St. Pius X 43, Jefferson 29: Golden Lions run for nearly 400 yards in upset ...

St. Pius X’s triple option attack was as good as advertised — and then some.
The Golden Lions ran for 396 yards and scored on all of its offensive possessions, with the exception of a kneel-down at the end of the game, to upset Jefferson 43-29 Friday in Atlanta.
“Obviously, they put on a clinic in the triple-option offense,” Dragon coach Gene Cathcart said. “That was frustrating … We’ve leaned on our defense so often in the past that offensively, when you have a game like, this you’ve got to answer.”
Cathcart added he “never felt like we played as well offensively as we needed to do to win a game like that.”
The Golden Lions' win snapped an eight-game winning streak in region play for Jefferson (6-2, 2-1). St. Pius X (3-5), at 3-0 in region play, now has the inside track for the Region 8-AAAA title.
“All the credit in the world to (coach) Paul (Standard) and them,” Cathcart said. “What a great job their guys did in executing and executing that offense to a T.”
Jefferson’s Colby Wood finished with 169 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, but the Dragons had few answers for St. Pius X’s offense. The Golden Lions finished with 503 total yards, which included a perfect 4-for-4 night passing for 107 yards.
“We needed at some point to take away something, and never really took away the fullback, never really took away the quarterback and never really took away the pitch and never took away the throws down the field,” Cathcart said. “And that’s frustrating.”
Despite its struggles, Jefferson pulled to within six points of St. Pius X with 10:22 left in the game. Bryce Moore threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Elegreet and ran for a 2-point conversion to cut the lead to 35-29, but the Dragons couldn’t manage a stop on defense.
With St. Pius facing a 2nd-and-15, quarterback Connor Egan connected on a 42-yard pass to Sam Schwaner to move St. Pius into Jefferson territory. Egan scored six plays later from seven yards out and then hit Zachary Ranson for a two-point conversion to put the Golden Lions up 43-29 with 5:04 left in the game.
Moore was intercepted on the first play of the subsequent drive, which sealed the win for St. Pius. The Golden Lions proceeded to run out the clock.
The 43 points surrendered were the most by Jefferson since a 61-57 win over Heard County in 2013.
St. Pius’ option attack was clicking early and often as the Golden Lions opened with a 15-play, 77-yard drive, ending in a one-yard score from Michael Benefield. It was the first of three first-half touchdowns for Benefield. He later scored on a 22-yarder and gave St. Pius a 28-14 halftime lead when he took an option pitch 59 yards to the end zone. Jason Jones also had a 44-yard touchdown run for the Golden Lions, who rushed for 272 yards in the first half.
Jefferson got first-half touchdowns from Wood, who scored from 13 yards out, and Zac Corbin, who caught a 13-yard pass from Moore.
Moore finished 9-of-18 for 129 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Dragons opened the second half with a 3-yard touchdown run from Justin Cole, which was set up by a 56-yard jaunt by Wood. But St. Pius answered with a 2-yard scoring run from Egan, which put the Golden Lions ahead 35-21.
Jefferson will travel next week to Stephens County, which beat Oconee County 24-17 Friday.
Cathcart said his team must band together in the wake of the loss.
“Hopefully, we’ll all stick together and love each other,” he said. “My message to them was it’s not going to be the Bataan Death March next week. It’s going to be the same practice schedule and the same everything. We’ve got to get better, and make sure I have us better prepared next week.”