On Friday, Fellowship Christian hosted and defeated Athens Academy 28-6 in what was likely the Region 8 championship.
Or was it?
Union County, like Fellowship, is 2-0 in region play. The two play in the season finale. Could that be the region championship? Or, what if Union County beat Fellowship, but loses to Athens Academy (1-1) the week before, creating a three-way tie? What’s the tiebreaker procedure for Region 8?
Those type of questions haven’t been asked for nearly a decade in Region 8. From 2014 to 2022, Rabun County went 44-0 for eight consecutive league titles, with all wins coming by double digits. There was no guess work involved in picking a Region 8 championship until this year’s reclassification.
The real shame is that Rabun County isn’t a part of the new Region 8, which has added Fellowship Christian and Athens Academy. However the good news for 8-2A is it’s wide open coming into each season now.
Fellowship Christian reached the semifinals last season, and its finishes from 2020 to 2016 look like this: semifinals, quarters, semis, quarters, second round, finals. The Paladins won four region titles in that span — all in 1A.
The Spartans of Athens Academy also come from 1A, where they were runners-up in both 2017 and 2018 and reached the quarterfinals in 2019. They’ve reached the playoffs in each of the last seven seasons, advancing the last five, and they won three region titles in a row from 2017-19.
Union County looks more like the 2019 team that went 10-2 and won the first playoff game in Panthers history than the ones that have gone 7-13 the past two seasons. Under second-year coach Michael Perry, the Panthers are 6-1 and still in the mix for their first region title since 1973.
The Panthers beat Banks County 42-7 on the road to open region play, and last week at home they jumped to a 35-7 lead over Providence Christian before clinging to a 56-49 win. They’ll host East Jackson (4-3, 1-1) Friday.
Though the Paladins beat the Spartans convincingly on Friday, there wasn’t much, if any, separating the teams from a talent perspective. If the two were to play next week, the scoring output and victor could be completely different.
As noted in Friday’s game story, the Spartans failed to score at the end of the first half. If they score a touchdown there, they take a 10-7 lead, and they can continue their strategy of long, clock-eating drives designed to control and shorten the game. Instead, their gamble backfired, though mostly due to the game officials failing to stop the clock when they got a first down.
The Paladins would open the second half with possession and score a touchdown to make it 14-3, and they didn’t look back.
As Paladins coach Tim McFarlin said after the game, “They were controlling the clock so much on us in the first half that I was worried about getting it back. I think the difference may have been in getting the kickoff in the second half and being able to get seven.”
Having a potential region championship come down to a key possession at the end of the first half is a lot better than Rabun County winning an 8-2A game 65-3, as was a common occurrence. The Wildcats are in 1A Division I’s Region 8 now, still rolling at 8-0, 1-0 in league play and ranked No. 3. They just beat No. 6 Elbert County, their region rival who followed them from 2A, 41-21. The Blue Devils likely represented the best shot at ending the Wildcats streak of region titles, which would reach nine.
But the Wildcats are 8-1A’s problem now. At this late point in the season, all eyes in 8-2A are on the Panthers who, with upcoming wins over the Spartans and Paladins, would create the type of parity that’s been missing from Region 8 for almost a decade.
Though the Panthers may not have the strongest of schedules this season, they held Fannin County to seven points in a win on Aug. 19. On Friday, Fannin County scored 68 points on North Murray. The Panthers’ only loss of the season was to Lumpkin County, which is 6-1 in 3A.
It’s not known yet whether Union County is on the same playing field as Athens Academy or Fellowship Christian. What is known is that it’s late in October and 8-2A is still up for grabs. That’s something this region hasn’t been used to in awhile, but it’s a welcomed development.
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