ROME, Ga. — If last week’s win was about redemption, Thursday night was about making a statement.
And Gainesville did more than that after dominating Roswell from nearly start-to-finish in a 37-6 win in the Class 5A semifinals at Barron Stadium.
Two weeks ago Big Red (12-2) was fighting for its playoff life against the Georgia High School Association after having nearly half of its roster suspended following an altercation with Brunswick in the second round. Last week, they had to take on No. 1 and undefeated Hughes on the road. They prevailed against both.
On Thursday, it seemed like the Red Elephants finally were just free to play without the eyes of the state staring down at them.
Senior defensive end Kadin Fossung had 3 of Gainesville’s 6 sacks of Rome quarterback Aidan McPherson and the Red Elephants racked up 13 TFLs as they held the Wolves without a touchdown for the first time in 37 games, going back to a 42-3 loss to Hughes in the Class 6A semifinals in 2022.
“We always look to make a statement with our defense,” Fossung said. “Our standards are to be relentless, fly to the football, and just play ball and have fun. (Coming into this one), we had no doubt that we’d play confident. We knew what we had to do.”
Rome managed just 15 yards on the ground on 31 carries. Meanwhile, Gainesville piled up 300 yards rushing behind a career-best 228-yard, 3 TD performance from sophomore PJ Lewis. His effort was more yards than Rome had for the entire game (221 yards).
“I challenged our front on both sides,” Gainesville coach Josh Niblett said. “I said, ‘Look, if you want to win this game, you gotta win the run totals on both sides of the ball. We did that tonight.
“I’m proud of our guys. They stepped up when they needed to. But they’ve done it all year, man. This is a brotherhood and a connection beyond any I’ve ever had.”
Lewis, who typically has been the second option in the backfield behind junior Nigel Newkirk, was pressed into the lead role when Newkirk had to leave the game after just two plays with a knee injury.
He said they were ready.
“There was no panic,” Lewis said. “The team knows what I can do. They believed in me the whole way. I had no doubt in my mind that I could come out here and do what I did.”
The win pushes Gainesville into the Class 5A finals on Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Thomas County Central. The Yellow Jackets beat Roswell 49-28 in the other semifinal on Thursday.
And like most of their games this season, Big Red once again used a big second quarter explosion to blow open a game. Gainesville led just 7-0 after the opening period on a 35-yard touchdown sprint by Lewis. That came after the Wolves gambled at their own 48 on 4th-and-1.
Gainesville’s Darryn Williams stuffed Rome running back Tyler Rogers for a 3-yard loss to give the Red Elephants the ball at the Rome 45.
From there, it was all Gainesville. The Red Elephants scored on their final three possessions of the half, getting another Lewis scoring run of 9-yards, a 46-yard touchdown pass from Kharim Hughley to Cameron James, and then a 39-yard field goal from Logan Gailey to take a 24-0 lead into halftime.
Lewis finished with more rushing yards (141) than the Wolves had total offense (102) in the first half.
In the third quarter, Hughley scored on a 4-yard run and Lewis added his third score of the game on a 56-yard burst to make it 37-3. The two teams played to a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Rome’s only points came on a pair of Jason Cruz-Reyes field goals (39, 47 yards).
Niblett said they will celebrate their second semifinal win in his four seasons at Gainesville. But he hinted that they still have unfinished business.
“Look, this ain’t the one we want. Everybody might make it look like that, but this ain’t the one we want,” he said. “We want the next one. That was our goal in January and now we’ve got one left.”
