As it turns out, Thomson head football coach Michael Youngblood reads the newspapers. Or, at least he did prior to Friday night’s game against Laney.
One of the first things Youngblood mentioned in his postgame comments after he watched his top-ranked Bulldogs stave off a game Laney squad, 28-14, was how The Augusta Press was at least one local outlet that predicted a Laney upset at The Brickyard Friday night.
“Ya’ll picked us to lose,” Youngblood said. “I’m gonna go ahead and put that out there. And I thank you for the bulletin board material, so we were able to add that incentive to our football players.”
Truth is, Youngblood’s bunch didn’t need much external motivation to get itself ready to play this game.
After all, Laney was the team that played Thomson closer than any other in — aside from the Burke County loss — in 2022, including the Class AA state championship game.
Thomson squeaked by Laney 15-14 in last year’s Region 4-AA opener. And this season, with several players such as CJ Holmes and Javaris Harris whom Youngblood called “dynamic,” he knew Laney would be no pushover opponent.
“Our guys should be proud of what they did, because that’s a good, good football team we just beat,” Youngblood said. “It’s a big win because it’s first region game, and you don’t want to get behind. And it just happens to be against one of the best teams in our region moving forward. That’s no knock on nobody else, but that’s just a good football team.”
And it showed, especially for much of the first three quarters of the game.
Fast start for the Bulldogs
Thomson jumped out to a 14-0 lead early, thanks to a crisp, efficient 6-play scoring drive to open the game. That drive was highlighted by a long run by running back Anthony Jeffery and a 6-yard rushing score from Jamere Roberts. The touchdown march took less than two minutes, and it showed off the athleticism of Roberts — a kid who Youngblood has been super high on.
“I’m gonna tell you like this,” Youngblood said. “Jamere Roberts is a dog. And it’s all about pushing him to be his best. He’s had a heckuva last two weeks of practice, and I mean, he’s starting to just buy in to everything we’re doing.”
It was about the same time in the second quarter when Kasai Jones scooped up a blocked Laney punt and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown. But Laney responded quickly when CJ Holmes scored from 10 yards out to cut the lead to 14-6. His run was set up by a 38-yard scramble by Javaris Harris who eluded several tackles near the line of scrimmage to bounce toward the sideline for the big gain.
Harris recently became eligible to play for the Wildcats and, while he starred mostly as a receiver at Greene County last year, he saw most of his work Friday night at quarterback. In fact, it was his third quarter 36-yard aerial strike to DJ Daggett, and subsequent 2-point conversion at the 8-minute mark of the third quarter that let Laney tie the game.
Youngblood said he was wary of Harris’ return and what he added to the Wildcats’ football team. But he was even more concerned about corralling Holmes.
“We double-teamed No. 2 all night long,” Youngblood said. “Our thing was, ‘don’t let No. 2 beat you because he’s been lighting up the football field all season.”
“We double-teamed No. 2 all night long,” Youngblood said. “Our thing was, ‘don’t let No. 2 beat you because he’s been lighting up the football field all season.”
But it was Youngblood’s own quarterback, Jahkiaus Jones, who made huge plays down the stretch with both his legs and arm to help Thomson pull away. The first was a 34-yard touchdown pass to Kasai Jones around the three minute mark of the third quarter. Then, the dagger came when Jones called his own number for a 6-yard score with nine minutes left in regulation.
The Bulldogs’ defense heard with Kasai Jones snagging an interception to halt a late Laney scoring threat and salt the game away.
Signal caller extraordinaire
The performance for Jahkiaus Jones at quarterback was notable, given that he no longer splits time behind center, now that Noah Story has transferred to Evans. Youngblood said his senior signal caller is beginning to round into the player he always knew he could be.
“Jahkiaus was going to start as a sophomore when I had Tay Martin here, because I felt Tay was going to be a dynamic person we could move around, and Jahkiaus could hold that spot down,” Youngblood said. “Then, he had the medical, injury situation that happened. But at the same time, we knew he was going to take over. And you see it now. In the Burke County game, he was keeping his feet going. He was making some big plays, and now, all of a sudden, he doesn’t have anybody he has to share time with, and now he can totally focus on playing quarterback alone.
“He did a lot of things right to help us get this victory.”
Thomson (3-1, 1-0) now turns its attention toward another region matchup at Washington County (2-2, 1-0) next week. The Golden Hawks also opened region play with a win, throttling Glenn Hills 50-0 Friday night. And Youngblood believes a win at WACO will further position his squad to be where it wants to be come November.
“I feel like if we can go up there and win, we can go along way in being able to be at home during the playoffs,” Youngblood said. “That’s what we’re trying to be.
Three Things We Learned
1. Javaris Harris is valuable to Laney’s offense. Before Harris was deemed eligible to play, Laney’s offense was effective if not predictable. And coach Ronnie Baker doesn’t mind.
“The thing we try to do is physicality up front with our o-line, tight ends and fullback, we try to be physical at the point of attack. We’ve had (multiple people) take snaps at quarterback, and it’s just the offense fitting the quarterback position and putting our guys in position to make plays.”
That’s what Baker said after his Laney bunch defeated Hephzibah 16-13 back on August 25. During the first couple of games, most of the production was generated by Carl Holmes taking snaps and running counter and off tackle plays from the shotgun formation. DJ Daggett would spell him occasionally, and running backs such as James Pride and Angus Myrick were complements. But now that Harris is on the roster, his arm adds a downfield passing threat to this offense.
One of Laney’s two touchdowns came as Harris found Daggett for a 36-yard score. But there were several other near-miss incompletions — two in particular when Twanorrin Brown was targeted on a couple of slant routes over the middle. Youngblood says he’s sees major potential for Laney’s offense as it continues to learn how to divvy up touches for its most explosive players.
“They played [Harris] at quarterback tonight and they went away from some of the things they were doing before he was eligible,” Youngblood said. “Now that he’s eligible, [Holmes] isn’t getting some of the same touches he’s used to. But they’ll figure it out. Like I said, that’s a good team. And it’s kinda hard when you’ve got a couple of players like that who need to touch the ball. And those guys are dynamic.”
2. Thomson’s defense may be elite. The Bulldogs have only given up 35 points all season. Twenty-eight of those came in two games — the season opening 14-12 loss to Burke County and Friday night’s 28-14 win against Laney — and that’s a Laney squad that hung 44 points on First Presbyterian Day last week in a tie game. Thomson’s D has a combination of size and speed that makes it hard to run against them, whether straight ahead or laterally. It’s possible that this unit may be better than last year’s defense that certainly was no slouch. That’s good news, considering Thomson’s offense, while still effective, isn’t as explosive as it was last year with the likes of now-graduated running back Jontavis Curry. Youngblood said his offense needs to employ a steady run game with a placation pass mix to maximize its potential. That probably means less points on average than last year. But when the defense plays at an elite level, that isn’t as much of a concern.
3. Keep an eye on Vincent Carter, Jr. The 5-foot-8, 150-pounder is listed as a wide receiver on Laney’s maxpreps.com roster. But the head-turning plays he made Friday against Thomson came on defense. He leaped above a Thomson receiver to snag an interception at the end of a second quarter drive, and then, while on an island with a Bulldog receiver, he ran stride-for-stride with him before extending his hand for a pass breakup that prevented a big pass play. Here’s the most impressive part of that, though — Carter is a freshman. And to show that kind of poise against the state’s top-ranked team in a hostile environment shows tons of potential. We may be calling Carter one of the CSRA’s brightest stars by the time this season is done.
