Heard County Dismantles Region Rival Temple, 41-0

Emory Jones and the Heard County Braves manhandled the Temple Tigers on Friday night in the little town of Franklin, Georgia. Heard County improved their record to 9-2 overall vs Temple, a series that was first played in 1998.

Friday was the game of the week for Fox 5 sports. So, the camera and broadcast crew were out on the field filming the game and the players. This added a little something extra for the kids to play for.

Temple was undefeated coming into the game with a record of 4-0. Heard County was almost just as good coming into Friday with a record of 4-1. Last Week, Ohio State QB commit Emory Jones sort of struggled against Central, but on Friday he showed why he has received offers from virtually everywhere in the county.

How it Happened:

Temple started the game with the ball and went deep on the first play. A streaking wide receiver caught a fade route after the quarterback made two fakes to his backfield. This was a gain of roughly 60 yards and it moved the Tigers all the way down to the Heard County 29 yard line.

Unfortunately for the Temple fans, the next three plays went backwards and the offense was forced to try for a 4^th-and-12 situation that was no good. This gave the ball to Emory and the offense for the first time in the game.

Seeing Temple go deep on the first play must have inspired to offensive coordinator for Heard County as Emory hit #11, senior WR Austin Miller, for a huge gain all the way down to the Temple 5 yard line. A couple plays later, the shifty senior RB Dayvin Troy ran it in giving his team the 7-0 lead with 9:05 left in the 1^st quarter.

Heard County’s defense showed out on the next drive, as they did all game. They forced Temple to punt and Heard County took over on their own 9 yard line. The first 1^st down of the drive was converted by the legs of Jones as he avoided pressure and scampered for 8 yards.

Soon after, the Braves were facing a third down and long but Jones hit Dayvin Troy with a screen pass and Troy made a few miss before picking up another 1^st down. #2, junior WR Jaden Moreland, caught a pass on the next play and made multiple defenders miss before gaining 44 yards and moving the ball to the Temple 17 yard line.

The next play, Dayvin Troy exploded up the middle for a touchdown giving his team the 14-0 lead with 1:49 remaining in the opening quarter. This was the last action of the 1^st quarter and Temple opened up the 2^nd facing a 4^th down.

The 4^th down try was no good and again Heard County took over. Unfortunately for the Braves, they were forced to send out their punting unit for the first time in the game. However, the defense once again forced Temple to punt it back to the Braves with 3:08 remaining in the 2^nd quarter.

A holding penalty forced the Braves into a bad spot and after a couple of plays they were facing a 4^th-and-7 situation. Austin Miller came up big in this situation again as he hauled in a pass from Emory to give his team the 1^st down.

Then, with 55.6 seconds remaining in the half and facing another 3^rd-and-long situation, Emory Jones found his favorite target of the night in Jaden Moreland for a 13-yard touchdown. This score put the Braves up 21-0 heading into the half.

At halftime, Emory Jones had 208 yards passing on 11-of-16 completions and one touchdown. He was lighting up the Temple defense and the second half looked as if it would be no different.

Heard County received this kickoff and Austin Miller returned it all the way down to the Temple 43 yard line giving his team excellent field position. Shortly into the drive, Emory found Jaden Moreland again and he made multiple defenders miss before scampering all the way down to the 5 yard line.

Dayvin Troy came in and finished off the drive. This gave his team a 28-0 lead just a minute and a half into the 3^rd quarter. The Temple offense, who struggled immensely, could not get anything going on the next drive and were forced to punt.

This punt pinned the Braves back on their own 12 yard line. On the first play of the drive, Emory hit #15, senior TE Ethan Brant, for a gain of 22 yards. The next play showed exactly why Emory Jones is a 4-star quarterback and has all the division 1 offers a kid could dream of. As the pocket collapsed, Emory broke several tackles before spinning away to the sideline. As he was falling out of bounds, he found #8, sophomore RB Andrew Leak, with a shovel pass. This play turned into a huge gain for the Braves and it can all be credited to Emory’s ability to extend the play.

Shortly after this play, Jones found Jaden Moreland one more time for a 32-yard touchdown. This gave his team a 35-0 lead over the undefeated Temple Tigers. This was also the last drive that Emory Jones would step onto the field. His day was done with 3 minutes and 23 seconds left in the 3^rd quarter.

A lot of young guys got in in the fourth quarter and they were able to put some points on the board as well. The final score was 41-0, Heard County. This win improved their record to 5-1 and it gave them a 1-0 record in the region. Temple falls to 4-1 and 0-1 in the region.

Emory had undoubtedly one of his best games passing ever as he finished 16-of-21 with 359 yards and 2 touchdowns. Fans may have thought he would have cooled off in the 2^nd half, but that was not the case. His best quarter was the 3^rd where he completed 5-of-5 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown.

The leading rusher for the Braves was Dayvin Troy who finished with 7 carries for 27 yards and 3 touchdowns. Emory Jones added four carries for 3 yards. #24, senior RB Mike Holmes, #4, junior RB Damion Hart, and #8, sophomore RB Andrew Leak, all had two carries for a total of 24 yards.

The leading receiver on the day was Jaden Moreland. He finished with 6 catches for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was making numerous plays on the night and sure added some quality clips to his highlight tape.

Seven other Heard County players caught passes in the game with Austin Miller hauling in 2 catches for 72 yards, Ethan Brant having two catches 34 yards, and Andrew Leak catching two passes for 29 yards. Mike Holmes, Dayvin Troy, Damion Hart, and #17, senior WR Drew Hopkins, all caught one pass for a total of 35 yards.

The Heard County defense was excellent on the night as well as they hardly even let Temple into the redzone. If the Braves can keep up this kind of offensive momentum and their defense continues to dominate, then they will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time.

If you are a parent or relative of a player interested in purchasing photos, feel free to e-mail me. The pictures in this article are not all of the photos I took Friday. So, do not hesitate to contact me to ask if I have any you may be interested in. Thanks for reading!

The stats in this article are only through three quarters. I left the game at the start of the fourth quarter. So, these players may have finished with a little more yards than noted in this story. However, Emory Jones stats are correct because he was taken out of the game with 3 minutes left in the third.