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Published Tuesday, November 24, 2009 in Sports

Cougars roll into state quarterfinals

By Tommy Camp

The Newnan Times-Herald

For only the fifth time in Newnan High School's long football history, but for the third time in the last three years, the Cougars will be playing a game 13 this season.

Newnan won the right to advance to the state quarterfinals to face the Grayson Rams, 12-0 and ranked No. 1 by the Georgia Coaches Association poll, on the road this Friday after beating M.L. King at home last week, 15-6.

Grayson beat Roswell, 24-14, in its second round game.

Newnan and Grayson were both No. 1 seeds out of their respective regions, but the Rams won the coin toss to host Friday's game, the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Grayson has enjoyed an impressive year.

The Rams, who finished a Newnan-like 13-1 last year, beat defending state champion Camden County in the Corky Kell Kickoff Classic in the Georgia Dome, 14-10, to open the season, then knocked off Warner Robins, 10-0, the following week.

The Rams then roared through their Region 8-AAAAA schedule without a blemish and beat Marietta and Roswell in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Cougars will be attempting to win their first playoff game on the road since beating Parkview in the memorable state quarterfinals in 2003.

Since then Newnan has dropped its last three postseason games on the road, at Stephenson in 2004, at Camden County in '05 and at Tara Stadium against North Gwinnett in 2007.

On the other side of the coin, however, since losing to North Gwinnett in '07, the Cougars have won nine regular season games in a row away from Drake Stadium.

In beating MLK last Friday the Cougars staged their third straight second half rally.

Down 6-0 at halftime against the Lions, Newnan went ahead for good on its initial possession of the second half, making it the sixth time this year the Cougars have scored on their first possession of the third quarter, and added nine more points with a touchdown and safety in the fourth period.

Newnan has now scored 65 second half points in the last three games, 29 against East Coweta in the fourth quarter to come from 19-14 down to win, 21 in the second half against Valdosta to wipe out a 9-7 Wildcat halftime lead and 15 against MLK in the third and fourth periods.

The Newnan defense gave up a touchdown to East Coweta in the fourth quarter, but has not allowed one from scrimmage in the eight quarters since.

Valdosta scored on a kickoff return and kicked two field goals while MLK also booted a couple of field goals.

The Newnan defense has given up a total of 76 points this year in its 12 games, second fewest ever for an NHS team after that many games, behind only last year's team that gave up just 28 through 12 contests.

The Newnan offense also ranks second in most points scored after 12 games with 396, two more than the 2007 team tallied and 90 behind the all-time leaders of last year who had 486 at this point in the year.

The Cougars' offense got into gear in the second half against MLK after struggling in the first two quarters.

Alec Ogletree's opening second half kickoff return to the MLK 22 gave Newnan great field position from which it took the lead five plays later on Chris Robinson's two yard run.

The TD came immediately after Lendell Arnold and Ogletree connected on a 16-yard pass on a crucial fourth and six from the Lions' 18.

Newnan added its second touchdown, also by Robinson from four yards out, early in the fourth quarter after recovering an MLK fumble at the visitors' 18 and tacked on a safety on a high punt snap into and out of the end zone midway through the final period.

Robinson's touchdowns brought his season's total to 18 rushing to go with one receiving.

Friday's game was the seventh time this year he's scored at least two in one game.

Quarterback Arnold's 11-game streak of either running and/or passing for at least one touchdown in every game came to an end.

But even though he didn't score, the junior signal-caller was clutch-tough for the Cougars.

The already-mentioned fourth down-converting 16-yard pass to Ogletree set the stage for the go-ahead touchdown.

Later in the quarter he engineered a drive that, while not putting points on the scoreboard, ran four and a half minutes off the clock while the Cougars were clinging to a one-point lead.

During that 13-play drive Arnold had a 27-yard pass to Thad Johnson on a third and 10 from the Newnan 18, a 15-yard toss to Shaquille Warner on a third and five from the Newnan 38 and a 28-yarder to Zander Ogletree from the MLK 34 to the Lions' six.

The drive ended with an interception.

Then in the fourth quarter Arnold led a drive that consumed six minutes after the Cougars had gone up 15-6.

During that sequence Arnold ran 11 yards on a third and nine from the Newnan 45 and 11 more on a third and seven from the MLK 31.

The defense saved the day for the Cougars, shutting off MLK drives in the second quarter that could very easily have resulted in touchdowns.

The Lions had to settle for field goals after getting to the Newnan 12 and two before halftime.

In the third quarter, leading 7-6, the Newnan defenders forced a Lion punt with just over five minutes left in the period after MLK had driven to the Newnan 35.

The Cougars kept the Lions bottled up in their own territory the rest of the way until forcing them to turn the ball over on downs at the Newnan 47 with only 13 seconds left on the game clock.

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