The opening day of the GHSA Football State Championships at Mercedes-Benz Stadium featured the title games from Class 4A, Class A Division II and the Flag Football Championships for Divisions 1 and 2.
Follow the links to see the flag football and tackle football brackets or see Monday’s championship recaps below.
Class 4A – North Oconee 14, Marist 7
North Oconee senior Michael Fabris stared down a Marist receiver as he lined up with 1:23 left in the game and his Titans nursing a 14-7 lead.
The go-ahead touchdown from Harrison Faulkner came a few minutes prior and Fabris knew North Oconee was several defensive stops away from the program’s first-ever championship.
He just didn’t know he would make one of them.
And on the other side of the field, the legendary coach Alan Chadwick was deciphering the situation. He had won three previous championships and wanted a fourth trophy to cap his 40-year career at Marist.
On the previous play, Marist was facing a 2nd-and-15 situation and ran an option play to the left side, with quarterback Jack Euart pitching the ball for a short gain by Trace Gaynes, setting up a decisive 3rd-and-10.
It was the type of play that is typical for a Chadwick-led offense, driving for the game-tying score.
“It’s a grind,” North Oconee head coach Tyler Aurandt said of Marist after the game. “It takes everything you have to go up against their team. Coach Chadwick does an unbelievable job, and they have an unbelievable program. The consistency they put on display, week after week, we knew it was going to be a battle. I told the guys to leave it all out on the field because there’s nothing after this tonight.”
Aurandt let Marist line up and called a timeout to discuss the play with 1:23 remaining. He set his defense and confirmed a few things, sending his players back on the field, reaffirming their roles.
Fabris, a 6-foot-1, 170-pound defensive back, lined up to read Euart’s eyes before positioning himself on the inside of receiver Jack Richerson’s go-route. Fabris, who could have easily handed Marist a first down with any misstep or misplaced hand, leapt perfectly to break up the pass.
The play forced Marist into a 4th-and-10 situation with a state championship on the line. The War Eagles tried a quick pass from the 30-yard line, but Euart’s throw overshot his cutting receiver, leaving him on the ground, pounding the turf with his fist.
Euart knew his career at Marist was over.
Aurandt, on the other hand, was ecstatic. In his eighth season at North Oconee, the comeback. The rebound. The rebuild. It was all realized. He savored the victory and the program’s 15-0 undefeated season because it was a stark contrast to his first at North Oconee.
Aurandt took over in 2017 and finished 1-9 that season, missing the playoffs. In times he thought it couldn’t get any worse, the community lifted him and the team up. To unseen heights.
“They have poured everything into this,” Aurandt said of the community and administration during the team’s turnaround. “Their hearts, their souls and their resources. Whatever they can provide, they provided. They just keep asking what we need next and when you have people who want to help, you can achieve things like this.”
In 2018, the Titans improved to 9-3 and featured in the second round. In 2019, the program was 10-2 but lost in the second round. In the past three seasons, the Titans have made the semifinals twice in 2021 and 2022 with a quarterfinals exit last season. Since 2021, Aurandt has only given up six losses, four in a 10-4 semifinals season in 2021 and one in each of the past two seasons.
Against Marist in the title game, North Oconee went ahead on a 4-yard pass from Hayden Faulkner to Khamari Brooks with 4:56 left in the first half. Parks Kaiser scored on a short run to tie the game at 7-7 at the half, setting up Faulkner’s go-ahead, game-winning jaunt.
Faulkner was 16-of-22 passing for 203 yards and a touchdown while rushing for one touchdown on six carries.
“I am trying to soak it all in,” said Aurandt, who is 75-26 at North Oconee through eight seasons. “I’m so happy for our community. The support that they give every Friday night. These kids, for what they pour into this program day after day after day. 365 days a year. They deserve every bit of this.”
Class A Division II – Bowdon 34, Brooks County 14
Bowdon’s 34-14 victory against Brooks County in the Class A Division II title game marked the third-straight and fifth-overall championship for the program. But for head coach Richard Fendley Jr, he’s already focused on next year.
Which, according to him, starts in a couple of weeks.
“It started back in January,” he said on stage after the game, his militaristic voice rising to a motivational crescendo, drawing cheers from the Bowdon crowd which showed up in force at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We told the team that we were going to put them through things that would make you mentally tougher,” he said, pointing at his players. “We told them we were going to put you through things that other people are not willing to go through. And when we went into halftime down one (14-13), that’s what it took to win. So, you seniors, I love you. You had 50 wins, a school record. You underclassmen, death by squats starts in three weeks.”
Fendley, whose demeanor makes one think of a Marine drill sergeant, had his team’s full attention during the statement, drawing applause from obvious underclassmen who were ready to life weights until, well, they couldn’t anymore.
Bowdon went ahead 7-0 on a 47-yard run from Nate Bhony with 2:48 left in the first quarter. But Brooks County took the 14-7 lead on a 47-yard pass from Junior Burrus to Camauri Brinson and an 18-yard pass from Burrus to George Lamons Jr.
Bowdon scored with 24 seconds left in the first half on a 2-yard run from Joshawia Davis but a failed point-after try left the Red Devils trailing. Kaiden Prothro scored on a 43-yard pass from Charles Maxell III to put Bowdon ahead 19-14 with 4:45 left in the third quarter.
Jonah Wilson pushed the lead to 27-14 on a short run midway through the fourth quarter and Davis capped scoring when he broke free for a 66-yard touchdown run with 1:47 remaining, putting the game out of reach.
Maxell was 5-of-15 passing for 122 yards and a touchdown. Davis had 11 carries for 107 yards and two touchdowns while Bhony had 19 carries for 128 yards and a touchdown. Burrus was 10-of-26 passing for 179 yards and two touchdowns for Brooks County.
Fendley took over the Bowdon job in 2018 and finished the regular season with a 1-9 record and a missed chance at the playoffs. In 2019, Fendley improved the Bowdon record to 8-3 and a second-round appearance. But losses in the second round in 2020 and particularly 2021 when it finished 10-2, were hard to swallow.
But that 10-2 season gave experience to his underclassmen who won Fendley’s first title in 2022 when it beat Schley County 39-31. Last season, Bowdon lost to Manchester 21-20 in the season-opener but beat the Blue Devils 28-27 in the title game, finishing the season 13-2.
Fendley knows it takes a community, something he didn’t let go unsaid from the state at the center of the field at the ‘Benz.
“This community of Bowdon is probably the greatest small town football community in the state of Georgia and thank you for being here in the ‘Benz tonight,” he said.
Division 2 Flag Football Championship – Greenbrier 18, North Oconee 0
They say that ‘ignorance is bliss’ and in the case of Greenbrier’s state championship defense and 18-0 victory against North Oconee in the Division 2 title game, that saying proved vital. And for all the good reasons.
In a world of constant media coverage coupled with the skyrocketing popularity of the sport, it was just cool to see his girls treated like the guys, complete with online rankings and opponent schedules and stats to peruse.
“It was hard not to look at MaxPreps or whatever,” Greenbrier head coach Dan Jordan admitted after the game. “Last year, I think I learned a bit as a coach. We started getting ranked really high, nationally, and I paid a little bit of attention to it. Obviously, we had a great season last year, too, but I think the growth for me was learning, well, there was a point this season where I didn’t even know what our record was.”
The Wolfpack’s record, for the record, is 21-1 after the championship victory. But, at one point, it was 0-1 after a season-opening loss to Allatoona 12-6, which was influential in the season’s path.
“Absolutely,” Jordan said when asked if the Allatoona game was to thank for the 21 other victories.
“The girls didn’t shy away from that goal to return (to the championship) after that loss. We told the girls all along, though, we’re looking at whoever our opponent is now. When we lost our first game of the year to Allatoona and we just had to look ourselves in the face and just go on. I felt like we had some better players (than Allatoona), and they beat us outright. We couldn’t find an excuse. They had a great gameplan and the coaches did an excellent job, and it taught us about ourselves.”
The lessons learned in that season-opener paid dividends against North Oconee and, being led by Kenzie Horton, the Wolfpack rolled. Horton, the team’s star senior quarterback, was 15-of-22 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns, one of which game in the game’s waning seconds on a ‘punt or pass’ type of play. Entering the game, she had passed for 2,534 yards and 42 touchdowns.
But one of the touchdowns, the last of Horton’s high school career, might have caused concern from an ‘unwritten rule’ standpoint.
“It’s hard to punt that close to the endzone,” Jordan clarified of Horton’s late-game, 13-yard touchdown pass to Maggie Pangle to cap scoring with 27 seconds left while leading 12-0. “We were not trying to run up the score or anything.”
Greenbrier’s stout defense complimented an early touchdown to lead 6-0 at the half when Carrington Myers scored on a 1-yard run late in the first quarter. Pangle caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Horton with 4:35 left in the third quarter to push the lead to 12-0.
Junior linebacker Sophie Campanaro had five tackles and two pass breakups, sophomore rusher Arianna Boone made three tackles with two tackles for a loss and a sack while junior rusher Lexi Lacey and junior defensive back Presley McDermott each made an interception to anchor the defensive side.
Greenbrier captured the program’s first state title with a 14-6 victory against Lithia Springs last season, the second-ever title defense in the history of GHSA flag football behind Southeast Bulloch’s dynastic rise.
Division 1 Flag Football Championship — Southeast Bulloch 13, Columbus 6
Southeast Bulloch had won 77 games – a state and program record – before losing 7-0 to Calvary Day on Nov. 20, the program’s first-ever loss. It was an eye-opening occurrence for head coach Marci Cochran and the team.
But the loss quickly turned into fuel.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” said Cochran, who has coached the Yellow Jackets to now four state championships after outlasting Columbus 13-6 in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“When you have won 77 straight games and get that first loss, it’s really tough,” she said. “We were down a little bit, but we came back.”
Sophomore Emma Cate Barron, Score Atlanta’s Breakout Player of the Year, earned the GHSA Division 1 Most Valuable Player award presented by Morgan & Morgan and accounted for Southeast Bulloch’s game-winning touchdown in overtime to secure the victory.
Barron was 9-of-15, passing for 69 yards and had six rushes for 30 yards and the game-winning touchdown. Nelson led the Southeast Bulloch defense with eight tackles and a pass breakup. Kayla Adams finished with seven tackles and an interception while Jadyn Williams made four tackles with three tackles for loss and a sack.
The game was scoreless entering the fourth quarter and Columbus took a 6-0 lead with 7:31 left in the regulation on a 5-play, 31-yard drive capped by an 8-yard pass from Serenity Hickman to sophomore Harmony Franklin. Southeast Bulloch junior Paige Nelson scored on a 1-yard run with 1:13 left in regulation, capping a 10-play, 55-yard drive which burned five minutes off the play clock, tying the game at 6-6.
Columbus outgained Southeast Bulloch 223-125 and Hickman, who is second in the state in passing yardage to McEachern’s Chelsea Njoku, was 19-of-32 passing for 151 yards and a touchdown. Hickman, a two-way star, led the Columbus defense with six tackles and a pass breakup. Franklin made five tackles while Tess Willias had five tackles with a sack and a quarterback hurry.
Southeast Bulloch’s dynasty has accounted for a state-record four straight titles and show no signs of slowing down. The Yellow Jackets finished 19-0 and a 20-0 victory against Portal in the 2021-22 championship game. In 2022-23, the Yellow Jackets finished 20-0 and beat Harris County 13-0 in the championship game. Last season, the team finished 23-0 and upended North Oconee 14-0 to win the title.
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