Eagle’s Landing Christian ends Tattnall’s season

Tattnall Square stuck with top-seeded Eagle’s Landing Christian for a while Friday in the GHSA Class 1A private school semifinals, but the host Chargers turned things up a notch in the second half for a 42-21 victory.

Tattnall (12-1) got 212 rushing yards and two touchdowns from Ahmad Barron in his final high school game, including a 52-yarder in the second half. But ELCA (13-0) scored a touchdown on defense and another on special teams in the second half, and the Chargers also broke out an effective passing game they rarely had to use during the regular season.

ELCA quarterback Brayden Rush threw for 139 yards, the big blow coming as a 73-yard scoring pass to Sean Queen that effectively put the game out of reach.

Tattnall held ELCA to 191 rushing yards, with Trevor Gear accounting for 130 of those yards. Gear rushed for one touchdown and also caught a touchdown pass.

ELCA, a winner of 21 straight, meets Fellowship Christian, a 31-28 winner over Prince Avenue Christian, in the Class 1A private school final at 10 a.m. on Friday at the Georgia Dome.

Turning point

ELCA went on an 11-play, 68-yard drive in the second quarter that resulted in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Rush to Gear to put the Chargers up 14-7. The touchdown itself didn’t mean as much as how ELCA got there: After overthrowing a couple of deep balls early on, the run-heavy Chargers settled into a mid-range passing game, throwing a wrinkle at Tattnall that few other ELCA opponents had seen. Rush completed passes of 19 and 13 yards to put the Chargers in scoring position, then he threw the touchdown pass on a third-and-4 play from the Tattnall 5.

Observations

One element too many: Although ELCA could have done much more damage with its passing game — several balls were overthrown and a potential 54-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter was nullified on an illegal lineman downfield call — Rush’s 73-yard bomb to Queen was a dagger. Rush sold the play-action well, making a very deceptive pivot move a couple of steps into his dropback. The pivot caused Tattnall’s secondary to hesitate, leaving receivers open downfield. Rush didn’t hook up on all of his opportunities, but the effort was effective enough to put the Chargers in the Georgia Dome next weekend.

Giveaways costly: Tattnall’s four turnovers led to 28 ELCA points. A fumbled snap on the first play of the second quarter turned in ELCA’s first score, a 2-yard keeper five plays later by Rush to tie the score at 7. Tattnall quarterback Miles Morris threw two interceptions, the first setting up a 21-yard touchdown run two plays later by Gear to put ELCA up 21-7 and the second turning into a 15-yard pick-six for Caleb Dallas to make it 35-14. Punter Luke Laskey threw a 25-yard pick-six to Johnathan Youngblood late in the fourth quarter on a fake punt attempt.

Worth noting

Measure of success: The 21 points Tattnall scored Friday were the second-most given up by ELCA this season. The Chargers surrendered 31 points in a 34-31 win over Wesleyan on Sept. 30, the same team ELCA beat 35-13 in the quarterfinals.

They said it

Tattnall head coach Chance Jones: “We came out and played hard like we’ve been doing. We thought we would be able to play with them. We just ended up having too many turnovers, and those were on me.”

Jones on ELCA: “The have a heck of a ballteam over there. They had some good schemes that mixed us up a little bit and hurt us.”

Jones on the 12-1 season: “We wouldn’t have been here without our seniors. The senior leadership that we had and the way they were able to buy in from an early time, this is all on them and this is their season. I’m so proud of them.”

ELCA head coach Jonathan Gess on the passing element: “We work the passing game really hard. I remember (the first) Wesleyan game, we had to throw the football to win. I kind of felt were going to have to throw the ball to win (Friday). I thought they would come out and play us really tight coverage with their safety and we were going to have to hit the middle of the field.”

Gess, continuing on about the passing game: “We missed a lot of shots (Friday). When we throw them, we usually make them. In the first half, we missed on some great opportunities. In the second half, we talked about it, we hit on one, they call it back, and then another time when we needed it, we hit it. So, yeah, we pulled out the passing game when we needed it.”

Rush on Tattnall’s defense: “That’s probably the best defense we’ve seen all year, probably we’ll ever see the rest of the year or in the three years I have left, the best defense I’ll ever see. They flew to the ball. I think the safeties came up a little bit on the play fakes. Coach Gess told me that I need to do better on my play fakes. I guess it paid off.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Eagle’s Landing Christian ends Tattnall’s season."