Published 1:23 am Saturday, November 22, 2025
By Matthew Brown
MACON – When the heaviest of the rain fell Friday at Mercer University’s Five Star Stadium, it was kind of fitting, like when the confetti falls from the sky after the Super Bowl.
Duke Hurt put ‘The Hurt’ on Deerfield-Windsor with three rushing touchdowns. And even the most bizarre of endings couldn’t stop Hurt and the John Milledge Academy Trojans from winning state championship in football No. 6 28-20 against the previously unbeaten Knights from Albany.
Yes, the powerful running game of JMA outdid the powerful passing attack from Deerfield-Windsor and senior quarterback Lane Sceals. Trojan head coach J.T. Wall probably never saw so many completed passes against one of his teams, but the JMA defense didn’t give up a high number of points and made a couple of catches Sceals didn’t want to see.
When it came to the last say, however, Deerfield-Windsor had it when it looked like Hurt sealed the victory with his third touchdown on the college turf. He went 19 yards on 3rd-and-7, and with Allmen Burrell’s PAT kick and only 3:16 left to play, JMA had its biggest lead of the night, 28-12.
But don’t pour anything on the head coach just yet. Sceals had three touchdown passes Friday, and the third was a 54-yard bomb to fellow senior David Hutchins. That came with 2:36 to play, and then – after two other PAT tries failed – Sceals’ 2-point pass to another senior, Gabe Daniel, turned it back into a one-score game.
Now it was time for everyone to pay attention, because everyone knew an onside kickoff was coming. Who got it? Ultimately, it was freshman Gus Cummings of JMA at the Knight 49-yard-line. Hurt gave his team one more first down run, and with just over one minute to play, it was time for victory formations.
Only, when does this ever happen? A fumble? That’s what was ultimately ruled with 30 seconds on the clock. And Deerfield-Windsor recovered on its own 36. Are we about to see overtime and an unhappy JMA sideline?
Well, Sceals completed one pass to his 46, but the next play Cummings broke up a pass intercepted by Brayden Harrison, who already had a pick in the first half … nope, flag on the play for defensive holding.
From the JMA 44, this time it was a regular running back, Jamel Cooper, in the secondary, and he broke up the pass that Malik Dorsey caught just off the turf with 10 seconds on the clock.
Quarterback Lewis Cheney took his next knee out of shotgun formation.
Now we can talk to a coach who is a celebratory mood.
“They were going to make us earn that one,” said Wall, after a long embrace with son Asa who put the ‘hurt’ on a few Knights Friday. “We feel they touched the ball before (the onside) kick went 10 yards. Somehow we ended up getting it back. I don’t know what happened on the kneel down. I got guys telling me, on film, that they are hitting the ball before it’s snapped. The ball gets loose. We knew right here when we were going to kneel down (at the end) it wasn’t over.”
This championship comes after JMA suffered through a 2-9 2024 and lost the 2023 final to Valwood. That loss snapped a national record winning streak.
“We have won a lot when we’ve been the favorite,” said Wall, leader of all six titles. “I don’t really know if we were the favorite (this year). Felt like we were the underdogs in a lot of games this year. We broke a lot of winning streaks. We played a lot of tough teams. We feel like that’s what had us ready for (the finals). These guys kept grinding.”
In the backfield, Cooper had been limited in his action, not even playing the previous two playoff games. Otherwise he’s splitting carries with Hurt. Hurt showed at Mercer he could be a bell cow, and Wall made sure everyone else on the field got recognized for his results.
“Those guys up front don’t get enough credit,” he said. “They were blocking their butts off. Fullbacks. Tight ends. Wings. O-linemen. We won a game like we used to win it as far as lining up and running the football.”
Sceals may have ran as much as Hurt with the pressure the JMA defensive front put on him, forcing several throws to the sidelines. Just as many throws were caught by his open receivers, and there were the two INTs and the breakups. One of the tops in those efforts was the freshman safety Lane Rhodes.
Cohen Brooks, Kellen Eady and Rodney Latimore were among those relentless in the pass rush.
“Super proud of coach Mills and his defense,” said Wall. “To step up to this challenge that we hadn’t seen all year. We were unbelievable. We were trying to keep everything in front of us. We knew he was going to complete passes. Can’t say enough about the way these guys played.”
And the winning feeling was still sinking in.
John Milledge jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the game’s first series. While Hurt was establishing himself on the ground, Cheney hit his biggest pass gain of the game going over the middle to senior Bryce McDonel from one 35-yard-line to another. It was from the 25-yard-line that Hurt first shed tackles and then a major pileup of players ensued that kept moving towards the goal line. Officials let it keep going, and Hurt was over the line not two full minutes into the action.
Burrell hit is first PAT for 7-0.
Sceals was next showing off his arm, and he completed seven passes in the first Knight series. One was a 4th-and-5 conversion for 23 yards. The drive was 73 yards in all, and Daniel leapt for an 18-yard touchdown catch at 5:41.
However, a bad PAT kick kept the Trojans in the lead 7-6.
Deerfield-Windsor forced a punt from JMA that went to the Knight 25. D-W concluded the first quarter moving downfield with a 4th-and-11 catch by an open Daniel for 16 yards.
But from the JMA 8, on the first play of the second quarter, Harrison intercepted the football in the end zone.
With Asa Wall laying some hits, the teams were trading punts. When Wall, on offense, took an end around left he crushed tacklers stopping at the Knight 34 for 42 yards. He and Hurt shared carries up to the 1, and then Wall took a wildcat snap and scored at 4:46 before halftime. Burrell kicked his second PAT for 14-6 JMA.
The Trojans absorbed five more first-down completions from Sceals to maintain that lead at halftime.
Deerfield-Windsor had the football first in the third quarter, and Sceals and Hutchins connected for 22 yards into Trojan territory, and from the 39 the QB was on target to Daniel deep for a touchdown. But his 2-point pass failed, so JMA was up 14-12 at 9:28.
The Knights regained possession on downs at their 38 at 5:22. With four more completed passes in a row, they gained 38 yards to the JMA 18. Mainly by a penalty, though, it was 4th-and-13 when Latimore and Brooks pursed Sceals hard forcing a long pass caught out of bounds.
Taking over at the 21, Hurt went left tackle all the way to the D-W 38. Then he had a 16-yard run for first down on the 23, and a 15-yard burst to end the third quarter on the 8.
Two plays later, he scored his second touchdown, and Burrell kicked the lead to nine, 21-12.
The Knights answered by getting up to the JMA 22 before the pressure got to them, Sceals was chased out of bounds for 4th-and-6, and the Trojans were back on offense with eight minutes to play.
Hurts had eight rushes from the 18 for 84 yards, 19 on the touchdown that seemed to be the final cushion.
But, as stated above, there was still more to go even at 28-12.
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