Jamie Wachter | The Valdosta Daily TimesLowndes running back Travis Tisdale races past a Hillgrove defender Friday night in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs at Martin Stadium.

VALDOSTA — Nineteen seconds in and on the first offensive snap, Michael Barrett raced 50 yards for a score.

It was a sign of things to come.

No. 8 Lowndes outlasted Hillgrove 92-61 in the highest-scoring high school football game in Georgia history Friday night at Martin Stadium in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs, breaking a record set in 1922 when Douglas A&M beat Ocilla 144-0. The 92 points was also a new school record for Lowndes for points in a game, topping the 87 the Vikings scored against Windsor Forest three years ago.

Lowndes 92, Hillgrove 61

Hillgrove	21	12	21	7	—	61
Lowndes	28	28	7	29	—	92

First Quarter

LHS—Michael Barrett 50 run (Colton Broome kick).

HHS—Jonathan Elder 27 pass from Hunter Arters (Jason Pierce kick).

LHS—JD Lee 2 run (run failed).

LHS—Barrett 9 run (Will Tolbert pass from Barrett).

HHS—Chigoziem Okonkwo 61 pass from Arters (Pierce kick).

LHS—Tyson Harris 17 pass from Barrett (Broome kick).

HHS—Deonta Coker 3 pass from Arters (Pierce kick).

Second Quarter

HHS—Arters 3 run (kick wide left).

LHS—Travis Tisdale 68 run (Broome kick).

LHS—Tisdale 1 run (Broome kick).

LHS—Harris 24 pass from Barrett (Marcus Gary run).

LHS—Barrett 23 run (run failed).

HHS—Cameron Connally 16 pass from Arters (kick wide left).

Third Quarter

HHS—Jaylen McCollough 3 run (Luis Garcia-Cano kick).

HHS—Okonkwo 24 pass from Arters (Garcia-Cano kick).

HHS—Okonkwo 8 pass from Arters (Garcia-Cano kick).

LHS—Tayvonn Kyle 42 pass from Barrett (Broome kick).

Fourth Quarter

LHS—Harris 59 pass from Barrett (Broome kick).

HHS—Connally 16 pass from Arters (Garcia-Cano kick).

LHS—Tisdale 48 run (Broome kick).

LHS—Jaharie Boone 65 interception return (Barrett run).

LHS—Harris 35 interception return (Broome kick).

	Hillgrove	Lowndes
First Downs	25	14
Rush-Yards	13-58	43-349
Passing	508	236
Com-Att-Int	34-66-7	13-22-1
Fum-Lost	4-1	4-1
Pen-Yards	8-50	11-117

Individual Statistics

RUSHING—Hillgrove, McCullough 4-31, Connally 2-17, Mason Marshall 2-11, Bryson Parks 1-9, Chase Barden 1-2, Arters 3-(-12). Lowndes, Barrett 19-173, Tisdale 11-141, Lee 6-18, Deonte Moore 2-11, Jaylon Bell 2-5, Harris 3-1.

PASSING—Hillgrove, Arters 33-65-7 484, Parks 1-1-0 24. Lowndes, Barrett 13-21-1 236, Caleb Burns 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING—Hillgrove, Okonkwo 11-211, Parks 8-100, McCullough 3-21, Tavion Walker 2-40, Elder 2-35, Connally 2-32, Hugh Nelson II 2-21, Arters 1-24, Mark Knowles 1-22, Jackson 1-4, Coker 1-3, Justin Tew 1-2, Marshall 1-(-7). Lowndes, Harris 7-123, Kyle 4-79, Tisdale 2-27, Jalen Smith 1-7.

“I’ve never been a part of a ballgame like this,” Lowndes coach Randy McPherson said.

Senior wide receiver Tyson Harris added: “It was a pretty crazy game.”

The Vikings, who improve to 9-2 and advance to face No. 4 Norcross on the road next Friday in the second round, entered averaging a state-best 42.4 points in the highest classification. They topped that in the first half before withstanding a fierce Hillgrove rally in the third quarter.

“I told people it was going to be high scoring,” Barrett said. “Somebody asked me, ‘How you feeling?’ I was like they’ve got a pretty good offense so I feel like it’s going to be high scoring.”

The Hawks (5-6) trailed 56-27 with four minutes left in the first half after Barrett scored on a 23-yard run. They added a 16-yard touchdown pass from Hunter Arters to Cameron Connally in the final minute of the first half and then stormed back after the break. 

Jaylen McCollough scored on a 3-yard run two minutes into the third and then Hillgrove recovered an onside kick. That led to a 24-yard touchdown pass from Arters to Chigoziem Okonkwo to make it 56-47 with 8:33 left in the third. Arters completed 34 of 65 passes for 484 yards with seven touchdowns and six interceptions. An 8-yard scoring toss to Okonkwo, who had 11 catches for 211 yards and three scores, pulled Hillgrove within 56-54 with 3:56 remaining in the third. Hillgrove finished with 566 yards of offense, 508 through the air as Bryson Parks added eight catches for 100 yards and 13 different Hawks caught passes.

“I told you all before the game they had weapons and they were explosive on offense,” McPherson said. “They made plays. There were times we left people open, there were times we had great coverage and the ball was just thrown right on the money.

“We let them make too many plays obviously. But you can’t take anything away from them. They had a great gameplan, a great quarterback and a great set of receivers.”

The Vikings, though, answered back with help from their defense. Tayvonn Kyle, playing both ways, intercepted an Arters pass with 90 seconds left in the third and two plays later hauled in a 42-yard Barrett pass to give Lowndes some breathing room. A three-and-out to open the fourth then led to a 59-yard catch and run from Tyson Harris, who had seven catches for 123 yards and three touchdowns to pace the Vikings.

After one final Hillgrove score on a 16-yard Arters pass to Connally, the Vikings finally put it away. Travis Tisdale raced 48 yards for his third touchdown of the night to make it 77-61 with seven minutes left. Jaharie Boone then made a leaping one-handed grab of a screen pass and returned it 65 yards for a touchdown. On the Hawks’ next play, Harris returned a pick 35 yards for a score to push the lead to 92-61.

“Right before the game, we said we were going to play all four quarters,” Harris said. “Even though we had some mistakes, our team came out and we still fought on both sides of the ball.”

Barrett, who topped both 2,000 yards passing for the season and 1,000 yards rushing on the year in the first half, finished 173 yards rushing on 19 carries with three touchdowns, all coming in the first half when he also had a 9-yard TD run. JD Lee added a 2-yard score in the first quarter when Lowndes led 28-21 with Harris catching his first TD pass from Barrett, who was 13 of 21 passing for 236 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. The Vikings racked up 585 yards of offense, 349 rushing.

Tisdale, who had 141 yards on 11 carries, had scoring runs of 68 and 1 yards in the second quarter with Harris also hauling in a 24-yard touchdown.

“We’ve got an explosive offense,” Barrett said. “You never know when we’re fixing to pop. 

“It just comes out of nowhere.”

Jamie Wachter is the sports editor of the Valdosta Daily Times and can be followed on Twitter @jlwachter.