The Eagles now look to change their luck as they travel to Oconee County Friday, where a different group of Warriors will open their 2010 campaign.
While the Warriors and the Eagles have not met before, Oconee County comes off of a rough 2009 season that saw them go 3-7.
Friday night’s non-region game at Watkinsville is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kick-off.
“Believe it or not, we’re probably going to be in the exact same kind of ballgame,” East Jackson head coach Frank Caputo said. “They’re a spread team. They can throw it around and they can run it well. They play good solid defense. They’re a good football team, too. I figure it will be one of these rock ‘em sock ‘em games again like we had Friday. Hopefully, we can hang in there long enough to pull it out.”
The Eagles got on the board first in the first quarter, with Cody Gibbs sneaking into the end zone on a quarterback keeper. White County put its first numbers on the board just 15 seconds into the second quarter, tying the game 7-7, and took the lead with just under seven minutes remaining in the half. A missed PAT made it a 13-7 game.
C.J. Allen gave the Eagles the lead back late in the third quarter to make it a 14-13 game before White County pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the late TD.
“I think some of our inexperience caught up with us,” Caputo said. “But I thought the kids played hard. It was a good football game. It was everything we thought it would be. We told the kids all week it was going to be a fourth quarter game, and that it would be won late in the fourth quarter. We had a chance to do that.”
“It was a good football game, and I thought it was a well officiated game,” Caputo added. “They were playing good, and we were playing good. It was just one of those games.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Commerce News or The Jackson Herald.
