MEME WYLIE CUTS LOOSE FOR ANOTHER BIG RUN He had over 160 yards on short playing time in Milledgeville. After whipping the GMC Bulldogs 48-14 last Friday night for their second region win, the WashingtonWilkes Tigers solidified their No. 3 state ranking in the GaSports.com coaches’ poll and moved a step closed to their goal of securing the region championship.

Coming off such a convincing win, a team might be tempted to rock back and take it easy for at least a little while. Not so here.

“There ain’t no coasting this week,” Tiger Head Coach Russell Morgan said as he began readying his team for the game of the season against Lincoln County.

In Milledgeville, W-W romped to the goal line every time the Tigers touched the ball in the first half and cruised to the win as the mercy rule took effect and the clock ran continuously throughout the second half. The starters came out of the game fairly early and the rest of the team got some valuable playing time on the game field.

“It was good to get to play a lot of kids,” Morgan said, “Everybody got to see the field and we came out of it healthy.

Eleven different Tigers carried the ball against GMC but Meme Wylie and Quientelle Dunn racked up the biggest numbers. Wylie carried 16 times for a total of 164 yards and Dunn got 108 yards in just three carries.

Nick Clemmons was chosen offensive player of the week after he did “a real good job taking over at center” for the ball game, according to Morgan.

Demont Gresham and Casey Nickels were named defensive players of the week because they each had a total of eight tackles. The only reason they didn’t have more tackles, Morgan explained, is because they weren’t in the game that long.

Since the Tigers were ahead 42-0 at halftime, the GHSA mercy rule dictated that the game clock run continuously for the second half. That speeded the progress of the game and shortened the embarrassment suffered by GMC. But Morgan said that “the only thing bad about running the clock is that it limits the time the young kids get to play because the game goes so fast.”

All the non-starters got to play throughout the second half and the game experience was valuable even if it was relatively brief.

“The young guys played pretty well but they still have a lot of work to do on defense,” Morgan reported. “Offensively they moved the ball but hurt themselves with turnovers. We gave up two touchdowns but GMC still had their first team in the game,” he explained.

Bragging on his starters, Morgan said, “We scored every series in the first half and until we pulled the starters, the defense had given up only about two yards to the Bulldog offense.”