Alabama commit Justice Haynes gives Buford the edge over Mill Creek

BUFORD, GEORGIA – Justice Haynes is a bad man.

With Mill Creek looking to steal a victory out from under Buford in the closing minutes, the Wolves turned to star running back Justice Haynes and the Alabama commit delivered.

Holding onto a slim five-point lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Haynes scored his second touchdown of the night, eclipsing the 200-yard rushing mark for the game, and that was all the breathing room the Wolves needed to fend off the Hawks and run away with a 39-27 win to remain unbeaten on the season.

The match-up lived up to the hype in which the two teams are separated by just nine miles met on the same football field for the first time ever Friday night. The Wolves improve to 7-0 and 2-0 in Region 8-AAAAAAA while the Hawks fall to 6-1 and 1-1 in the region.

“This is 7A playoff football,” Buford head coach Bryant Appling said. “That’s what it was. I’m glad my kids got a taste of it. To be able to play a rivalry game like that and step up at the end of the game, I couldn’t ask for much more. I’m happy we got out of here with a win.”

That wasn’t all Haynes contributed to the win, either.

It was a 25-yard pass from Haynes on the Wolves’ first possession of the game that helped set up their first score. Haynes took a pitch to the left, stopped, and found an open receiver in tight end Eli McElwaney, who reeled in the pass and was tackled just shy of the goal line.

Quarterback Dylan Wittke, a Virginia Tech commit, punched it into the end zone on the next play on a sneak and a successful 2-point conversion gave the Wolves an early 8-0 lead with 8:55 left in the first quarter.

In a game that was played in front of a crowd of 11,000 people at Tom Riden Stadium where two nationally ranked teams were battling in a crucial Region 8-AAAAAAA match-up, Buford head coach Bryant Appling said everything was on the table Friday night.

“I said the other day, don’t leave any stone unturned,” Appling said. “Don’t be afraid to call anything (on offense).”

The hot start for the Wolves got even hotter later in the first quarter when its special teams unit blocked a 27-yard field goal attempt from Jacob Ulrich that would have trimmed Buford’s lead to 8-3.

Their lead grew to 11-0 by the end of the first quarter after a Jadon Perlotte interception set up a 30-yard field goal from Mario Ventura with 16 seconds left in the opening frame.

Entering the game with one of the highest-scoring offenses in the state of Georgia, the Hawks were finally able to crack the Wolves defense with a 62-yard scoring drive on its next possession following the field goal.

Hawks quarterback Hayden Clark tossed a 36-yard touchdown pass to Mackhail Woods to trim Buford’s lead to 11-6 after a missed extra point with just under 11 minutes left in the second quarter.

The momentum the Hawks gained following the touchdown drive was quickly erased, however. Wittke and the Wolves wasted little trim marching 80 yards and scoring again, this time on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Wittke to McElwaney.

The score extended Buford’s lead to 18-6 midway through the second quarter and the home team wasn’t done scoring in the first half.

The Wolves defense forced a quick three-and-out on Mill Creek’s ensuing offensive possession and Jordan Allen made the Hawks pay with a dazzling 82-yard punt return touchdown to give the Wolves a commanding 25-6 lead.

Buford’s 25 first-half points were more than the team amassed in each of its last two games against Collins Hill (23) and Marietta (14).

With all of the breaks going in favor of the Wolves in the first half, the Hawks finally caught one when a fumble that was recovered by Perlotte failed to turn into points. The Wolves were forced to punt and the Hawks then mounted an 80-yard touchdown drive in the closing minutes of the second quarter.

Cam Robinson scored from seven yards out and the Hawks tacked on a 2-point conversion to trip Buford’s lead to 25-14 heading into halftime.

The Hawks managed to keep Haynes out of the end zone in the first half, but it was only a matter of time before the senior found his way to pay dirt.

With just over eight minutes left in the third quarter, Haynes took a handoff to the right and then out-raced Mill Creek’s Trajen Greco down the right sideline before cutting back and slipping past Justin Content on his way to a 56-yard touchdown run.

The score gave the Wolves a commanding 32-14 lead, but the Hawks didn’t go down without a fight.

With 3:23 left in the third quarter, Clark tossed his second touchdown pass of the night, this time to Brendan Jenkins from seven yards out to cut the lead to 32-20. Two minutes later, a Mill Creek punt was muffed and recovered by Caleb Buckman at the Buford 41-yard line.

The turnover proved costly as the Hawks were able to score on a 12-yard run from Caleb Downs, a fellow Alabama commit, to trim Buford’s lead to just five points, 32-27 with 11:01 left in the fourth quarter.

That was as close as the Hawks could get. With just under six minutes remaining, Haynes put the game on ice when his 16-yard touchdown run gave the Wolves a 39-27 lead.

“The problem was we dug ourselves a hole early,” Mill Creek head coach Josh Lovelady said. “When you play really good teams, it’s all about penalties and turnovers and missed opportunities. That’s what happened tonight.”

After being held in check for much of the first half, Haynes compiled a great second half and finished his night with 216 yards on 20 carries. He also became just the sixth player in Georgia state history to reach 7,000 rushing yards for a career.

Wittke was an efficient 13 of 19 passing for 117 yards and two touchdowns.

As for the Hawks, Clark was 13 of 29 for 134 yards and two scores. Downs was the leading rusher for the Hawks with 73 yards and a score and also caught six passes for 50 yards.

The win now gives Buford a clear path to the Region 8 championship. The Wolves have already defeated Mill Creek and Collins Hill, the two biggest challenges the Wolves will face in region play. The Hawks will now have to take care of business at home against Collins Hill next week to remain as the region’s No. 2 seed.

Here are photos from Friday night's game in Buford:

All photos by Kenny Grimes