Packers pound Northside 52-7

Sep. 25—MOULTRIE — Colquitt County ran up 514 yards of offense and did not allow a score over the final 38 minutes in defeating visiting Northside of Warner Robins 52-7 on Friday on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Sophomore quarterback Neko Fann completed 9-of-13 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns and Charlie Pace scored three times as the Packers pounded the Eagles for the second straight year and raised their record to 5-1.

The Packers have now scored 155 points in their last three games as they head into their open week.

Colquitt defeated Northside 63-14 last year at McConnell-Talbert Stadium, but the Indians brought a 4-1 record into Friday's game and were coming off an impressive win over Richmond Hill.

But after Centavious Lowe grabbed a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Damien Dee with 2:23 left in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7, the Indians never scored again as the Packers rolled up 45 unanswered points.

Colquitt scored 31 points in the second quarter, added a 65-yard touchdown pass from Fann to Ontavious Carolina on the second play of the second half and got an 83-yard scoring pass from I'marius Bussie to Landon Griffin with 7:43 left in the running-clock fourth quarter.

The touchdown pass to Carolina ended the night for Fann, who threw for four touchdowns for the third time this season.

He has 16 touchdowns so far this season while throwing just two interceptions.

"Neko played phenomenal tonight," Rogers said. "And what people don't know was that he made some good checks."

Northside took the opening kickoff and made two first downs before having to punt.

The Packers took over on their own 10 and on the first play Fann hit Ny Carr in stride for a 90-yard scoring pass. Brett Fitzgerald converted and Colquitt was up 7-0 with 7:18 left in the quarter.

Northside then drove 76 yards for what proved to be their only touchdown of the game.

Lowe made the catch just inside sideline in the end zone and Ashton Paredes converted.

Lowe also scored both of Northside's touchdowns in the loss to the Packers last season.

When the Packers were forced to turn the ball over on downs on their next possession, Northside had a chance to get the lead.

But then a rare call led to a sequence of events that helped turn in the Packers favor.

After three-and-out that featured a sack by Jay Harper, Paredes punted and Colquitt's Zay Williams fumbled the ball on the catch and Northside recovered.

But the officials ruled that there had been an inadvertent whistle on the play and the Eagles were forced into punt formation again.

On what was essentially a do-over, the snap went over the head of Paredes, the Northside punter, and Colquitt recovered on the Eagles 13.

Two plays later, Pace scored from 10 yards out and the Packers had increased their lead to 14-7.

"It looked like it was going to be a back-and-forth battle, but that inadvertent whistle changed things," Packers coach Justin Rogers said.

Northside got off an 11-yard punt on its next possession and Colquitt used a relatively short field to score on a 5-yard pass from Fann to Carr.

A 42-yard pass-and-run from Fann to Carolina set up the score that put Colquitt up 21-7 with 9:58 still left in the half.

Lyric Thomas got his second interception of the season to end the next Northside drive.

The Packers appeared to have turned the pick into a Pace touchdown run, but a block in the back penalty negated it.

Colquitt settled for a 25-yard Fitzgerald field goal that made it 24-7 with 5:09 left in the half.

Northside turned the ball over again when it fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and Colquitt took over on the Eagles 33.

A 15-yard Fann-to-Carr completion put the ball on the Northside 18 and Pace took it to the end zone from there. Fitzgerald's conversion made it 31-7, but the Packers weren't finished.

After Northside's third punt of the first half, Colquitt struck on a third-and-4 from the Eagles 36 when Fann lofted a perfectly delivered pass into Pace's waiting hands in the end zone with 1:12 left and Colquitt had a 38-7 lead.

In his first half of work, Fann completed 8-of-11 passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns. Pace rushed six times for 48 yards and ran for two scores and caught a pass for another.

As they did on their first possession of the game, the Packers scored the first time they had the ball in the second half.

Fann got a short pass off to Carolina who shook off a pair of tacklers and when he found green space, the Indians could not catch him and Colquitt led 45-7.

Fitzgerald was wide right on a 30-yard field goal attempt later in the third quarter and the Packers were forced to punt for the first time with 3:23 left in the quarter.

The fourth quarter was played under a running clock.

After Northside's sixth punt, Bussie converted a third-and-13 from the Packers 17 by connecting with a streaking Griffin down the middle of the field for the final touchdown of the game.

"We challenged our kids to gas it up early and we did," Rogers said. "We hit some big plays and then the presence of the Hawg Pen jumped on those boys."

Fann and Bussie combined to throw for 374 yards. Pace got all of his 48 yards on his six first-half carries.

Sophomores Jeremy Murray and Chad White ran for 42 and 25 yards respectively.

The Packers will not play next week and Rogers made sure fans understand that his team will "open" and not "off."

"We need to stay sharp and keeping our mindset is important," he said.

After the open week, the Packers will play host to Alcovy in the annual Homecoming game on Oct. 8.

The Region 1-7A portion of the schedule begins on Oct. 15 at Camden County.

"We've got a couple weeks to keep polishing things up," he said.

Also on Friday, Lowndes won the Winnersville Classic, shutting out Valdosta 21-0; Camden County lost to Coffee 10-7; and Tift County defeated Worth County 24-14.