The high-flying offenses of White County and Rabun County were on full display for a quarter and a half. Between the two, 49 points were on the board when lightning came and halted play not even midway through the second. The Wildcats won the contest, which ended at 11:55 in a 40-27 final.
#4 Rabun County was up 28-21, though it was shaping up to be a true battle of dual threat quarterbacks. The Wildcats, after recovering a fumble on the Warriors opening drive, quickly found the end zone when Ty Truelove connected with Lake Evans for a 7-yd TD.
Not to be outdone, Tripp Nix responded for White County with a 21-yd rushing score. The Wildcats went right back to work, and Truelove found Reid Giles, who eluded would-be tacklers and raced in from 70 yards out. That had the Cats up 14–7 with 4:29 left in the opening quarter. After getting the ball back, they took a 21–7 lead when Truelove found Evans wide open for a 25-yd TD.
On the first play of the second quarter, White County got right back in the game when Nix rushed in from 3 ticks out. That bridged the gap to 21–14. Almost instantly, Truelove and company would get it right back. The junior star QB shook off some tackles and found paydirt from 69 yards out to push the lead back up to 28–14.
On the next drive, White County was aided by a penalty and strung together a few short passes to get down the field. Nix handed off to Noel Lammers for a 1-yd score to make it a 28–21 game with 7:37 to go in the half. Just 30 seconds later, the horn sounded with nearby lightning. After nearly two hours of waiting, play finally resumed around 10:15 PM.
Truelove knotted a 4-yd TD with just 6 seconds left in the half after a Clayton Blalock interception of Nix set it up. The PAT failed, making it 34-21 heading into the break.
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Truelove found Jake Payne on a 65-yd TD to start to put the game away, as the Wildcats went up 40-21 after the ensuing 2-point try was no good. In the fourth, Alex Freeman threw a 56-yd TD to Brayden Roach, making it a 40-27 score. The ensuing onside kick was recovered by the Warriors, but turnover on downs a couple series later ended the contest.
While the win was nice for Rabun, Truelove exited with an apparent shoulder injury, and was seen with a sling on his throwing arm for the final quarter and a half. White County’s Nix also couldn’t hold his throwing arm up late in the game and was replaced by Freeman. Jason Rewis exited with a leg injury, and Jon Scott had a finger injury but returned.
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