by Adam Carrington
acarrington@mdjonline.com
November 21, 2009 01:00 AM | 1430 views | 0

|
13 
|
|

Lassiter receiver Griffin Roelle, right, shakes the grasp of South Gwinnett’s Jazzin Anderson as he races for a touchdown in Friday’s second-round Class AAAAA playoff game.
Staff photo by Thinh D. Nguyen
slideshow
MARIETTA - Chip Lindsey's offense is designed to put points on the board.
But in the Class AAAAA state playoffs, the Lassiter football coach and his players are putting up numbers more suited for a basketball scoreboard.
The Trojans won a shootout, 70-49, over South Gwinnett on Friday in the second round of the state playoffs at Frank Fillmann Stadium.
With Friday's school-record tally - the previous mark was 65 points, set against Cherokee in 1996 - the Trojans have now scored 132 points in the last two weeks.
There were other firsts for Lassiter (12-0), too.
Quarterback Hutson Mason, who completed 32 of 39 pass attempts for 530 yards against the Comets, tied a state record for touchdowns passes in a game with eight. The win also sent Lassiter on its first trip to the state quarterfinals, where the Trojans will host Colquitt County next Friday.
In playing the Packers, Lindsey will line up against his old boss, Rush Propst. Lindsey was offensive coordinator under Propst in 2007 on the staff of the nationally renowned program at Hoover (Ala.) High School.
"It's going to be a good one. He'll have them ready," said Lindsey, whose team hosted Propst's Packers for a preseason scrimmage in August. "It will be a lot of fun. It will be two teams playing, and it will be a lot of fun. No doubt about that."
Lassiter's offensive numbers were off the charts. Griffin Roelle racked up 225 receiving yards and four touchdowns to lead Mason's receiving corps. Tyren Jones added 102 yards and a touchdown, while Jimmy Mayer had 70 yards - all coming in the first half - and two scores.
South Gwinnett (10-2) may have lost by three touchdowns, but the Comets still finished the game with 501 total yards. Quarterback Kent Rollins threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns, while Trevon Walker provided 152 rushing yards and three touchdowns and Jonathan Krause had 130 receiving yards and two scores.
It was the South Gwinnett miscues that kept the Trojans in front by a wide margin.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter until Lassiter took the lead for good, 21-14, on a 58-yard pass from Mason to Mayer with 4:26 left to play in the first quarter. Afterwards, Lassiter reached the end zone three more times in the first half, thanks to South Gwinnett mistakes.
The Comets' lost fumble late in the first quarter led to a 12-yard touchdown pass from Mason to Mayer to put Lassiter ahead, 28-14. A Niles Clark pick with 1:21 left in the first also resulted in a Mason touchdown pass, this time to Tyren Jones from 5 yards out.
Then, two plays later, Marcus Stokes recovered a South Gwinnett fumble and Lassiter took advantage when Mason threw a screen to Roelle, who turned it into a 5-yard touchdown to put the Trojans ahead 42-14.
"The main thing is, coming into the game, that we had to stay physical and hit the offense hard," said defensive lineman Derek Demyanek, who had a third-quarter interception. "When they start running scared, they're more likely to drop the ball, so the main thing was having to stay physical and not letting up on them."
Lassiter outscored the Comets, 21-14, in the third quarter to keep South Gwinnett at bay. The first touchdown came on a 10-yard interception return by Coray Carlson, before the Trojans put their reserves in the game in the fourth.
Antonio Stokes accounted for the Trojans' final score, a 15-yard interception return into the end zone.