Defending champ Brookwood falls; top contender Grayson wins in Georgia

ATLANTA - One Georgia state champion, Brookwood (Snellville, Ga.), lost its opener Saturday while the team many view as the heir apparent in Class AAAAA, region rival Grayson (Loganville, Ga.), waited until the final minutes to earn a victory that avenged its season-opening loss a year ago.

The season openers for Brookwood, ranked No. 1 in many preseason AAAAA polls, and Grayson, the No. 25 team in MaxPreps' Xcellent 25, were part of the four-game Corky Kell Kickoff Classic at the Georgia Dome.

Five of the eight teams were ranked in both the Associated Press and Atlanta Journal-Constitution polls, including Brookwood, a 14-6 loser to Lassiter (Marietta, Ga.), and Grayson, a 7-0 winner against Kell (Marietta, Ga.).

In the opener, Grayson got its only touchdown with about seven minutes left when Robert Nkemdiche, Georgia's most heralded junior football player, scored on a 5-yard run. Nkemdiche is better known as a defensive tackle. He anchored a defense that held Kell to less than 100 yards of total offense.

Nkemdiche began lining up at running back in the playoffs last season, when Grayson advanced three rounds to the semifinals after a 7-3 regular season.

‘'It's hard to stop a guy who's 6-foot-4, 270 pounds and runs a 4.5 40 (yard dash),'' Grayson coach Mickey Conn said. "There's no doubt who's getting the ball. It's a matter of stopping him.''

But Grayson didn't score until Kell botched a punt return midway in the fourth quarter, and Grayson recovered inside Kell's 10-yard line.

Coincidentally, it was a misplayed punt that decided last year's game between the two, which Kell won 13-10. Kell is a Marietta school that finished 12-1 last season in AAAA with star defensive back Brian Randolph, now at the University of Tennessee.

In the second game, defending AAAAA champ Brookwood appeared headed toward victory until Lassiter scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Lassiter has a heralded junior player of its own in quarterback Eddie Printz, who threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Juwan Dickey for a 7-6 lead.

Lassiter got a turnover on Brookwood's next possession and turned it into a 14-6 lead when Isiah Willis scored from the 5.

Printz was 10-for-19 passing for 152 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. What should've been a 45-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter was dropped at the Brookwood 1-yard line.

Lassiter is the school that set passing records with quarterback Hutson Mason in 2008 and 2009. Mason, now at Georgia, threw for 4,560 yards and 54 touchdowns during a 12-1 finish.

Lassiter fell to 5-6 last season under the first year of head coach Jep Irwin but appears headed toward a turnaround with a much improved defense.

Brookwood averaged 40.2 points per game in its five state playoff victories last year, including a 52-38 victory in its last trip to the Georgia Dome against Colquitt County in the state championship game.

Brookwood coach Mark Crews said his team was inexperienced on the offensive line and at quarterback, a problem that can be fixed with time. Brookwood's Nick Tompkins, an all-state running back who has committed to Michigan State, rushed for 97 yards on 19 attempts.

‘'If our kids are made of the stuff I think they are, we'll be fine,'' said Crews, whose team had a players-only meeting after the game. "Maybe it's a good thing they see that people are not laying down because people say we're going to be good.''

In the third game, McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) scored two touchdowns in the final 10 seconds to beat North Gwinnett (Suwanee, Ga.) 26-17. Chris Nwagbara scored on a 4-yard run to give McEachern a 20-17 lead, and C.J. Cody returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown on the game's final play.

North Gwinnett was 12-1 last season and nationally ranked much of the season but had to replace star quarterback C.J. Uzomah, now at Auburn. New quarterback Scotty Hosch was 15-for-25 for 177 yards and threw two touchdown passes to Chad Scott, who finished with six catches for 98 yards.

Both teams were ranked in preseason Top-10 rankings.