Lithonia Bulldogs Ride 35-0 Shutout of Druid Hills into Southwest DeKalb Matchup

The Lithonia Bulldogs answered their toughest loss of the season with their most complete night of football on Friday, Oct. 9 — a 35–0 shutout of Druid Hills at Godfrey Stadium, where the Red Devils were the home team.

The shutout was Lithonia's first of the season, and it came after a five-game stretch in which the Bulldogs had been outscored 87–120. Quarterback Drayden Gibbs led the rout, rushing for 114 yards and two touchdowns on just six carries — including a 62-yard run — and throwing for 96 yards and another score. A defense that had struggled to close games all fall recorded six sacks, its season high. The win lifted Lithonia to 2–4 overall and 1–1 in region play, extended the Bulldogs' winning streak over Druid Hills to three straight games, and dropped Druid Hills to 3–4 with its third consecutive loss.

A gut punch, answered

The week before, Lithonia had every reason to hang its head. On Oct. 2, the Bulldogs led Mays 21–7 in the third quarter at Lakewood Stadium before surrendering the deciding score on Kendrick Henderson's 32-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Carter with 1:32 remaining, falling 24–21. That loss dropped Lithonia to 1–4. Before the Druid Hills shutout, the Bulldogs' only win had been a 37–8 opener over M.L. King on Aug. 22; they had since fallen to Lowndes 22–8, Thomas County Central 35–7, East Coweta 31–14, and Mays 24–21.

So the shutout was never just about Druid Hills. It was about a team that had watched a winnable game slip away in the final two minutes, then came back seven days later and slammed the door.

The measuring stick

The real test comes now. Lithonia's next opponent is Southwest DeKalb, the program that has long been the measuring stick for football in DeKalb County. The Panthers have won two GHSA state championships — 1972 and 1995 — and 18 region titles, a standard built in large part by William "Buck" Godfrey, who coached Southwest DeKalb from 1983 through 2012 and won 274 games, the most of any coach in DeKalb County Schools history. This year's Panthers are 4–3 overall and 2–1 in the region under head coach Marion Bell III, with a 37–0 win over Maynard Jackson and a 57–0 shutout of Druid Hills before a 20–7 loss to Tucker on Oct. 9.

The GHSA Class 5A power rankings updated Oct. 13 placed the two programs nearly side by side: Lithonia No. 24 with a 0.55035 rating and Southwest DeKalb No. 28 with a 0.54172 rating.

Lithonia arrives at that test on an upward arc under head coach Kevin Barnes, who inherited a 1–9 program, lifted it to 6–4 in 2024, then guided it to 10–3 in 2025 and the school's first state quarterfinal appearance since 1984.

"We have young men who are hungry and they've bought in to learning what a winning culture is about," Barnes said. "The mentality of the kids changed. Their confidence changed. Now they walk into games prepared to win."

Show up Thursday

For fans marking the calendar, the Southwest DeKalb game is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, at 6:00 p.m. at Hallford Stadium in Clarkston, with Lithonia as the home team. Lithonia High School's own website calendar still displayed the game as Friday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m., but the GHSA and DeKalb County School District schedules confirm the Thursday date.

The region standings make the stakes concrete. As of Oct. 10, Region 5-5A showed Mays at 3–0, Tucker at 2–0, Southwest DeKalb at 2–1, and Lithonia at 1–1, with Maynard Jackson at 1–2, Druid Hills at 0–3, and Banneker at 0–2. After Southwest DeKalb, Lithonia plays Maynard Jackson on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6:00 p.m. at Hallford Stadium.

Thursday night is when we learn whether that 35-point shutout travels — or whether Druid Hills was the warm-up before the game that actually tells us who these Bulldogs are.