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Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association

GMC opens season with last minute win; Bert Williams reaches milestone

GMC Damekus Taylor hands off football. Photo Courtesy: Gil Pound/ The Union -Recorder
GMC Damekus Taylor hands off football. Photo Courtesy: Gil Pound/ The Union -Recorder
Box Score
August 23, 2019

Milledgeville, GA - Georgia Military College's football team opened the 2019 regular season with a 33-30 win over Navarro College Thursday night at Davenport Stadium on the campus of GMC.

The victory marked the first time in four years that GMC has opened the regular season with a win 1-0 and also gave head coach Bert Williams his milestone 150th win with the Bulldogs in his 20th season on the Milledgeville campus.

Thursday's game kicked off the 150th year celebration of college football and also started the NJCAA season slate. Those watching in person or via webstream saw a matchup between two top 20 preseason ranked teams. Navarro entered the contest ranked18th and GMC 19th.

The game saw five lead changes with two of which took place in the last two and a half minutes of the game. Navarro utilized the strong arm of returning quarterback Parker O'Neil and they took the lead 30-26 with just 2:39 left in the game. Many wondered that we were going to have a repeat of last year's Navarro's last minute win, but GMC's freshman starting Damekus Taylor took the Bulldogs on 83 yard drive in just a 1:36 seconds.

Taylor had a exceptional game in his first collegiate start and on the final drive had two key scrambles for first downs and then set up the score with nice pass to Torenio Davis down to the Navarro 8 yard line. Two plays later Taylor gave the pigskin to freshman running back Tye Edwards who bulled his way into the end zone from 5 yards out giving the lead 33-30 with 1:03 left.

With 1:03 left, it was plenty of time for O'Neil to utilize his arm for a last second win but the Bulldogs from Corsicanna, Tx never were given the opportunity. On the ensuing kickoff, freshman kicker Ashton Musgrove gave a 20 yard pooch kick which two Navarro players mishandled and the GMC Bulldogs recovered. Musgrove connected on the of four field goals and two PAT's.

 

Up Next: GMC is set to travel to New York and take on Nassau Community College next Saturday (Aug.31) at 1 p.m.