Indians End Regular Football Season With Loss
The Stephens County High School football team will turn its attention this week to the first round of the state playoffs after wrapping up the regular season with a loss.
Friday night in Atlanta, the Indians fell to Region 8-AAAA champion St. Pius 56-10 in the regular season finale for both teams.
Stephens County Head Coach Wesley Tankersley said it’s a new season once the playoffs start.
“It is what it is,” said Tankersley. “We didn’t have a good night offensively or defensively, and they’re a good football team. Defensively, we have to come together a little bit. We’ve lost two starting linebackers and we have to try to replace those guys.”
St. Pius scored three touchdowns in the first quarter on a pair of Michael Benefield touchdown runs and a touchdown pass from Connor Egan to Chris Miller to give the Golden Lions a 21-0 lead.
The Golden Lions extended that lead to 42-0 in the second quarter on another touchdown pass from Egan to Gavin McElroy and touchdown runs from Damarcus Mitchell and Sam Schwaner.
On the final play of the first half, the Indians got on the board thanks to a David Jimenez 29-yard field goal.
The Indians got their only touchdown in the third quarter on a Garrison Walker one-yard touchdown run following a blocked punt.
St. Pius added touchdown runs from Egan and Schwaner in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.
With the loss, the Indians drop to 5-5 overall and 1-3 in the region. St. Pius moves to 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the region.
Stephens County will head out on the road for the first round of the playoffs Friday night to face Cartersville, while St. Pius will host Cedartown. In other Region 8-AAAA playoff games this coming week, Oconee County will visit Troup and North Oconee will host Sandy Creek.
Elsewhere, Habersham Central, Rabun County, Hart County, Elbert County and White County all qualified for postseason play.
Stephens County Farm Bureau Player of the Game – David Jimenez
Hart EMC Lineman of the Game – Michael Seay
X-Factor Sub of the Game – William Rudeseal
First Baptist Church Spirit Award – Jahari Burns