Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell Georgia's Steven Washington, from Rome, Ga., is tackled by Tennessee players in the second quarter during the All-Star Prep football game at Ridgleand Highschool.

The two-headed quarterback combo of Josh Blake and Nic Hughes was too much for Team Georgia to handle Saturday night in the Tennessee-Georgia All-Star football game at Ridgeland High School.

Blake was named most valuable player after rushing for a game record of 87 yards on nine carries and a touchdown, while Hughes added 162 yards and two touchdowns through the air in a 31-14 win for the recent Tennessee high school graduates.

“We were able to do a lot of things with those two,” said winning coach E.K. Slaughter, who recently went from Soddy-Daisy to Cleveland High. “They gave us a lot of options. The big thing was how we represented ourselves tonight.”

Georgia took a 7-0 lead in under three minutes on a Brian Owens touchdown run, but the Tennessee team ran off 21 consecutive points in the second and third quarters, with Boyd-Buchanan’s Hughes completing touchdown passes of 10 yards to Donovan Barnes and 6 yards to J.P. Cisco. In between, Grace Academy’s Blake ran for a 1-yard score.

“There was a lot of pride in this,” said Hughes, who has battled back from two knee injuries in two years and is walking on at the University of Alabama. “We had a goal to come out and win, and we did. This was a great experience, with so many different people from different backgrounds coming together.”

While Hughes and Blake were taking turns terrorizing the recent Georgia graduates’ defense, the Tennessee defense was stuffing an offense that was having little success through the air. With only one quarterback (Cass’s scrambling Owens) on the roster, the Georgia offense was limited.

“They struggled to throw the ball, and that was the difference in that we were able to throw it and run it,” Slaughter said.

A 61-yard pass from Blake to Mike Poarch late in the first half was the big play on Tennessee’s tying drive. The game turned on Georgia’s first possession of the second half when Ooltewah’s Que Jackson caused a bad handoff in the Georgia backfield, with Red Bank’s Miquel Sanches recovering at the 13. Two plays later, Blake sneaked in from the 1 for a 14-7 lead.

Following a Georgia three-and-out, Tennessee moved quickly as Bradley Central’s Deonte Lindsey broke a 48-yard run to the 22, leading to Hughes’ 6-yard pass to Hixson’s Cisco and a 21-7 lead.

Georgia rallied in the fourth quarter on an Owens 20-yard pass to Alabama-bound Mike Bowman, who wrestled the ball away form a defender in the end zone.

Georgia got the ball back with under seven minutes left, down seven points, but a hard hit from Red Bank’s Orlando Gordon put Owens out of the game on a third-and-long. Tennessee subsequently moved the ball 70 yards in nine plays — Blake’s 34-yard run the big one — to set up a Josh Davis 34-yard field goal.

Two interceptions from Marion County’s Joe Muir sealed the win late. The first one set up Lindsey’s 3-yard scoring run with 1:47 to go.

Soddy-Daisy’s Donovan Barnes led all receivers with five catches for 62 yards, while Ridgeland’s Bowman had four receptions for 32 yards and Rome’s Steven Washington led Georgia backs with 64 yards on nine carries.

Ringgold linebacker Matt Talkington was named Georgia player of the game after recording seven tackles, recovering a fumble and forcing one.