Buford extended its reign on Georgia’s gridiron with a 35-19 win over previously-unbeaten Washington County for its sixth state title in the last seven seasons. The 15-0 Wolves also wrote history by becoming the highest scoring team in Georgia high school history by finishing the year with 707 total points scored (47.1 points per game), besting the previous single-season record of 682, which was set by Dublin in 2006 (according to records kept by GHSFHA.org).
Their state finals opponent, the Golden Hawks, dominated early on and gave Buford their best shot in the second quarter. Washington County quarterback A.J. Gray found D.J. Sanders for a 41-yard touchdown reception on the first play of the quarter. Buford was forced to punt on its following possession and an illegal formation penalty flagged the play and gave Washington County the option of making Buford punt again. On the redo, Melvin Hill fielded the punt and sprinted down the sideline behind a wall of blockers for an 86-yard touchdown.
It appeared that Buford would head into the half with a 13-0 deficit but a 43-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Mitchell to sophomore Isaac Nauta with 13 seconds left cut the lead to 13-7 and essentially woke up the state champion Wolves.
“We were just trying to be smart,” said head coach Jess Simpson. “If we didn’t get the first down we wouldn’t give them a bunch of time and we said let’s take a shot and it worked out.”
Nauta, who also played defensive end and finished with a game-high 2.0 sacks and 3.0 tackles-for-loss, was wide open before running through Bryan Hypolite for the touchdown.
“They were running man and we sent a guy in motion and he ran a little flat,” explained Nauta. “The guy that was on me bit on the flat route. I was running down the field wide open and our team just needed to make a big play.”
In the second half, Buford did not hesitate to take its first lead of the game and extended it by outscoring Washington County 28-7 in the half. On the Wolves’ first possession of the third quarter, Thomas Wilson ran for a 28-yard touchdown. Teammate Joshua Thomas piled on a 35-yard run minutes later and gave Buford a 28-13 lead. Washington County answered with a 64-yard touchdown pass to Sanders, but the Golden Hawks failed their two-point conversion and it remained a two-possession game at 28-19. On Buford’s final possession before kneeling out the clock, a 5-yard Thomas touchdown iced the game.
Thomas led the team with seven total tackles to add to his pair of second-half touchdowns. Mitchell and Montgomery VanGorder combined for 8-of-14 passing for 167 yards and a touchdown and the Wolves rushed for 243 yards on 39 carries (5.8 yards per carry). The two-time defending state champion Wolves will move up to Class AAAA next season as they look for their 10th state title since 2001.
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