Bowdon claims 4-peat, defeats Lincoln County in back-and-forth battle
Bowdon’s championship run appeared in jeopardy when Lincoln County’s Kelby Glaze ran 84 yards for a touchdown and a 31-28 lead with 5:34 remaining in the Class A Division II championship game Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Things looked a bit more bleak three minutes later when star receiver Kaiden Prothro, an AJC Super 11 selection and a Georgia signee, left the game with a cramp on Bowdon’s final drive.
But three-time defending champion Bowdon isn’t the dominant small-school program of the decade for no reason. Two plays after Prothro’s departure, Josh Hopkins threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Berkley Perkins with 2:34 remaining for a 35-31 lead that stood as the final score after Bowdon stopped Lincoln County’s last-second threat at the 3-yard line on the game’s final play.
Bowdon (13-2) became the fourth program in GHSA history to win four consecutive championships, joining West Rome (1982-85), Buford (2007-10) and Eagle’s Landing Christian (2015-19). Bowdon, ranked No. 3, is 53-7 during its championship run.
Top-ranked Lincoln County (14-1), an 11-time former champion, was playing in the finals for the first time since its 2006 title.
“That’s the best football team we’ve seen all season, and hats off to them,” Bowdon coach Rich Fendley said. “It’s the best tandem of running backs that we’ve seen on one team. You hate that somebody’s gotta lose that kind of game. Great game plans, and great football on both sides.”
Bowdon took possession at its 20-yard line with 5:34 to play after Glaze’s touchdown run. A 33-yard pass from Hopkins to Prothro on the next play moved the ball into Lincoln County territory, and four runs totaling 20 yards got it to the 27 before Prothro left the game. Two plays later, Hopkins found Perkins for the lead.
“I never lose trust, and I never have doubt in our team,” Hopkins said. “I knew what I could do and I knew what our team could do. I didn’t flinch for a second because I knew what our team was capable of, and it showed on the field.”
Still, Bowdon needed one final stop to clinch the victory. Lincoln County took possession at its 41 after a short kickoff and took 11 plays to move to the Bowdon 10, where it had the ball with seven seconds left but no timeouts remaining. Mekhi Wade completed a pass to Jonathan Norman that got the ball to the 3, but time ran out before Lincoln County could get off another play.
The game featured seven lead changes, the most in a championship game in GHSA history. There were only five lead changes in last year’s eight championship games combined.
Lincoln County trailed 21-17 at halftime and 28-17 after Josh Chandler’s 3-yard touchdown run with 4:32 remaining in the third quarter. Lincoln County cut the lead to 28-25 with 10:09 left on a 3-yard run by Glaze and a two-point conversion, and took its only lead of the second half on Glaze’s 84-yard run.
It was a career night for Glaze, who rushed for 248 yards on 20 carries and reached 1,151 yards for the season. The senior had never rushed for more than 127 yards in a game or hadn’t gone over 110 this season.
Lincoln County led Class A Division II in points allowed through the first 14 games, giving up just 7.3 points per game, and it did its best to keep the high-scoring Bowdon offense off the field in the early going. Lincoln scored on its first three possessions, on two quick drives and one long one that took 8:04 off the clock, and led 17-14 after Aiden Jones’ 4-yard touchdown run with 6:50 to play in the first half.
But Bowdon, which led the classification in scoring with 45.2 points per game entering the final, kept coming. After an exchange of punts, the first for either team in the game, Bowdon reclaimed the lead for the third time, scoring on a 20-yard pass from Hopkins to Prothro with 1:12 remaining in the half to make it a 21-17 game.
Prothro already held the state record for career touchdown receptions, and this one pushed his total to 66. It also gave him 27 touchdown receptions for the season, tied for third place all-time with Demarco Robinson of M.L. King in 2010.
Prothro finished with four catches for 71 yards. Hopkins was 13-of-18 passing for 232 yards and four touchdowns, and Perkins had three catches for 80 yards and two scores.
“Our defense played really hard,” Lincoln County coach Lee Chomskis said. “That’s an incredible offense, and we were able to get back in the ballgame and even take the lead for a short period of time. I’m sorry we couldn’t get it done. I’m sorry for our community, because I know how much it meant to them, but I’m just so proud of our kids.”
About the Author
Chip Saye rejoined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2025, at the launch of AJC Varsity. In 2009 he helped start Georgia High School Football Daily. He previously worked for the AJC, Athens Banner-Herald, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Gwinnett Daily News.
