LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — The Newton Rams came away on the winning side of their regular season finale, beating Archer 47-14.

With Newton’s playoff spot on the line, the Rams’ offense exploded in the second half to pull away with a definitive victory. 

After an even first half, the Rams came out of the locker room and turned the high stakes game into a rout with the help of Marcus Calwise and Zion Johnson

On the first drive of the third quarter, Calwise made the play on the defensive side of the ball.

Do’s pass was overthrown and landed right into the hands of Calwise. The senior took the interception to the Archer one-yard line. 

A play later, Zion Johnson gave the Rams the lead on a one-yard rush.

Johnson scored his second touchdown of the game later in the third quarter to make it a 33-14 game.

Calwise came away with three more touchdowns in the second half. 

Sophomore gunslinger Deron Benson found Calwise in the corner of the end zone early in the third quarter for a 18-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 27-14

In the fourth quarter, Calwise scored on receptions of 22 and 87 yards, respectively.

Calwise came away with four touchdowns and an interception while Johnson rushed for two scores.

Head Coach Josh Skelton spoke post game about the Rams’ mindset coming out of halftime.

“We just wanted to keep the pressure on them,” Skelton said. “We wanted to keep the pressure on to allow our offense and special teams to keep dominating.”

All of Newton’s second half scoring came after both teams traded punts to begin the game. 

Deep into Archer territory, Benson found senior wideout Keon Davis near the sideline. After making the catch, Davis raced down the sideline for the 77-yard touchdown.

On Newton’s next drive, Benson went to the Rams’ second senior receiver, Marcus Calwise.

Benson found Calwise across the middle of the field for the 43-yard touchdown pass to make it a 14-0 Newton lead.

With the momentum seeming to go Newton’s way, Archer answered.

It took only a few plays for the Tigers’ quarterback Jordan Do to find Colby Alexander down the sideline for a 51-yard touchdown pass.

In the final seconds of the first half, Archer evened the score on a one-yard sneak from William Wallace.

Wallace’s score made it a 14-14 game going into halftime.

After giving up 14 in the first half, the Rams’ defense shut down the Archer offense in the final 24 minutes of the game.

After losses and back to back weeks, Skelton, discuss the mindset going into the Archer  game.

“The main thing is that we wanted to come out and finish well, and I think we did that,” Skelton said. “The word we used this week was ‘hunt.’ We wanted to hunt, we never want to be the hunted.”

The 33-point win over Region 4-AAAAAA foe Archer secured a spot in the Class AAAAAAA state playoffs for the Rams. The opponent and location of Newton’s first round game has yet to be determined.