As teams get into region play and start jockeying for positioning within the standings, the Central Lions took a positive step on Thursday after defeating the Jonesboro Cardinals 24-21, improving to 6-0 on the season and more importantly, 2-0 in the Georgia High School Association Class 4A, Region 3 standings and are now one of the three teams out of the seven in the region yet to lose a region game.
"We talk all the time about football character and football character means you play the next play no matter how good or bad honestly," Central head coach, Umbrah Brown, said following Thursday's game in which the Lions took a 14-0 second quarter lead, but then found themselves trailing 21-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
"You give up 21 unanswered, no coach will tell you that's the plan, so we felt like we helped them a little bit, but at the same time it was a credit to those guys," Brown said as he praised the Jonesboro players for overcoming a 14 point deficit to jump out in front of the Lions. "That's a super talented team," Brown said of Jonesboro.
However, the Lions showed their resilience giving themselves a chance to secure the win after a third down play would result in junior quarterback, JR Harris connecting with sophomore Alanson Simmons to set a Central first down inside the Jonesboro 30-yard line which would eventually lead to a Jake Davis field goal with :11 remaining in the game.
"It was one of those things where it came back down to football character, playing the next play. You can't win a game in once play , just focus on playing each play as if it has a life of its own so proud of our kids for that," Brown said as Davis' field goal would be the eventual game winner after Jonesboro's last second attempt on a Ethan Sharpe pass came up short.
""He's just one of those guys, he works his freaking tale off and he's a true kicker and the pressure's never too big for him," Brown said of Davis. "We knew that once we had it lined up and we had it protected, if it came off his foot, it was going to have a shot if he just lined it up," Brown said of Davis making his first career game winning field goal. "I'm super proud of him," Brown said.
Next up for Central will be Starr's Mill who handed the Lions their only region loss last season and eliminated them from the state championship quarter finals in 2023 on a walk off touchdown as time expired.