South Atlanta quarterback Jamario Washington had to be feeling confident after his team’s first drive. From his own 23-yard line, Washington rolled out to his left and completed a 22-yard pass to the 45-yard line. On the very next play, the quick-footed quarterback ran 55 yards for a touchdown to put the Hornets up 7-0 early on the Knights.

It was an unfortunate series of events for a Grady team that honored offensive/defensive line coach Willie Jordan before the game. Jordan, who grew up in Atlanta, has been coaching for more than 40 years. As a coach, he has recorded the most wins in APS history. The honor he wanted most, however, was to add one more win to the record total.

He ultimately received that distinction, but it didn’t look good early as the Knights’ offense was stalled on two drives. On the Hornets’ third possession, however, the game turned the Knights’ way. On a third and 20 on his own 14-yard line, Washington momentarily avoided pressure, reared his arm back to throw and muffed the pass attempt as he was hit. It was caught in the air by defensive lineman Deandre Brown who returned it 10 yards for a touchdown as time expired in the first quarter.

When the Hornets (3-5) got the ball back at the beginning of the second quarter, the Knights’ defense continued to make key plays by applying pressure on the quarterback. They forced a three and out, and on the punt, Shomari Gervin came flying in unblocked from the right side and smothered the punt attempt easily. The Knights (7-1) recovered on the 16-yard line. The offense had to settle for a tie-breaking field goal, which made the score, 10-7.  In addition to gaining the lead, the Knights also also gained a rhythm on both sides of the ball. The offense scored again its next drive, and the offensive firepower, coupled with a fast, ferocious turnover-forcing defense, proved to be a Hornet extinguisher in the second quarter.

Senior quarterback Kivon Taylor connected on several screen plays that befuddled the South Atlanta defense, along with effective slants mostly to senior wide receiver Dashawn Benton. Taylor threw two of his three touchdown passes in the decisive second quarter, in which the Knights outscored the Hornets 24-0. Senior wide receiver Patrick Carroll said that the team expected South Atlanta to blitz frequently, and they adjusted their formation in the second quarter to take advantage of the Hornets’ man coverage on the Knight receivers.

“When Kivon started going into shotgun, the line was able to pick up the blitz enough for Kivon to pick and choose the open man and throw strikes,” Carroll said.

The only unit competing to upstage the Knights’ offense was the Knights’ defense, which scored its second touchdown of the half on a 57-yard interception return with about two minutes left in the second quarter. The Knights capped off the quarter with a 25-yard pass play from Taylor to senior Marquavius Henry, who ran a simple skinny post route to the middle of the field. After the Knights had built such a commanding halftime lead, they put in many of their less-experienced players in the second half and ended up winning 45-19.

Grady (7-1) will face Carver in a AAAA Region 6B game on Friday at Lakewood Stadium. Carver beat South Atlanta 65-14 on Oct. 19 and should be a challenging matchup for the Knights.