The Cartersville Purple Hurricanes defeated the Lithonia Bulldogs on Friday night 51-0 during the first round of the GHSA Class-5A state playoffs.
Cartersville’s defense stole the show in the first half. On Lithonia’s opening drive, Myles Forristall recovered a fumble and ran it into the end zone for an early 7-0 Canes lead. But the Cartersville offensive had a difficult time moving the ball in the game’s opening 12 minutes.
Enter Kace Adams.
Adams had a phenomenal game in the secondary and his big interception halted a Bulldog drive and gave the Cartersville attack another opportunity. After Adams’ interception, Amari White took a hand-off 85 yards to give the Cartersville offense its first touchdown of the game. Back-to-back big plays might have been just what the doctor ordered to get the offense running efficiently.
The offense moved the ball effectively, but could punch the ball into the end zone. But in this game, it was optional for Cartersville to have possession of the football to score. Once again, Adams picked off a pass and ran it 30 yards into the end zone to give Cartersville a 20-0 lead. To cap off the second quarter, Jake Parker connected with Jacob Ray to give the Canes a 27-0 advantage.
The Cartersville offense came out of the locker room and bulldozed into the end zone on a Malachi Jeffries touchdown. Adams wasn’t done either. He picked off his third pass of the game and his second pick-six. Cartersville scored 14 points in less than 90 seconds of third quarter action.
Cartersville would continue to add on as the game progressed, but the damage had been done.
In all, the Cartersville defense had three touchdowns, four interceptions, a fumble recovery, and laid countless havoc to the Lithonia offense.
Looming next for Cartersville will be one of the most anticipated games of the postseason as a rematch of last year’s 5-A championship is on deck. Cartersville will host Warner Robins next Friday night at 7:30 – the same team that routed Cartersville en route to a state championship 11 months ago. You can hear all of the action on WBHF with pregame coverage beginning at 6:00.