It was a great night for football this past Friday evening. The nip in the air seemed to cause problems for both teams, however, resulting in seven combined fumbles, two of which came early for the Banks County High School Leopards. In the end, Athens Christian School took advantage of some BCHS miscues and escaped with a 27-21 win.
"We are really heartbroken over this loss after battling back in the second half and having a chance at winning the game," said Leopard head coach Philip Jones. "We took the lead with a two-point conversion play and hoped the defense could hold for the remainder of the game. I am proud of our team. They came out strong in the second half, but we have to get better in the first half to win games in the future."
Athens Christian School received the opening kickoff and returned the football for 10 yards. A couple of plays later, the Eagles made a first down and continued to move toward the 50-yard line. On third down the ball was fumbled but was recovered by the Eagles. Two plays later, luck would change and when the ball came loose this time the Leopards would recover. BCHS started its first drive of the night at the 35-yard line.
Tyler Hubbard would cap the drive on a quarterback keeper and a 7-0 lead with 3:33 left in the first quarter.
An exchange of fumbles would give the Eagles the football deep inside BCHS territory. ACS would even the score at 7-7 with 11:15 left in the second quarter. Another turnover would give the Eagles another scoring chance and they once again capitalized to take a 14-7 lead with 7:54 remaining in the first half. On Banks County's next series, a personal foul penalty on ACS would keep the drive alive. However, the Leopards would still end up punting as Dean Ewing was called upon.
Ewing delivered a 50-yard punt to back Athens Christian deep into its own end of the field. Behind a strong running attack, the Eagles managed to move ahead 20-7 with 4:38 left in the half. ACS opened the second half with a kickoff that went out of bounds allowing the Leopards to start on its 35-yard line.
Again Hubbard traded carries with Ewing to get the ball to the 36-yard line, but the Leopards ran into long fourth down yardage and would have to punt the ball. The Eagles would deliver on special teams and block the punt giving them possession at midfield. Despite having a relatively short field to work with, ACS would give the football back to BCHS. A fumble appeared to put the Eagles in good shape at the Leopard 20-yard line.
On a second down play, Banks County's Rayshawn Hunter picked up the ball and starts toward the opposite goal line. Hunter was momentarily stop but then realized the play was never blown dead. He then rumbled to the endzone to cut the lead to 20-13 after the point after attempt failed.
After the Leopard defense forced a punt, BCHS started on its own 36-yard line and mixed up play action with alternating rushing and passing attempts until reaching the red zone. Ewing would get the final call and go in from four yards out. A successful two-point conversion on a pass from Hubbard to Ewing gave the Leopards a 21-20 lead with less than three minutes to play. Needing just more stop, BCHS was unable to prevent Athens Christian from reaching the endzone with 16 seconds left and a 27-21 win. The loss dropped the Leopards to 2-2 overall.
"We just got punched in the nose, all of us, and it hurts beyond belief," Jones said. "But I believe in the team and we are going to get better."
BCHS is off this Friday and will then travel to Union County Sept. 30.
