Football Recap: Cody Mcbrayer Leads a Balanced Attack to Beat Lumpkin County

For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Dawson County and Lumpkin County meet (three straight games heading into this one) and that held true again on Friday. The Tigers strolled past the Indians with points to spare, taking the game 31-14. For the Tigers, this counts as revenge for the 38-14 victory the Indians walked away with the last time they faced one another back in October of 2024.

Cody Mcbrayer

Rushing Yards (Career)

10/24/25 @ Lumpkin County	205
09/05/25 vs Banks County	195
09/26/25 vs Greater Atlanta Christian	193
10/17/25 vs Chestatee	178
10/10/25 @ White County	129

Dawson County's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Cody Mcbrayer, who rushed for 205 yards and a pair of scores. Those 205 rushing yards gave Mcbrayer a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Brody Sorensen, who rushed for 54 yards and one touchdown.

Dawson County didn't let much get past them through the air: they limited Lumpkin County to a completion percentage of just 43.5%. That dominant aerial defense primarily came from three players: Jadyn Mattie, Avery Martin, and Jacob Felkai, who each logged two passes deflected. Sadly, that's becoming something of a trend for Dawson County; they were averaging 60.7%completion percentage earlier this season, but in their last three matchups they've fallen to only 0%.

When it comes to explaining why Lumpkin County lost, don't look at Nolan Matthews. Despite the final result, he rushed for 262 yards and a pair of TDs while picking up 10.9 yards per carry. Matthews' longest rush was for an incredible 80 yards.

Dawson County has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 4-5 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 13.3 points on average over those games. As for Lumpkin County, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-4.

We've got plenty of inter-region action coming up soon. Dawson County is set to challenge their familiar foe North Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 913 yards in their previous games. Meanwhile, Lumpkin County will square off against rival Pickens at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. That game will pit two of the most dominant backs against one another: Matthews and Ike Wyngaard.