By Jon Moffett

jmoffett@vindy.com

Canton

Chris Humphreys isn’t going to record an eye-opening 40-yard dash time.

But for about 30 seconds — and 50 yards — he was the fastest man on the field.

Humphreys, who lines up at guard and defensive tackle, returned a fumble from midfield to help earn McDonald a 52-28 victory over Dalton in a Division VI regional semifinal at Klinefelter Stadium on Friday. He said it was the longest he’s run in a while.

“It’s unbelievable; I’ve never had this feeling before,” the 6-foot-2, 185-pound senior said. “I was thinking I was going to get caught. But then I started seeing more and more white [McDonald] jerseys around me and I was like, sweet. Touchdown.”

Humphreys said he runs the 40-yard dash in about 5.2 seconds — that’s not exactly fast. But it was as fast as it needed to be.

Teammate Ryan Vernell put a ferocious hit on Dalton quarterback Gavin Hackett to pop the ball loose. Humphreys picked the ball off Hackett’s shoulder and lumbered in for six.

It was the first of seven forced fumbles. The Blue Devils (10-2) recovered four.

“Our defense did really well,” said Vernell, who returned to the lineup after missing several weeks with a shoulder injury. “Their quarterback had a really good play fake and it was hard to follow it.”

Dalton (8-4) runs the option offense behind Hackett and fullback Greg Blevins. Hackett masterfully executed the offense with fakes that made the Blue Devil defense stay on its heels. But McDonald coach Dan Williams instructed his players to hit the quarterback and fullback on every play.

You know, just to be sure.

He said he was impressed by his team’s ability to turn Dalton mistakes into McDonald points.

The Blue Devils forced five turnovers — Mike Helco snagged a Hackett pass in the first half also — and turned them into 33 points.

“We talked about that all week long; having something happen early,” Williams said. “And we talked about it. When you get things to happen, you have to score points. And we did.”

Those good things seemed to keep happening for McDonald.

The Blue Devils had nine possessions, including a 14-play opening drive that ate almost seven minutes off the clock. The drive culminated with a 7-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matthias Tayala — his first of three on the ground. He also had a TD pass to running back Nick Rota.

But it was the defense that put the Blue Devils in position to score.

Helco’s interception came with two minutes left in the first half. It killed a scoring threat by the Bulldogs. Then, the Blue Devils blocked a field goal attempt with four seconds left in the half to take a 38-14 lead into intermission.

“That’s what you need to do in playoff football games,” Williams said. “You need to put points up early and establish yourselves. ”

Senior fullback put the game away with a 49-yard touchdown run with five minutes to go.

Humphreys said the McDonald defense has played well all year, so it wasn’t a surprise to them how the game turned out.

“McDonald plays smashmouth football, and it always comes from our defense,” he said. “I think we are the hardest-hitting team around here. The defense did well today.”