North Oconee defeated Eastside 14-13 in Covington, Georgia, in what was a tale of two halves. This was the first full game North Oconee played without senior defensive end and tight end Khamari Brooks, who went down with a hip injury against Madison County and will miss the rest of the season.
With 1:55 left in the game, Eastside had the ball at its own 39-yard line on a fourth-and-4. On the snap, North Oconee’s defense sent linebacker Nick Pollack and safety Charlie Hawkins on a blitz that quarterback Payton Shaw could not avoid, sacking him for an 8-yard loss and turnover on downs.
The sack sealed the game for the Titans, whose defense continually came up big when it mattered most.
“Super proud of them,” North Oconee head coach Tyler Aurandt said when asked about his team’s performance. “We talked all week about being able to respond to adversity … our kids dug deep and just kept playing. When you keep playing, good things are going to happen.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Eastside drove down the field and scored its second touchdown, sending the Eagles’ crowd into a frenzy. But on the ensuing extra point, senior defensive lineman Mason Cooper burst through the offensive line and blocked the kick — a play that ended up being the difference on the scoreboard.
The Eagles had all the momentum after that touchdown because in the first half, it looked like another typical North Oconee game.
The Titans, who were 34-point favorites according to Maxwell Ratings, held Eastside to zero points and scored two touchdowns in the first half. The first touchdown came on a 10-play drive where a defensive pass interference set North Oconee up on the 6-yard line. Lined up under center with two running backs behind him, senior quarterback Harrison Faulkner faked a pitch to the tailback and handed it to fullback Luke Burnett, who cut into the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown.
The second touchdown came in the second quarter when the Titans’ offense, aided by an 18-yard scramble from Faulkner, ran seven plays in three minutes and capped it off with a sharp read from Faulkner. He faked a handoff and zipped the ball over the middle to a wide open Dallas Dickerson, who outran the defense for 39 yards to the end zone.
North Oconee’s defense was stingy in the first half, logging four sacks and a tackle for loss and forcing four punts.
“Tough — I mean [the defense] did a great job of making and forcing them to drive the ball,” Aurandt said. “We gave up one shot on the post on fourth down, but other than that, just resilient, just continuing to fight and overcome. Super proud of how hard they played.”
When the Eagles came out of halftime forcing a three-and-out and then cutting the lead to seven with a 32-yard touchdown on fourth-and-6, the dynamic quickly shifted. It injected Eastside fans with energy and gave them a good dose of hope.
On the touchdown, senior receiver Jace Taylor ran a deep post pattern and beat his defender. The throw seemed improbable after Shaw looked rattled in the first half. The 6-foot-2 senior missed his receivers with inaccurate throws and went 5-for-8 passing in the first half. But on that crucial down, he had time to load up and deliver a perfect ball to his No. 1 target.
While Shaw looked much better in the second half, it seemed to be the opposite for Faulkner. The senior quarterback had five incompletions on his eight second-half throws, and gained just 15 yards on the three completions.
A few of his passes were low and difficult for receivers to corral, but the most notable incompletion came when Faulkner missed junior Landon Williams on a fake wide receiver screen. Williams was wide open with no defenders between him and the endzone, but the ball was just out of reach.
On Eastside’s second touchdown drive, the Eagles started at their own 31 and had three huge third-down conversions. The first came on a third-and-7, when a controversial roughing-the-passer penalty continued the drive.
Then, on third-and-12 from their own 47, Shaw connected with Taylor on a corner route that he caught just in bounds for a 14-yard gain. On third-and-3 at the opposing 32, senior running back Myles Mims took a direct snap and shed three tackles, gaining 14 yards. To cap off the 10-play drive, senior wide receiver Chase Jordan elevated and caught the ball on top of a North Oconee defender’s head for an 18-yard touchdown.
Despite the momentum shift, junior running back Joby McCannon and the North Oconee offensive line chewed the clock in their ensuing possessions, and the Titans defense got pressure on Shaw, forcing two more sacks and a near interception.
“[McCannon is] just a physical downhill runner that gave us a spark right there and gave us some life,” Aurandt said. “[He] got us going a little bit offensively when we needed it, and we needed to drain some clock and were able to do that with his runs.”
McCannon finished the night as the leading rusher for the Titans with 36 yards on four carries and Dickerson was the leading receiver with 78 yards and a touchdown on four catches. For the Eagles, Mims carried the ball 18 times for 73 yards and Taylor caught six passes for 75 yards and a touchdown. Faulkner ended the night 8-for-16 passing with 103 yards and a touchdown, while Shaw had 123 yards and two touchdowns on 12-for-19 passing.
North Oconee improved to 8-0 and 4-0 in region play with the win, while Eastside dropped to 4-4 and 2-2 in Region 8-AAAA. The Titans have a bye before facing Flowery Branch on Oct. 24 and the Eagles will play at East Forsyth next Friday.