Rockdale Citizen

Photo by Corinne Nicholson

COVINGTON -- Eastside's Califf Carnes led the Eagles' air attack, throwing for 216 yards and five touchdowns in Eastside's 41-13 win over Westside, Macon on Friday at Homer Sharp Stadium.

Eastside will travel to Cairo for the second round of the playoffs after Cairo beat Richmond Academy 40-17.

"If you had told us that was going to happen at the beginning of the game I would've laughed at you. The kids did a great job," said Eastside head coach Rick Hurst. "We knew we could find some stuff in the passing game if we could get time. Man, did our offensive line give Califf time all night long. The receivers did a great job coming back and catching the football after last week."

Carnes was 6-for-15, including one interception, and three touchdowns in the first half, while throwing for 185 yards. He ended the night going 9-for-19.

"He put the ball on the money all night. He made some big time throws. I knew the kid had it in him, but he made throws I hadn't seen all year. But again it was protection, backs stepping up, taking on the blitz and then receivers making the catch. It was a total team effort," Hurst said.

Dante Blackmon led the receiver corp with 181 yards and three touchdowns on four catches and had an interception late in the fourth quarter. He had catches of 40, 53, 63 and 25 yards.

"He had a huge night. I think he came back with a little bit of redemption on his mind for last week after a couple of drops. It happened to him earlier in the year. He had that game against Newton where he dropped the ball. Then he goes out the next game. He was focused, you could tell he wanted it," Hurst said. "We told him they were cheating up on the run and we were able to get behind the safeties to take advantage of what they were doing."

The Eagles also ran the ball when they needed, gaining 164 yards on 30 carries. Alex Smith advanced the running game with 19 touches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

"I was glad we were able to come out and run the football. That's what the pass does; it loosens them up and we were able to run the football towards the end of the first half and in the second half. It's just a reverse of what we've been doing. We have to do what we have to do," said Hurst.

"They've been hard to rush on for 100 yards all year. I think Peach County and Baldwin may have done it. But they probably haven't given up 100 yards rushing in a while."

Defensively, Eastside held the Seminoles to 105 rushing and 127 yards passing. Of those, 53 rushing and eight passing came against non-starters in the final minutes of the game.

They also had five quarterback sacks and six running plays for negative yardage.

"They were all over the place," said Hurst of his defense. "If we get up on you, and those guys can pin their ears back, it's amazing to watch Jerrell (Crowder) and those guys put the pressure on them. In the second half, we mostly went with a three-man front and they were getting him with three guys."

In the first quarter, Blackmon caught a 40-yard pass from Carnes to put the ball on the Seminoles 3-yard line allowing Eastside to score on the next play with a pass to Matt Hitchcock four minutes into the game.

After falling short of the end zone in their first drive, Blackmon scored on the first play of their second possession with a 53-yard touchdown two minutes later.

The Seminoles moved the ball 58 yards to end the first period scoring in the first play of the second quarter on a 3-yard dive by D.J. Wilson.

Eastside escaped a possible interception when the Westside receiver landed out of bounds. The Eagles took advantage of their second chance scoring a touchdown with 6:21 left in the first half on a 26-yard run, including a twisting dive from the three, by Smith.

Carnes found Blackmon one more time before the half for a 63-yard touchdown pass with 41 ticks left on the clock.

Following a scoreless third quarter, Carnes threw the ball into the end zone two more times, finding Jake Wright and Blackmon for the scores.

The Seminoles were able to sneak a pass against Eastside's bench players with four seconds left in the game.

"I told them at halftime if we put one more (score) on them they might rollover and they did. That's what we needed to do. It's been a long time since that team has been handled like that," said Hurst. "I'm glad we got a chance to do it."