifying 76-yard run down the sideline gave the Buccaneers the lead for good at 28-21 with 4:12 left in the third quarter. Halimon’s fourth touchdown — a 1-yard run — and Rainey’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Pynes, gave Allatoona an insurmountable 42-21 lead with 3:03 left in the game.
“Great quarterback,” Varner said of Rainey. “He’s getting better every week. He’s just a really underrated kid that people are going to know a lot about before this year is over with.”
Thomas’ 29-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Morgan late in the game for the Jaguars closed the scoring. Thomas accounted for four touchdowns for the Jaguars (3-3, 2-3).
The Jaguars had no answer for Hailmon, as he rushed for 157 of his 243 yards in the second half. New Manchester’s Brian Herrien rushed for 173 yards, but only 47 in the second half.
“He had a great game,” Varner said of Hailmon. “He just ran real hard, probably his best game as of yet I think this year as far as just the speed at which he ran. (He ran physical), lineman got better as the game went on. We started picking up the blitzes and that what kind of opened everything up.”
A 38-yard touchdown pass from Thomas to Jalen Mathis gave New Manchester an early 7-0 lead.
The Buccaneers tied the game at seven early in the second quarter with an 14-yard run by Halimon.
Thomas’ second touchdown of the evening in the second quarter — a one yard quarterback sneak — gave New Manchester a 14-7 lead.
Allatoona responded right before halftime with a 10 play drive lasting nearly 5 minutes, ending on Halimon’s second touchdown run of three yards to tie the game at 14.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Halimon runs Bucs past Jags