BOGART, Ga. - The Hebron Christian Academy football team made history last Friday, Oct. 31, when the Lions defeated Prince Avenue in dominant fashion, 43-6, to win their first-ever region championship.
After the huge victory over the Wolverines in a rematch of last year's state championship, the Lions were awarded the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Class 3A-A Private state tournament. They will have two bye weeks before playing in the Sweet-16 round against either Lovett or Trinity Christian.
"I had a feeling...I'm a believer in momentum (and) I'm a believer that things start coming together, and just the way these kids have practiced the last three weeks, I felt like they were going to come out playing free and fast (against Prince Avenue), and I feel like they did that," Head coach Kenny Dallas said. "What I think we did, a couple of weeks in a row, is put a complete game together, offensively, defensively and special teams. (I'm) super proud of (the players), and proud of our coaches."
The win over Prince was historic, and a strong finish to what was been an impressive region run for Hebron.
"It's important to know (that) a region championship doesn't happen because of a week of work, or a month of work, there are people who have been around this program for years, who have built this program and been the foundation of this program," Dallas said. "I've played my part in it, but the real thanks for a night like this goes to those dudes who year, after year, after year have been building this. I hope everybody who's been a part of Hebron football for a long time looks at tonight and knows that it's a little bit of all of them tonight."
All of the Lions' scores came in the first half, all 43 of them, which was a collection of six touchdowns, four on the ground by senior running back Devon Caldwell, one for senior quarterback Grayton Costello, and one receiving score for senior wide receiver Jarvis Mathurin.
At the half, Caldwell had 224 yards-rushing with the four scores, by the end of the night he had 240 across 23 carries.
"(Caldwell) is a kid who's a three or four-year starter, and so he's seen a lot and he's got a lot of experience. He's also a kid who's got a 4.4 GPA, he's not just a great athlete," Dallas said. "He's the hardest worker on the field as well. When you run for a lot of yards, it's because you've got a lot of dudes up in front of you, and then you've got a guy like Jarvis (Mathurin) outside where people are trying to put two dudes on him ... It's a team deal, it's not just Devon, it's a great offensive line, a quarterback that can throw fast screens, a receiver who (opponents) gotta put two on. It's all of those things, and (Caldwell) knows that, he knows it's a team deal."
Overall, Hebron collected 489 total yards on offense, allowing just 145 on defense.
The Lions also had a dominant performance against the Wolverine offense, forcing three turnovers.
Senior linebacker Stroud Morris had two of those turnovers, both being interceptions, while making 11 tackles. Beau Bennett had the other turnover, also an interception. He added five solo tackles in the win. Albert Wilham (5 tackles,4 solo, 1 TFL), Jack Mostiler (4 tackles, 4 solo, 1 sack, 2 pressures), Tanner Bowen (5 tackles, 4 solo, 2 pass breakups), Marley Woods (2 tackles, 1 sack), Max Steve (5 tackles, 4 solo, 1 forced fumble) and Fred Moses Jr. (3 tackles,1 solo, 1 TFL, 1 pressure) also contributed well on defense.
Hebron will have to wait two weeks before kicking off their hopeful playoff run, but that's something the Lions are used to, after having two-consecutive bye weeks earlier in the season.
"In 30 years (of coaching) I've never had (back-to-back bye weeks), well now it's happened twice in one season," Dallas said. "I like the way we handled it the first time, a lot of focus on ourselves, obviously you want to rest, recover, create some depth and focus on yourself and your weak areas to make them stronger. We'll do that, we'll have a great week of mapping out our next two weeks, and we'll have some real specific goals. I think the main thing is you have to come to practice everyday with a very specific goal."
