Sophomore quarterback Jaquez Parks put on a clinic Friday night, rushing for a touchdown and throwing for two more as Griffin defeated last-place Ola 41-7 to clinch third-place in the subregion and more importantly clinch a play-in berth at Whitewater next week for the right to go to state.

Griffin (7-2 overall, 4-2 Region 3-AAAA Div. A) – which opened the game with a 38-yard halfback option pass from Anforne’ Stroud to Trey Willis, the game’s leading receiver with 74 yards on two receptions, to set the tone – left little to chance as it scored on its first five possessions to win its fourth in a row and hand Ola (1-8, 0-6) its eighth loss in a row.

Parks then proceeded to have one of the greatest passing halves ever in Griffin High history, completing 13-of-15 for 217 yards – including seven in a row and another five in a row after that – as the Bears took a 34-0 lead into the half.

Sophomore Devontae Freeman, Griffin’s leading rusher on the night with 81 yards on 14 carries, ended a six-play, 65-yard drive on a 5-yard touchdown run for his team’s first points of the night. Parks then scored on a 1-yard run to end an 11-play, 567-yard drive to put GHS up 14-0 in the first quarter.

Freshman Milik Miller then scored the first of his two touchdowns on the night, this one a 4-yard run, to cap a six-play, 80-yard drive that took took on a 41-yard pass to Travis Mayes four plays earlier. Griffin then went up 27-0 on a 32-yard touchdown pass to Montico Dodson that ended a five-play, 61-yard drive with 5:54 to play in the first half.

Griffin scored its final TD of the half on an 18-yard strike from Parks to freshman Keyston Fuller with :41.9 left in the half. The pass on third-and 16 ended an eight-play, 65-yard drive. The Bears then upped their lead to 41-0 on a 5-yard TD run by Miller with 1:54 left to play in the third quarter.

Going into the night there was a chance Griffin could have finished second in the subregion and hosted archrival Upson-Lee next week in a play-in game, but Jones County beat Union Grove 31-28 to end any hope of that, while state ranked Northgate rallied from a 10-0 halftime deficit to defeat Whitewater 27-24 to settle the play-in picture.