Photo: Southside’s Evam McDonald (14), Jaython Novak (7) and Tytan Rich (34) celebrate Novak’s fumble recovery during the Panthers’ 35-13 loss to Moody in high school football on October 21. (Chris McCarthy)
Coming out of the first quarter tied 7-7, Moody scored 28 straight points en route to a 35-13 victory over Southside on October 21 at Barney Hood Stadium.
The loss dropped the Panthers (5-4, 3-3) to the fourth playoff seed in Class 5A, Region 6. Southside closes out the regular season at home against Etowah this Friday (Oct. 28) and travels to No. 4 Ramsay on November 4 in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs.
The Blue Devils (9-1, 5-1) opened the scoring at 3:43 of the first quarter on Blaine Burke’s 53-yard touchdown run.
Southside tied the game on the next possession via Gauge Nesmith’s 18-yard touchdown run and Abdullah Allabassi’s extra point.
That proved to be the high-water mark for the hosts, as Moody scored four straight touchdowns to put the game out of reach.
Nesmith threw a 13-yard TD pass to Cayden McMichael with two minutes left in the game to cut the deficit to 35-13.
Nesmith was 5 for 15 in passing for 43 yards and rushed 12 times for 56 yards. Cody Roberts caught three passes.
Mason Teague gained 121 yards on 17 rushing attempts.