COVINGTON, Ga - In a matchup that was filled with miscues on both sides, the Newton Rams reign victorious over cross-town rival, the Eastside Eagles 27-7 at Sharp Stadium on Friday night.
Each team made their share of mistakes, but the Rams overcame theirs enough to take home the win.
For instance, Newton began the second half with a commanding 14-0 lead. On its opening possession of the second half, the Rams were forced to punt.
On the ensuing punt, Rontravious Perry fumbled the snap and gave possession to Eastside at the 15-yard line.
Three plays later, the Eagles scored their lone touchdown of the contest when Dallas Johnson rushed for a 1-yard touchdown. Johnson’s touchdown cut the Rams’ lead in half 14-7.
Following Eastside’s score, the Rams marched down the field, burned 3:34 off the clock and responded with a touchdown of their own.
Coincidentally, it was Perry who scored off a 6-yard touchdown run to extend the Rams lead 21-7.
Newton proceeded to run the ball, kill the clock and never looked back.
The same isn’t true for the Eagles.
Particularly in the closing seconds of the first quarter, Eastside was backed up against its own goal line. Quarterback Johnny Crowe took the snap, fumbled the exchange with his running back and the ball was loose.
Crowe ended up falling on the ball, but he did so in his own end zone resulting in a safety.
It seemed like whenever the Eagles got anything going consistently on offense, the penalty bug would bite them, too.
In fact, Eastside racked up almost 100 yards worth of penalties that halted any momentum they would muster up.
That was mostly the case for Newton, too, but they didn’t seem to commit penalties in crucial situations.
Despite said penalties, Newton still scored 27 points.
Three of the four touchdowns came off the stellar play from senior quarterback, Jevarra Martin Jr.
Martin’s first score was an 18-yard touchdown run on the Rams’ opening possession. Then, Martin connected with Marcus Calwise for a 27-yard touchdown with less than eight minutes left in the first half. The final score by Martin came with 6:33 left in the game when he scampered across the goal line from three yards out.
Additionally, Martin seemed to make perfect reads on option plays which paid dividends for the Rams.
Friday’s win was the third straight for Newton over Eastside.
This year's win propels the Rams to a 2-0 start for the 2021 season. Meanwhile, for the Eagles, they go back to .500 with a 1-1 record and face Alcovy next Friday.
