DAHLONEGA, Ga. – Gritty. That's the word that comes to Lumpkin County head coach Heath Webb's mind about Friday night's 30-21 win over Wesleyan.
"That was a real good, grind them out, nail biter of a game," said Webb. "I'm really proud of my guys and the way they fight and compete. Wesleyan's got a really good football team, but I'm just really proud of how we were able to dominate the line of scrimmage against them."
And dominate the line of scrimmage they did, especially on the offensive side of the football where, outside of three passing plays, the Indians did nothing but run the ball for nearly 300 yards. And with the win, the Indians are 6-0 for the first time in nearly 50 years and beat the Wolves for the first time ever.
Mason Sullens was the featured player of the Indian offense as he has been for most of the year, and he rose to the occasion, tallying 200 yards and two touchdowns on the night.
"You can lure people to sleep by handing it to [Mason] and then when [Cal Faulkner] pulls it, it has the chance to be explosive," said Webb. "Our game plan was to keep their offense on the sidelines as much as we could, so we leaned on Mason, Cal and our offensive line to bleed that clock down and keep that offense and that quarterback over on the sideline."
Sullens got the Indians on the board first on a 1-yard plunge to take an early 7-0 lead, but the Wolves answered almost immediately, driving down and tying the game on a Jamie Tremble reception from Ben Brown.
Then the Indian defense got involved, forcing a safety to get a 9-7 lead and set up Sullens for his second touchdown from a yard out to take a 16-7 advantage. After the Wolves pulled to within two, the Indians took momentum into halftime with a Faulkner 26-yard rushing touchdown, followed by a big stop on defense to hold a 23-14 lead at halftime.
The Wolves marched right down the field to start the second half and scored to cut the lead to 23-21, but the Indian defense bowed its neck from there on, holding Wesleyan without another point and allowing Faulkner to ice the game with an 11-yard score late in the fourth.
The Indian defense ended up holding Wesleyan to just four third-down conversions on 14 attempts and limited Brown, who came into the game ranked second in 3A passing yards, to 272 yards on just over 50 percent completion.
Now, Lumpkin County turns their attention to Gilmer next week back in Dahlonega, and Webb is sure that the energy from tonight's game will have to carry on through the rest of the season.
"The energy coming from this community and this stadium was awesome tonight. These people in the Gold City have been wanting to see successful football for a long time, and it's good to give it to them when they are this excited for it."
