Honor roll
Zach Allen, Jefferson: Had 14 total tackles (two for loss, 11 solo) in a loss to Elbert County.
Austin Brown, Flowery Branch: Went 14 for 24 passing for 177 yards and a touchdown in a win over Heritage.
Imani Cross, North Hall: Had 16 tackles in a loss to Lumpkin County.
Michael Flanagan, Lumpkin County: Had 131 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries in a win over North Hall.
Jeremy Haley, Flowery Branch: Had 144 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in a win over Heritage.
A.J. Johnson, Gainesville: Had 42 yards and three touchdowns on seven carries in a win over Monroe Area.
Dylan Lackey, Banks County: Had 125 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries in a win over Rabun County.
Stephen Mason, Gainesville: Had five catches for 106 yards in a win over Monroe Area.
Sergio Rojas, Commerce: Had nine tackles in a loss to Athens Academy.
Victor Salcido, Riverside Military Academy: Hit field goals of 47, 37 and 38 yards in a win over Athens Christian.
Cole Segraves, White County: Had 83 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, while going 8-for-17 for 147 yards passing in a win over Stephens County.
Cody Streetman, Commerce: Had 165 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries, while going 5-for-8 passing for 99 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a loss to Athens Academy.
Deshaun Watson, Gainesville: Had 78 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, while going 10-for-17 for 156 yards passing in a win over Monroe Area.
Jackson Wells, Lakeview Academy: Had 118 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries in a win over North Cobb Christian.
Jesse Wright, Union County: Had 135 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries in a win over Dawson County.
While winning two varsity football games in a season would be considered a letdown at some high schools, at Lakeview Academy it’s a school record.
In only its third year competing at the varsity level, the Lakeview Academy football team had never won more than a single game in one season until now.
The Lions scored a school-record 49 points on Friday on their way to a 49-21 victory over North Cobb Christian in Kennesaw. With the win, Lakeview improves to 2-4 on the season.
Of those 49 points scored Friday night, 30 came on the legs of Nick Drury. The senior had touchdown runs of 37, 4, 29, 44 and 37 yards on the way to amassing 213 yards on 15 carries. For his efforts, Drury is The Times Football Player of the Week.
“If feels good,” Drury said of Lakeview’s second win of the season. “I definitely think we should have more wins than we have; we’ve come up short in some games, but it’s definitely good to get two wins in a season.”
As far as his performance Friday, Drury is quick to lay the praise on his teammates.
“It makes it easy when the lines blocks as well as they did and our halfbacks did an awesome job sealing their linebackers,” Drury said. “It feels good.”
As the game was progressing, Drury was well aware of how many times he had found the end zone, but had no clue he had approached 200 yards on the ground.
“I was just having fun during the game and my dad came up after the game and said I had close to 200 yards,” Drury said. “I just said ‘wow.’”
One person who wasn’t surprised by Drury’s success Friday was Lions coach Matthew Gruhn.
“He’s just one of those guys who is just hard to bring down,” Gruhn said. “He’s just a tough, hard-nosed football player.
“Just one of those guys who just makes plays for you. He can get something out of nothing a lot of the times and he rarely loses yardage.”
Gruhn is also impressed by Drury’s performance in the classroom.
“In the classroom he makes outstanding grades and that carries over onto the football field,” Gruhn said. “He’s just a good, solid kid and it’s nice to see a great guy like that have a such a good game and get recognized for it.”
Lakeview began playing varsity football in 2008, when Drury was a sophomore. He has been a three-year starter and believes the program has improved each season.
“We’re definitely headed in the right direction,” Drury said.
In 2008, Lakeview went 1-7 and then went 1-8 in 2009, but several of those losses came against Region 8-A opponents.
This preseason, Gruhn met with his team and asked them if they would like to try playing a non-region schedule in hopes of facing more evenly-matched competition.
“We felt that this was the best way to keep building the program,” Drury said. “It was a team decision.”
That decision seems to have paid dividends for the Lions; three of their four losses this year have been by less than 14 points, which shows a marked improvement in their competitive level.
The Lions will have a chance to continue that improvement when they face Georgia Military Academy (4-3) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Milledgeville.