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Falcons 64, Bulldoggs 7
Difference maker: Flowery Branch's three-headed balanced attack. Kanler Coker, C.J. Curry and Jeremy Haley each tallied over 100 yards of offense at their respective positions. Coker finished with 199 yards passing, Curry caught five passes for 105 yards and Haley rushed for 139 yards on 12 carries.
Stat that matters: The Falcons held Winder-Barrow to two first downs and only 14 passing yards, while racking up 507 yards of their own.
Turning point: Haley's 17-yard run as time expired in the first quarter gave Flowery Branch a 23-7 lead, a large enough cushion to hold off the Bulldoggs for the rest of the night.
Who's next: Flowery Branch visits Apalachee at 7:30 p.m. next Friday. Winder-Barrow visits Madison County at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.
WINDER — With every passing week in the schedule, the Flowery Branch football team continues to prove just how good it really is.
The Falcons (2-0, 2-0 Region 8-AAAA) added another blowout victory to their short season, crushing Winder-Barrow 64-7 on Friday.
Class AAAA's fifth-ranked team pounded the winless Bulldoggs with 507 total offensive yards, making it two games in a row that it has ascended the mark.
The 64 points is also the highest scored by Flowery Branch as an AAAA team, and the most since it tallied 69 against East Hall last Oct. 16.
"Overall, the win is a great win," Falcons head coach Lee Shaw said. "It's a difficult offense to pick up, and once you do it's hard to stop."
Such was the case for Winder-Barrow.
The Bulldoggs (0-2, 0-2 Region 8-AAAA) struggled to find an answer for the Falcons' high-powered spread offense, and it paid off early.
Flowery Branch on just its second play of the game when Jeremy Haley scored from five yards out after Kanler Coker connected with C.J. Curry for a 38-yard pass not even 30 seconds into the game.
Coker and Curry found each other five times in the game, twice in the end zone. The first-year Falcon signal caller finished the game 11-for-20 with 199 yards, 127 in the first half.
Curry, who caught passes from Coker during the tandem's tenure at North Hall prior to 2011, finished the game with 105 yards.
"It takes a certain type of personnel, and we've got those kinds of kids," Shaw said. "It takes a quarterback that's a duel-threat guy that understands the offense and feels comfortable, but still be able to go through the concept routes."
The Falcons scored again two minutes later when a Winder-Barrow punt snap went high and bounced through the end zone, adding two more points to the early lead.
Winder-Barrow retaliated with its only score of the night, a 75-yard scamper by senior Jamonte Riden, who powered through the Flowery Branch trenches to find open field and move the Bulldoggs within two halfway through the first quarter.
Riden was the bright spot in Winder-Barrow's offense, picking up 161 yards on 22 carries.
But Riden's efforts couldn't keep the game close for long.
Four minutes later, Coker found Curry again, this time from 37 yards to give Flowery Branch a 16-7 lead late in the quarter.
The Falcons then turned back to their running game for more points, putting Haley in control for a 17-yard run as time expired in the quarter.
Haley finished the game with 139 yards on 12 carries, eclipsing the century mark for the second time this year.
"They're just a high-powered team, they have guys that can hurt you anywhere," Winder Coach David Wagner said. "There are times when you have good calls on both sides of the ball. They had somebody who could make plays - that was the bottom line."
Flowery Branch opened the second quarter by intercepting Bulldogg quarterback Christian Hodge's pass on the Winder-Barrow 9-yard line, with Jacob Allen cruising into the end zone untouched.
But in what would become common in the penalty-filled game, the touchdown was called back, leaving the Falcon offense to make another attempt to score.
They did just that, with Coker and Curry lining for the third time on night from 11 yards to give Flowery Branch a 30-7 lead they would take into halftime.
Winder-Barrow was the next victim of the yellow flags, as it watched Quintin Long's 23-yard block punt recovery to the Falcon's 16-yard line get erased by a block in the back.
Flowery Branch finished the game with 144 yards on 14 penalties, while Winder racked up 82 on eight flags.
Flowery Branch opened the second half with a similar passing attack, with Coker finding Casey Osborne open for a 54-yard play, the Falcons' longest of the night.
Osborne finished the night with 63 yards on four catches.
Haley picked up his third and final rushing touchdown of the night midway through the third quarter, hustling 35 yard to give the Falcons a 44-7 lead.
The Flowery Branch second team took over from there. Junior Jimmy McIntyre picked up 85 yards and two touchdowns on six carries as the Falcons' primary mop-up duty back. Shad Jenkins recovered a Winder-Barrow fumble on the Bulldoggs' 19-yard line for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Flowery Branch returns to Winder at 7:30 p.m. next Friday when it visits Apalachee. Winder-Barrow looks to end its 16-game losing streak when it visits Madison County.