Why Houston County’s hot offensive performance was not enough in loss to Westlake

WARNER ROBINS — In Houston County’s (2-2) return home after a historic shootout against Central-Carrollton, they looked good.

Really good.

Austin Stinson, fresh off of a 411-yard performance last week, continued to terrorize defenses. After a sack fizzled the Bears’ first drive, Stinson went 30-ish and 51 yards on the next two for touchdowns.

Three consecutive three-and-outs for the defense and a field goal had HoCo ahead 17-0 early in the second quarter. But by the end of the night, Westlake (5-0) stood on top, 61-51.

“We got to get better at our [run] fits and we got to tackle better,” said Bears head coach Jeremy Edwards. “We gauge two things: explosive plays and turnovers. Obviously we had a turnover there on the goal line. We had a lot of explosive plays to their explosive plays, it just wasn’t enough tonight.”

The Lions scored 26 unanswered points into the third quarter before Stinson scored another touchdown to pull within two.

Westlake’s Roscoe Hayes took a pass over the middle 68 yards on the ensuing drive to answer, and the turnover in question followed.

After the offense marched down to the two-yard line, quarterback Ryan Maxwell tried to flip the ball over the line to tight end Joshua Pettigrew. It didn’t get enough juice on it, and the Lions’ defense intercepted it and returned it out to the 20-yard line.

On the very next play from scrimmage, Christian Womack darted 80 yards to paydirt. The score read 40-24 in Westlake’s favor with 1:19 left in the third.

It started out as busted coverage in the secondary, and for a moment Lions quarterback Cannon Robinson targeted and torched the defensive backs, but by the second half it felt like every play they ran had a chance to go the distance.

It boiled down to some very simple things for Edwards.

“It’s not rocket science, we gotta block and tackle better,” he said. “We gotta figure out the right combination of personnel in order to be able to put the best product on the field. We gotta get some guys healed up, too.”

One positive Edwards noted in his postgame huddle, though, was the fact that they never gave up.

“These kids are winners in life, and that’s what it’s really all about,” Edwards said. “Obviously we’re judged by the scoreboard … but you can’t take away the fight. There is no riffraff going on on the sideline, there’s guys locked in to the very end. We just got to fix some things, and we will.”

After a timid start in the passing game, the Bears found their stride as Maxwell found J.T. Thomas and Messiah Holliday routinely for big gains. When Stinson sat, Jarrod Henry had some very productive runs and absorbed tackles surprisingly well for his small stature.

Edwards’ biggest message in the postgame huddle was to latch on to that and come together to fight through the losses.

UP NEXT

Houston County enters their second bye week next week before they host Tift County on Oct. 2.