Eagle's Landing Christian wins football state title

It took two overtimes and a late offensive drive to set a game-tying field goal in regulation for Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy (ELCA) to claim its second-consecutive Georgia High School Association (GHSA) Class A Private State Championship, defeating Fellowship Christian 34-27 at the Georgia Dome Dec. 9.

The victory gave the Chargers (14-0) their third GHSA state title (2012, 2015 and 2016) and fourth overall including a Georgia Independent Schools Association championship in 1996. The win also extended ELCA’s winning streak to 22 games dating back to last season.

“I said all week long that Fellowship Christian had a bunch of winners,” Chargers’ coach Jonathan Gess said. “I’m proud of how our guys fought. It’s a pleasure coaching those boys. Our goal is never to start off and win a championship but to be the best we can possibly be. The satisfaction win or lose is that our kids did that.”

“Hardin was more special than I thought he was coming into the game,” Gess said. “A guy like that can will his team to a lot of success.”

On the Chargers’ first possession of the third quarter, running back Trevor Gear fumbled the ball on a carry which was forced by Fellowship’s Ryan Reid and recovered by Ethan Minkert.

The Paladins took advantage and produced another lengthy drive with over seven minutes in time of possession. The 16-play, 50-yard drive culminated with a 25-yard field goal by Garrett Depew at the 11:23 mark of the fourth quarter, giving Fellowship its first lead of the game, 17-14.

“We got down, made errors and mistakes with turnovers and penalties,” Gess said.

ELCA responded quickly on its next possession as Jelan Pearson’s 45-yard touchdown run down the middle of the field while dodging numerous Paladins’ defenders allowed it to retake the lead 21-17 midway through the fourth quarter. Pearson finished the day with 60 rushing yards.

“This is a great feeling and we want to come back next year and do it again,” Pearson said after the game. “I knew that I had to make a big-time play for my brothers and wanted the ball in my hands. We live for these moments and our coaches train us for this.”

The Paladins, who were the third seed in the playoffs, showed their resolve on their next possession which produced another touchdown, this time on a two-yard run by Marrick Haigler, making the score 24-21 in favor of Fellowship with 2:08 left in regulation. ELCA’s defense had two personal foul penalties during that drive.

Down three points and the season on the line, the Chargers took possession of the ball on its own 23-yard line with exactly two minutes left in regulation. After two incomplete passes by Brayden Rush, it was fourth down and 8 for ECLA. Rush connected with Tre’ Douglas on a 13-yard pass on the left side to extend the drive and season for the Chargers. The two players would connect four more times in the drive before Alex Usry’s 34-yard field goal with six seconds remaining in regulation tied the score at 24-24. Rush had 78 passing yards while Douglas caught six passes for 69 yards.

“Our thoughts were to go down the field and get a field goal,” Gess said. “We had tremendous faith in Alex who has been waiting for a situation like that. Tre’ came in there and played receiver for us while Brayden did a tremendous job getting him the ball.”

The Paladins started the first overtime period with possession of the ball and Depew’s 30-yard field goal gave them the 27-24 lead.

ELCA responded with a 27-yard field goal of its own from Usry, tying the game up once again at 27-27.

The Chargers started the second overtime with the ball. Trevor Gear, who had a game-high 102 rushing yards, had a 6-yard run to start their possession. After an 8-yard run by Josh Mays got ELCA down to the one-yard line, he got the ball again on the next play and barreled into the end-zone for a touchdown.

Fellowship had its own possession in the second overtime period but turned the ball over on downs after Hardin’s pass attempt to Haigler was incomplete, sealing the victory for the Chargers.

“This victory means so much to our team,” Gear said. “We’ve faced adversity through the season. I had a bad play but we came back from it and got the win. We’ve fallen behind before but we had to keep pounding and execute. We worked hard for this.”

Fellowship outgained ELCA in the contest in total yardage, 346-297, and had more first downs, 20-14. The Paladins also led in time of possession 33:04 to 12:56. Reid had a game-high 80 receiving yards on seven catches for the Paladins who were making their first appearance in the state championship game.

Defensively, George Shockley had a game-high 13 tackles for the Chargers while teammates John Youngblood and Caleb Dallas had nine and eight tackles, respectively.

ELCA scored the only points in the first quarter on a 21-yard touchdown run by Gear. Fellowship tied the score early in the second quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Hardin. On the next kickoff, Justin Menard returned it 90 yards for a touchdown and gave the Chargers the 14-7 lead with they took into halftime.