The Cartersville Purple Hurricanes (10-0, 6-0) captured the Region 5 crown on Friday night with a 52-13 win over the Troup County Tigers, on a night that also saw Trevor Lawrence break Deshaun Watson’s record for touchdown passes in a career with 156.
The Canes opened the game with the ball but were unable to find the end zone instead the ever-reliable Jonathan Cruz hit a field goal to salvage the drive.
The Cartersville defense helped the offense all night and made their first of many big plays when Evan Williams intercepted a Troup Co. pass in the middle of the first quarter. On the ensuing drive, the Canes scored on a Rico Frye rushing touchdown making the score 10-0 with 5 minutes left in the first quarter.
Trevor Lawerence tied the Georgia state career passing touchdown record, with a trick play. It was a handoff-reverse-handoff back to Lawerence who found Jackson Lowe to put them ahead 17-0 with 2:10 in the first quarter.
Troup answered back with a 20-yard touchdown pass to make the score 17-6 after a failed 2 point conversion.
After another forced turnover early in the second Rico Frye again found the end zone on a rush making the score 24-6. Frye would waste no time getting into the end zone again with a 5-yard rush to extend the lead to 31-6. That would be the score at halftime.
Troup County opened the third quarter with a touchdown trimming the lead to 31-13 with 8:22 left.
The Cartersville defense stepped up when Grant Harris intercepted a pass that led to another Rico Frye touchdown pushing the lead to 38-13.
The big moment of the night was the 20-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawerence to J’Kobe Orr giving Lawerence sole possession of the GHSA career passing touchdown record with 156 in his time as a Purple Hurricane.
The fourth and final interception for the Canes defense was a Bradley Kirk pick that was returned for a touchdown to give Cartersville the 52-13 lead that would be the final.
Cartersville will host the opening round of the Class 4-A State Playoffs next week with the fourth seed out of Region 6 with kickoff time set for 7:30 PM. You can hear the game on WBHF with pregame coverage beginning at 6:00 PM.