Berrien remains winless in region after blowout loss at Thomasville

Published 7:53 pm Saturday, October 26, 2019

THOMASVILLE –– The Berrien County Rebels dropped to 0-2 in Region 2-A in their 67-23 loss against Thomasville, who now stands at 3-0 in the region.

“This is behind us. Soon as we walk off the field, this game is dead,” Rebels head coach Tim Alligood said. “We might not even watch the film on this.”

The Rebels started the game on the wrong foot when the Bulldogs forced a three-and-out on their first drive.

On the punt, the ball only traveled three yards after hitting off a Rebel’s helmet.

A couple of plays later the Bulldogs got their first score when quarterback Ronnie Baker found tight end Payten Singletary on an out route which went for 19 yards.

The Rebels looked to redeem themselves for their first plays with possession of the football.

That was until Gerrick Johnson fumbled the ball on a rush on the 24-yard line where Bulldogs’ defensive back Michael Major recovered it.

The Bulldogs got the ball and then also fumbled on the drive when Ronnie Baker scrambled and coughed up the ball as defensive tackle TJ Hymen jumped on it for the Rebels.

But they couldn’t capitalize.

Once the Bulldogs got the ball back, they marched down to the one-yard line where Ronnie Baker capped off the drive with a scramble to put them up 14-0 with 3:41 left in the first quarter.

The Rebels saw themselves in a desperate situation until the Johnson boys set them free.

On 3rd and 21 on their own nine-yard line Ja’Marquis Johnson linked up with Gerrick Johnson on 36-yard pass. 

A few plays later, Ja’Marquis Johnson rolled out to his right and scrambled for 35-yards to give the Rebels their first score of the game, closing the gap to 6 after converting a two-point conversion.

“We got a little bit of momentum on this and then it just seemed like every time we broke a long run, penalties or mistakes backed us up,” Coach Alligood said. 

The Bulldogs gained possession and was thrusted to the 12-yard line after a late hit on Ronnie Baker.

On the next play, Baker found Singletary for the second time to extend their lead to 14. 

A fumble by Ja’Marquis Johnson led to a 60-yard scoop and score by cornerback KD Johnson to open a 30-8 lead.

Gerrick ‘Flash’ Johnson tried to pump some life into the Rebels.

He ran up the gut to the endzone for 90-yards to close the gap to 15 with 5:06 left in the second quarter.

“That was one of the things early on that we thought would swing the game,” Coach Alligood said. “We felt we’ll be right back in the game after that, but we hurt ourselves and didn’t use the small windows of opportunities we had.”

The Rebels’ defense just could not stop the Baker-Singletary connection.

Before the half Baker found Singletary for their third touchdown to lead 37-15 entering the second half.

Returning from halftime, the Bulldogs received the ball first and went full takeover mode, only allowing eight points in the second half.

They pulled out the trickery on this drive when Ronnie Baker tossed the ball to his right side to Ricardo Johnson who tossed it back to Baker, leading him to score on a 20-yard completion.

The Bulldogs eclipsed the half century scoring mark when Ronnie Baker scrambled for ten yards and reached his way into the end zone to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 51-15 at the end of third quarter.

Mercy rule was applied but the Bulldogs kept scoring.

The Baker and Johnson connection scored once again but this was on a traditional pass play where Johnson caught a screen pass to score.

Gerrick Johnson ran up the gut of the defense for a 40-yard score for the Rebels with 1:41 left in the game.

As time expired, Kanye Stephens rushed for a touchdown to give the Bulldogs 67 points in the game.

“When you’re playing a good team like Thomasville, you only get so many windows of opportunities to get yourself in the game,” Coach Alligood explained. “We had that window early on, but our mistakes squandered them.”

For Thomasville, they will have a bye week before their region finale matchup at Early County on Nov. 8.

Berrien will take on Early County next week in hopes a clinching a playoff bid.

“We beat Early County next week, we’re in the playoffs. That’s all we’re thinking about,” Alligood said.

The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Raymond Jones Memorial Stadium.