ATLANTA — Allatoona has given Cobb County a state title winning streak.
One year after Mount Paran Christian brought a football championship back to the county to end a 47-year drought, Allatoona became the first Cobb County School District program to win the prize with a 10-6 win over Glynn Academy in Friday’s Class AAAAA state championship game at the Georgia Dome.
After losing its season opener to East Paulding, Allatoona capped its season with 14 straight wins.
“It feels great. The community and everybody is excited about it,” said Allatoona coach Gary Varner, who experienced a championship for the first time since serving as an assistant on Roswell’s title team in 2006, two years before he began building the Buccaneers’ program from scratch.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s over. I finally get a haircut (today) and put my Christmas tree up.”
After neither team scored in the first half, Allatoona’s championship push hinged on two key drives in the second half.
The Buccaneers manufactured a 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive that consisted of nine runs and one pass. It chewed more than 5 minutes of clock, resulting in four first downs before senior quarterback Brandon Rainey punched it in through the middle from 1 yard out.
“We weren’t doing our job (in the first half). None of us were doing our jobs,” said the Citadel-bound Rainey, who threw for 73 yards and rushed for 48. “We talked about getting back to the basics.”
Running back Brandon Archibald, who has seen more playing since Russell Halimon’s season-ending ACL injury in the first round, led Allatoona with 50 yards on 14 carries. Half of his yards came on the opening drive of the second half, which was highlighted by Rainey’s pass to Derrand Garrett down the sideline for a 24-yard gain that set up the quarterback keeper.
While Allatoona’s offense finally found the end zone, its defense continued keeping Glynn Academy (12-3) off the scoreboard. Danny Tesler recovered a fumble in Allatoona territory in the third quarter, but the Buccaneers couldn’t tack on to their lead until Skyler Davis’ 29-yard field goal in the closing minutes.
A 21-yard catch-and-run by Jalen Parrish on the second play of the drive was key, along with 30-yard burst up the middle by Rainey.
Rainey added 7 more yards to put the Buccaneers on the Glynn Academy 11, setting up Davis’ field goal with 2:21 to play.
“We talked about blocking (in the second half),” Varner said. “We talked about the fact that they’ve been out here since January and put a lot of pride in our offensive line and our fullbacks, and they weren’t getting it done. We just challenged them and said that is the heart and soul of our team, and they stepped up.”
The defense did its job, holding the Red Terrors to just 146 yards. It didn’t yield any points until Glynn Academy quarterback Deejay Davis scored from 9 yards out with no time left on the clock, after a pass interference call gave the Red Terrors an untimed down.
The loss prevented Glynn Academy from winning its first state championship since 1964, and it kept Red Terrors coach Rocky Hidalgo winless in the finals — four years after his Walton team lost to a powerhouse Grayson squad.