By: Christian Goeckel

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Glynn Academy Terrors fell to the Richmond Hill Wildcats 12-7 Friday night in a game that put Glynn Academy in unfamiliar territory.

Someone else now controls the Terror’s fate. Richmond Hill came into the game undefeated, with West Virginia commit Sam James leading the way from his wide receiver spot.

While Glynn entered off of dominating performance over Brunswick the week before. This was a matchup of the top two contenders in this region.

The Terrors entered this game knowing all of this full and well. Both teams would be in for a slugfest. In a game that was black and blue throughout with both teams playing a smothering brand of defense, the predominant color was yellow. Flag after flag flew in Glynn County stadium, with most going against the home team.

For the most part Glynn did a great job of shutting James down. Unfortunately, there were too many times when a Glynn corner would deflect a pass, only to look down and see that little yellow hanky laying at their feet. I counted at least 3 pass interference calls against the corners covering James, and there were even more holding calls charged against the Terrors.

It’s hard enough to beat a quality opponent on their own, much less when you’re competing against the officials as well.

Glynn’s defense was smothering, with the only touchdown coming on a 4^th and an inch, when the running back broke free from the scrum for a walk in. Besides that, this vaunted Richmond Hill offense was shut down.

The only problem? So was Glynn’s. Richmond Hill committed hard to stopping the dive, and forcing Jernigan to throw. Jernigan never looked comfortable in the pocket, and was only able to complete a few balls. Two of those passes lead to first downs in the Terror’s lone touchdown drive, but they simply weren’t able to be consistent enough.

The run game, Glynn’s bread and butter, was also hit or miss. Caine Crews and Tyler Grant were able to break a few, but never consecutively. The quarterback center exchange didn’t help either as Jernigan was scooping the ball off the ground at least five times during the game.

All of that, and Glynn still had a chance to pull it out in the end, but bad snaps and lack of a true passing game bit them as they tried to work the ball down the field in a two minute drill.

This game was an aberration. Literally, nothing fell the Terror’s Way. The snap issue will be corrected quickly. You won’t see another receiver like Sam James until deep into the playoffs. And, the flag situation will even itself out.

There are also many positives that can be taken from this game. Number one? This defense is real. Guys like Sam James are going to get the benefit of the doubt with officials on 50/50 calls, but even with all of that you still only allow 12. That will get the job done 99% of the time.

All is not lost in the region, either. Currently the region sits like this:

Richmond Hill 2-0

Glynn Academy 2-1

Brunswick 2-1

Effingham 0-2

Bradwell 0-2

This thing is still way up for grabs. Glynn holds the tie breaker over Brunswick, and will be huge Pirate fans next week when Brunswick takes on Richmond Hill. If the Terrors beat Bradwell to close the season and Richmond Hill falls to Brunswick and Effingham, the Terrors will reclaim the region. If Brunswick wins out and Glynn falls to Bradwell, the Pirates will own the region. Still with me?

All of this will be decided in the next couple of weeks, and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun.