Indian Football Wins Season Finale

Stephens County ends the 2017 football season on a winning note.

Four touchdown runs from Hassan Brown and two Jackson Bell touchdown passes paced the Indians to a 50-20 win over North Oconee in Bogart in the regular season finale Friday night. However, the Indians missed the state playoffs on tiebreakers.

Still, Indians’ Head Coach Frank Barden said the win is a good way to end the season.

“Our goal tonight was to get the win and hope for the best, but we played well the last two weeks and we wanted to carry that into this week,” said Barden. “We wanted to send these seniors out the right way and bring these underclassmen back with a good taste in their mouth of three good weeks of football. It’s tough. You get in a tie and that’s the way the numbers fell for us.”

Stephens County jumped out to an early 7-0 lead with a 26-yard touchdown run from Hassan Brown just over four minutes in the first quarter.

Brown’s second touchdown run of the night, a three-yard plunge, extended the Indians’ lead to 13-0 early in the second quarter. Later in the second quarter, Brandon Wheeler returned a punt about 80 yards to make it 20-0 in favor of Stephens County.

However, North Oconee cut into the lead right before halftime, using a 32-yard field goal by Thomas Dowis and then a one-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Shearer to Garrett Paxton to make it 20-10, Indians at halftime.

Stephens County opened the third quarter with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Jackson Bell to Griff Pruitt to extend their lead to 27-10. After another Dowis field goal got North Oconee within 27-13, Brown ran for a 50-yard touchdown to give the Indians a 34-13 advantage and a 25-yard field goal from Luke Pearson made it 37-13, Indians after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, the Indians added two more touchdowns, a 24-yard touchdown pass from Bell to Caden Maxwell and a 35-yard touchdown run by Brown, his fourth of the night and 14th of the season. A late North Oconee touchdown pass made it the final score of 50-20.

The Indians finished the season 5-5 overall and 2-3 in the region. In a three-way tie for third place, the Indians missed the state playoffs on tiebreakers. North Oconee finished the year 1-9 overall and 0-5 in the region.

The four teams representing Region 8-AAAA in the state playoffs will be region champion St. Pius, second place Jefferson, third place Oconee County, and fourth place Madison County.

In the playoffs next week, St. Pius will host West Hall, Jefferson will host White County, Oconee County will travel to Blessed Trinity, and Madison County will visit Marist.

PLAYER AWARDS

Stephens County Farm Bureau Player of the Game – Kamon Taylor

Hart EMC Lineman of the Game – Aaron Butts

X-Factor Grill Sub of the Game – D.J. Jones

First Baptist Church Spirit Award – Nikko Beaty