By PATRICK CASEY
The South Walton Seahawks earned their second district win of the season as their defense shut down the Chipley Tigers’ offense in picking up a 42-6 road victory on Friday night.
The game featured a dominant performance by South Walton as the visiting team rolled up 360 yards of offense while limiting Chipley to just 179 total yards. Senior quarterback Johnathan Ortner threw for 229 yards with two late touchdown passes while the rushing attack piled up 131 yards with a couple of short touchdown runs by Donnie Grosskopf.
The Seahawks scored twice in the first quarter as Grosskopf ended drives of 76 and 68 yards with short scoring runs for a 14-0 lead.
Sophomore kicker Austin Garofalo added field goals of 37 and 44 yards in the second quarter to push the lead to 20-0 and Carter Edwards closed out the scoring in the opening half with a 37-yard fumble return with just 17 seconds left that basically crushed the Tigers’ spirit to the tune of a 28-0 deficit.
Chipley’s only score of the night came on their first possession of the third quarter as the squad marched 52 yards with Adrian Sims scoring from two yards out to trim the lead to 28-6.
The Tigers would get no closer as they could not stop South Walton’s offense, though a pair of turnovers by the Walton County squad did help them out.
The Seahawks scored twice in the fourth quarter as Ortner hit Ben Balfanz with a 7-yard pass for a 36-6 lead that was followed by a 35-yard scoring toss on the last play of the game to Alex Smith for the final margin. The visiting team elected to throw deep on a fourth down play with just seconds left after Chipley had flattened Ortner on a blitz a play earlier.
The win marked the second season in a row that South Walton defeated Chipley as the victory moves them to 2-0 in District 3 of Class A. The Seahawks are 4-1 overall and got eight catches for 90 yards from Smith to lead the offense.
Senior Jeremy Seilhan and the entire South Walton defense held the Tigers to just two third-down conversions in 11 attempts as Seilhan had a rushing tackle for a loss to go with 1 ½ quarterback sacks. The Seahawks forced three turnovers and held Darren Stewart, the Tigers’ leading rusher, to 73 yards on 11 carries.
The Tigers’ lone score came after the host squad partially blocked a Cooper Isacks punt to give them good field position at their own 48-yard line.
South Walton (4-1) will travel to Cottondale(1-5) on Friday night to face a Hornets squad that has struggled to keep their opponents off the scoreboard for much of the season. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
