By Chad Cook | Oct. 1, 2021 | AugBball
No. 4-ranked Benedictine unleashed an array of offensive weapons to post 59 points in a convincing victory over tenth-ranked Burke County Thursday in a non-region matchup in Waynesboro. The Cadets began with the ball in their own territory seven times, and every one of those drives ended with a touchdown as Benedictine gained 472 yards — 268 on the ground and 204 through the air — en route to a 59-28 road win. The result makes three victories in the past four seasons for the Cadets (4-2) against Burke County (3-1).
Geriner, Edge, Thomas Make a Terrific Trio
Holden Geriner – Benedictine
Holden Geriner, a highly touted 6’3″, 180-pound senior quarterback who is committed to Auburn University, completed 15 of 21 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns for Benedictine. Both scoring strikes went to Kameron Edge, who hauled in five receptions in the game for 109 yards. Edge also returned a kickoff for a score to make three touchdowns for the junior. Both of Geriner’s TD tosses looked almost effortless, and the second was nearly so because Edge was so wide open. He explained why after the game.
“We saw on film that they were flying up on the screens we were running,” Edge said. “So that was called ahead of time. Motion out, and get them flowing that way, and I happened to be wide open on it.”
Kameron said that usually when Benedictine runs a screen play for Edge’s teammate Za’Quan Bryan, Edge’s job is to block on the outside. But because Benedictine’s coaches had diagnosed Burke County’s tendency to “fly up,” Edge was wide open when he turned his route up field instead.
“He’s supposed to get a screen, and I’m supposed to block that corner,” Edge said. “But I just ran by him.”
Justin Thomas, a 5’11”, 173-pound senior who has committed to the University of Georgia as a baseball player, led the ground attack for the Cadets with 138 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries.
Thomas’s most impactful score might have been his 55-yard dash on the third play of the team’s first drive of the second half. The run started around the left end, but when the defense over-pursued, Thomas executed a series of cutbacks that allowed him to dodge three defenders and sail to the end zone untouched.
“I was just running the ball, finding the gaps I could cut through, and trying not to get tackled,” Thomas explained after the game. “Basically it’s what we’ve been doing all season. Just finding the gaps in the defense. And when it’s flowing like that, I like to cut back. So it’s a good thing to do.”
It was Thomas’s third touchdown run after a 26 yard sprint on the first drive of the game, and a 4-yard dive toward the end of the first quarter that gave the Cadets a 21-7 lead.
Thomas’s third touchdown gave Benedictine a 38-21 lead only 38 seconds after Burke County had scored to make it 31-21 when Charlie Dorsey ran it in from 25 yards out on fourth-and-2. Dorsey’s touchdown, his second of the game, capped a 77-yard, third quarter opening drive that cut Benedictine’s lead to 10 points.
The Bears would get no closer than 17 during the remainder of the second half despite a strong offensive showing for the home team, despite the lopsided score. Junior quarterback Marshall Flowers led a balanced attack by throwing for 202 yards and a touchdown while running for another 54 yards.
Burke County’s rushing attack was good for another 198 yards as the Bears also managed more than 400 yards of total offense. It’s a testament to the quality of play between the two Peach State powerhouses that neither team committed a turnover, and both offenses had to earn the 11(!) combined touchdowns the offenses generated during the game. Not one of the game’s touchdown drives covered fewer than 55 yards in distance.
In addition to Dorsey’s two scores and his 82 yards rushing on 11 carries, teammate Jaylen Golphin recorded another two touchdowns and more than 100 total yards of offense for the Bears. Golphin scored from 26 yards out early in the first quarter to tie the game at 7 on a play in which Burke County went for it on fourth-and-16.
And Golphin struck again in the fourth quarter when he reeled in a 65-yard bomb from Flowers to make it 45-28 with less than nine minutes remaining.
But much like Thomas halted Burke County’s momentum with his third touchdown early in the third quarter, Edge ended the comeback that Golphin’s touchdown might have kindled when Edge ran back the ensuing kickoff to put Benedictine ahead 52-28. Lamont Mitchell then added another touchdown for the Cadets to provide the final score. The rushing touchdown by Mitchell and another by Hunter Dunn at the beginning of the fourth quarter added to Thomas’ three to give Benedictine five total touchdowns on the ground. And Hudson Grove added a 42-yard field goal for good measure.
Chad Cook is a contributor with The Augusta PRESS and also covers high school sports through his website AugBball.blogspot.com.
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