And then there were four.
Down to the state finals now. Here’s how it happened, courtesy of Score Atlanta, followed by an early preview. Let the smack talk and predictions commence!
Private Semifinals
No. 4 Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy 35, No. 1 Prince Avenue Christian 14.
Eagle’s Landing Christian outscored Prince Avenue 21-0 in the second quarter to take control and cruise to its second straight finals appearance. Andrew Hayes ran in a 61-yard touchdown to give Prince Avenue its only lead of the game and ELCA tied it up with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Donald Hammond to Cam Merritt to open the second quarter. Khaleb Hood returned a punt 61 yards for a Chargers touchdown to make it 14-7 and Hammond closed out the half with a 27-yard touchdown run. Prince Avenue Christian opened the second half with a 38-yard Noah Campbell touchdown run to cut it to 21-14 but less than a minute later Hammond opened it back up with a 51-yard touchdown run. Hammond iced the game on the first snap of the final frame with a 4-yard touchdown run.
Top Performers: ELCA quarterback Donald Hammond ran in three touchdowns and threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Cam Merritt. … Khaleb Hood returned a punt 61 yards for a ELCA touchdown. … Prince Avenue Christian got its scoring from a pair of touchdown runs by Andrew Hayes (61 yards) and Noah Campbell (38 yards).
No. 3 Aquinas 35, No. 10 Stratford Academy 28.
After defeating Stratford twice in the regular season, 35-28 and 48-28, the Fighting Irish jumped out to a 28-14 lead with 6:37 to play in the fourth quarter. The Eagles began their furious comeback using an O’Showen Williams 2-yard touchdown run to bring the score to 28-20 with 2:53 left. On the ensuing kickoff the Eagles recovered an onside kick and subsequently scored on a Kasey Sanders 23-yard run with 2:38 to play. Aquinas answered and edged back ahead with Liam Welch’s second touchdown pass to George Welch with a minute to play. The Eagles drove the field thanks to a Sim Patrick 41-yard pass to Williams and had a first-and-goal with just over 30 seconds to play. On fourth-and-goal, Patrick tried to hit John M. O’Quinn but the pass fell incomplete giving the ball back to Aquinas with 12 seconds left and Stratford with no timeouts to stop the clock.
Top Performers: Liam Welch threw touchdown passes of 18 and 27 yards to George Welch. …Joseph Douglas scored on a 23-yard run. …D'Angelo Durham broke touchdowns of 26 and 29 yards. …For Stratford, Kasey Sanders scored three rushing touchdowns on gains of 33, six and 23 yards. …O'Showen Williams plunged in the end zone from two yards away.
Public Semifinals
No. 3 Irwin County 19, No. 2 Emanuel County Institute 15.
Irwin County took its 19-15 lead with 8:04 left as D.J. Pollard hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Zach Tolar. Emanuel County Institute drove down the field with a 46 yard pass from Rhett Gay to David Durden on a 3rd and 15 and eventually set up a 1st and goal with five minutes left. Irwin County stuffed the Bulldogs and took over on downs with 3:25 left, but the game was far from over. Irwin County fumbled the next play, and ECI recovered and was back in action with a 1st and goal from the 10-yard line just five seconds later. William Lewis sacked Gay on 1st down and Ricky Lee was held to just 1-yard on 2nd down. Dazhun Steele hauled in a reception on 3rd down to take ECI to the 7-yard line but on 4th down, the pass to Durden fell incomplete in the end zone and Irwin County was able to kneel out for victory. Irwin County took its first lead with a 67-yard touchdown run by Pollard in the second quarter but failed the PAT and led just 6-0. Lee answered with a 56-yard touchdown run and the Bulldogs took a 7-6 lead but Tolar answered with a 2-yard touchdown run to put the Indians up 12-7. Lee scored his second touchdown and a successful 2-point conversion gave ECI a 15-12 lead before Pollard hauled in the game-winner from Tolar.
Top Performers: D.J. Pollard had 16 carries for 182 yards and a touchdown and added two catches for 51 yards and a score to lead Irwin County. … ECI's Ricky Lee took 12 carries for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
No. 5 Clinch County 26, No. 9 Commerce 19.
Zebulon Johnson broke loose for a 30-yard touchdown run with 2:30 remaining to give the Panthers the lead before Machari Bighams sealed the deal with an interception with 1:51 to play to send Clinch County to the Georgia Dome.
Top Performers: Trezman Marshall scored on a 48-yard touchdown run. …Shannon Young punched in touchdowns of one and two yards on the ground. …Cole Chancey scored on runs of two and eight yards for Commerce. …Caleb Brooks scored from two yards out in the second quarter.
The Finals
Class A Public
Friday, Dec. 11, 1 p.m. | Georgia Dome
No. 3 Irwin County (10-2-1) vs. No. 4 Clinch County (12-1)
-- Irwin lost last year's final, 15-6, to Hawkinsville. Irwin won the state championship in 1975. In just two seasons as the head coach at Irwin, Buddy Nobles is 21-4-2, with two state title appearances.
-- Clinch is in search of its sixth state championship. The Panthers last won the title in 2010. This is the first season Clinch has won at least 10 games since that last championship season.
-- The teams compete against each other in rugged Region 2. They finished with 6-1 records in league play, but Irwin won the championship by virtue of its 28-12 win when the two teams met Sept. 18. Irwin leads the all-time series, 20-18-1.
Class A Private
Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. | Georgia Dome
No. 4 Eagle's Landing Christian Academy (10-3) vs. No. 3 Aquinas (12-1)
-- This is the second consecutive trip to the finals for ELCA, located in McDonough, and the third since the Chargers won the championship in 2012. All three of ELCA's losses came to teams in higher classifications that advanced to the quarterfinal rounds or better -- Class AA Greater Atlanta Christian, Class AAAA Woodward Academy and Class AAAAA Stockbridge.The Chargers defeated No. 1 seed Prince Avenue Christian 35-14 last week in the semifinals to advance to the finals.
-- After playing poor to mediocre football for the better part of six decades, Aquinas, located in Augusta, is 38-2 the past three seasons with an undefeated season and state title in 2013. The Irish's only loss this season was to No. 1-seeded Prince Avenue Christian, 42-12, on August 28.
-- This is the first meeting between the two schools.
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