Video: Trevor Lawrence's record-breaking pass
Cartersville quarterback breaks Deshaun Watson's state career yardage mark with this TD pass. Trevor Lawrence, the nation's No. 2 rated recruit, became Georgia's passing king on Friday night.
The 6-foot-6, 208-pound senior from
Cartersville (Ga.) needed just 106 passing yards in a home game against Chapel Hill (Douglasville) to break the career yardage mark of 13,077 set by current Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson.
Instead, he passed for 283 yards and four touchdowns while playing the first half alone of a 62-0 victory on senior night. It was the Hurricanes' ninth straight win of the season and 39th overall.
Lawrence, who completed 17 of 23 passes, broke Watson's record late in the first quarter with a 24-yard touchdown pass to
EJ Turner that put Cartersville up 21-0. Turner took a pass over the middle, broke a tackle and sprinted into the end zone.
Cartersville coach Joey King came out to the field and embraced Lawrence, the public address announcer stopped the game to announce the hometown kid as new Georgia king, and then his teammates mobbed him on the sideline.
Cartersville led 49-0 at halftime, marking the eighth time in nine games Lawrence hasn't played the second half. Of his 13,255 career passing
yards, 9,480 have come before halftime.
Lawrence, who is following Watson's footsteps to Clemson, came up two touchdown passes short of breaking Watson's state mark of 155. He'll likely get that record next week when Cartersville (9-0) closes its regular season at Troup County (La Grange).
In the first half he had another scoring toss of 21 yards to Turner, a 61-yarder to
Jkobe Orr and a 30-yard TD strike to
Trey Holstein, who also had touchdown runs of 59 and 71 yards.
Heading into Friday's game, Lawrence had completed 788 of 1,241 career attempts for 12,972 yards with 150 touchdowns and just 21 interceptions. He's been at his best as a senior, now having completed 135 of 184 (73 percent) for 2,643 yards and 34 touchdowns and just one interception. His quarterback rating this season before Friday was a gaudy 152.2.
All his personal accomplishments has led to greater team success. Carterville has won two straight Class AAAA titles and its current win streak is sixth longest current win streak in the country.
According to 247Sports, Lawrence is the No. 2 recruit in the country behind another Georgia quarterback, Justin Fields of Harrison (Kennesaw, Ga.), who has committed to Georgia.
King told 247Sports before the game where he thinks Lawrence ranks in state history: "My personal opinion, he's the best to play the position coming out of this state," he said. "I'm a little bias but I see the work he puts in at practice every day. The game results they speak for themselves as well. ... the most important thing from a quarterback's perspective arsenal is his accuracy. He does a lot of things well but he puts the ball on the money."
Graphic by Ryan Escobar/Photos by Dennis Carter/William Fagan
