Section Branding
Header Content
Class 3A: Cedar Grove 21, Crisp County 14
Primary Content
Senior Chavon Wright rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns and helped No. 3 Cedar Grove beat No. 10 Crisp County 21-14 to win its second straight Class 3A championship on Saturday at Georgia State Stadium.
The Saints (13-2) have won state titles in three of the last four seasons. They were led by Wright, who carried 20 times and scored on runs of 2 and 18 yards. Quarterback Austin Smith completed 9 of 14 passes for 64 yards and one touchdown, but was sacked three times. Bernard Mack caught five passes for 34 yards.
Crisp County (11-4) got 54 yards rushing from Marquise Palmer and 48 from quarterback Al Lofton, who also threw for 59 yards.
But the Cedar Grove defense, led by Isaiah Ratcliff and N’Korian Newsom, limited Crisp County to 106 yards rushing and 161 total yards.
Crisp County had an excellent opportunity to score early in the first quarter, but failed on fourth-and-goal at the 1 when Cedar Grove’s Antonio Taylor made a stop behind the line.
Cedar Grove scored with 1:33 left in the first half. Wright ran it in from the 2 to complete a seven-play drive and give the Saints a 7-0 halftime lead.
Crisp County got on the board with 18 seconds left in the third quarter when Marquise Palmer scored on a 20-yard run. But Cedar Grove answered when Austin Smith threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Dubinion with 9:43 remaining.
Crisp County made it interesting with 1:18 remaining when Jayren Fox partially blocked a punt, which was fielded by Latravious Walker and returned 27 yards for a touchdown. But Cedar Grove was able to recover the onside kick and run out the clock.