Region 2-5A’s Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets brought South Georgia a second state football championship Wednesday night with a 62-21 win over the Gainesville Red Elephants at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Yellow Jackets were one of the early season favorites to win a state title and spent most of the year at the #2 spot behind Langston Hughes. Gainesville, however, ousted Hughes in the quarterfinals and looked like the hottest team in 5A. The Red Elephants toppled Rome in the semifinals to set up a showdown with Thomas County Central for the championship.
If a tight back-and-forth game is what people wanted, it was the exact opposite of what they got. The Jackets scored on their first two possessions, ultimately carrying a 21-7 lead into halftime. In the second half, they really caught fire. TCC outscored Gainesville 41-14 in what turned out to be a record-setting performance.
The Georgia High School Football Daily released game statistics Thursday morning. TCC running back Deuce Lawrence set a state championship game record with 380 yards rushing, besting the previous record of 320 yards set by Omari Arnold of Brooks County in 2021. Lawrence also scored five touchdowns – the third player in finals history to score five touchdowns in a championship game.
The title was also Thomas County Central’s seventh in school history and the second in three years. The Yellow Jackets’ 62 points is also the second-most in a state title game.
Thomas County Central finished the season with a perfect 15-0 record.
