Johns Creek Holds On To Defeat Centennial

By Mike Blum

JOHNS CREEK, GA — In a face-off between two of the state’s most prolific offenses, Friday night’s Centennial at Johns Creek high school football match was decided by a handful of key defensive plays and a missed extra point. Johns Creek scored touchdowns on four of its first five possessions and held on despite not scoring a point in the final quarter-and-a-half.

Trailing 28-14 early the fourth period, Centennial drove the length of the field twice for touchdowns, but
missed the PAT after the first score and just failed on a 2-point conversion attempt with just over two
minutes to play. The Knights got the ball back at their 18 with one minute remaining and two timeouts, and quickly drove to the Gladiators’ 35 before four incomplete passes, the last one as time expired. Johns Creek escaped with a 28-26 victory, and with the aid of Northview’s upset over Alpharetta by the same score, the Gladiators have all but locked up a second region title in the last three years.

The Gladiators are 6-0 in region play and 7-1 overall, with Centennial second at 5-1, 5-3. Both Alpharetta and Northview are 4-2 in region play, and even if Alpharetta rebounds to defeat Johns Creek next week, all the Gladiators have to do to claim the region title is win its regular season finale over Dunwoody, which is 0-5 in 7-AAAAAA and has lost its last four region games by an average score of 41-8.

Centennial could tie Johns Creek for first if the Gladiators lose to Alpharetta and the Knights win their final two games, but Johns Creek would get the No. 1 seed in the state playoffs on a tiebreaker. The Knights are still in strong position to take second in the region and earn a first round playoff game at home.

The Johns Creek defense came up big in the first half, forcing consecutive three-and-outs after the Knights drove 80 yards for a score on the game’s first series, and stopping the Knights on the final play of the first half from inside the Gladiators’ 10-yard line. Johns Creek had its way offensively with the Knights in the early going, scoring touchdowns on drives of 65, 65 and 73 yards on its first three series. The Knights closed within 21-14 midway through the second quarter and put together a last minute drive that reached the Johns Creek 8, but two passes fell incomplete in the end zone as the half ended.

A third 65-yard scoring drive to start the second half expanded the Johns Creek lead to 28-14, and the Gladiators had the chance to break the game after an interception on a deflected pass near the line of
scrimmage, the game’s only turnover. But after driving to the Centennial 14, Johns Creek was called for four false start penalties and took back-to-back sacks to force a punt on fourth-and-40. The Gladiators managed just one first down on their last three possessions and the Knights responded with three straight drives down the field behind the arm of quarterback Max Brosmer, but Centennial ran out of time on the last one.

Brosmer completed 34 of 52 passes for 398 yards and two second-half touchdowns, and scored the game’s first TD on a 13-yard run. Johns Creek’s defensive pressure forced Brosmer to rely mainly on short passes to his receivers and running back Cal Dickie. He came up clutch time after time, passing to Richard Shaw for 5 yards and a score on fourth down in the second period and connected with Freddy Fairley for 15 yards on fourth-and-14 midway through the third quarter, one play before hitting Drake Mason behind the Johns Creek secondary for 32 yards and a touchdown.

The Knight s swept 80 yards for what could have been a tying touchdown, with Brosmer hitting Mason for 25 yards to the 1, fighting off a Johns Creek double team. The Knights had to go for two points to tie the game, but Mason was just over the back line of the end zone when he caught the ball, leaving the Knights behind by two. Brosmer completed five straight passes for 47 yards to get the Knights to the Johns Creek 35, but with
the clock running out, his last four passes were incomplete.

“This is my 18th year coaching, and he may be the smartest quarterback I’ve seen,” Johns Creek coach Matt Helmerich said of Centennial’s senior quarterback.

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Brosmer’s heady play frequently frustrated the Gladiators’ efforts to blitz him, but they still managed to sack him three times and made enough key plays to keep Johns Creek in the lead. Johns Creek quarterback Zach Gibson had a nice night himself, especially in the first half when he completed 11 of 12 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns, sneaking in from a yard out for the other first half score. He finished 20 of 26 for 238 yards, again scoring on a sneak in the third quarter.

Gibson hit Yong Min Lee for a 47-yard catch-and-run touchdown to tie the game at 7, and put the Gladiators
ahead 14-7 with a 26-yard pass to a wide open Giovanni Dyer. The consecutive 65-yard drives took four and five plays, with the team’s final two scoring drives requiring 11 and 12 plays before the Centennial defense stiffened the rest of the way.

“Zach is such a good athlete and has a cannon for an arm,” said Helmerich.

The Knights sacked Gibson six times, but he evaded the rush on several occasions to make big plays downfield. Gibson spread out his completions, with five Gladiators having either three or four receptions and Dyer making his only catch count for six points. Nate Hope keyed the Gladiators’ ground game with 92 yards on 18 carries and had 38 yards on three receptions. Lee, Matt Casey, Dalton Pearson and Quincy Darnell had four catches each.

The Knights got productive nights from their four receivers plus Dickie, who caught 10 screen or swing passes for 103 yards, added 53 yards and a touchdown on 13 rushing attempt, and set up a touchdown with a 47-yard kickoff return. Fairley had seven catches for 83 yards, Rekevian Mathis gained 73 yards on his seven receptions, and both Mason (6-86) and Shaw (4-45) had touchdown catches.

Despite 489 yards of total offense, the Knights came up short, in part thanks to the Gladiators’ edge in the kicking game. Kyle Neely nailed all four extra point attempts and had a punt downed at the Centennial 1, while the Johns Creek “hands team” fell on two attempted onside kicks by the Knights in the fourth quarter.

“We practice our special teams as much as anybody,” Helmerich said.

With what he thought was a huge win game this week against Alpharetta, Helmerich said his team “would get an hour to celebrate” the win over Centennial before turning its attention to the Raiders. This week’s game still has meaning for the Gladiators, but they will likely be celebrating more than the hour allotted by their coach.

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