By Alvin Richardson
Columnist
It was just a weird football game and I’m not just talking about fans and players on the sidelines wearing masks. Nope. What was really strange was that neither offense mustered a touchdown which is pretty rare in these days of high scoring games. Both teams had a safety. Not unheard of but pretty odd. The total offense of both teams combined was 231 yards (173 for Morgan and 58 for Putnam) which sounds like a game out of the 1950’s. Plus throw in an overtime session to find a way to decide the matter and it was just – well – weird.
The game ended with Putnam kicking a walk-off 31 yard field goal in overtime for the first offensive points of the night and giving the War Eagles a 5-2 win. We don’t see scores like that very often. In fact since 1912, when touchdowns became worth six points instead of five, it was the first time that a 5-2 score has been posted in a Georgia high school football game.
Historically speaking here’s the skinny. As recently as last week Lanier beat Dutchtown 5-0 but there have been only 16 instances since 1912 where a team won a high school game in Georgia by scoring five points. Twelve of those games ended in scores of 5-0 and three ended with a score of 5-3.
The only one that has ever ended 5-2 since 1912 happened at Al Reaves Field last Friday night. Just weird.