East Hall shut down a high-powered Fannin County offense and displayed plenty of its own to lock up home-field advantage and a No. 2 seed in the Class AAA playoffs with a 50-36 win Friday night.
“I’m very excited we get to host a home playoff game,” Coach Bryan Gray said. “It’s been a long, long time. We’re proud to have an opportunity for a team that not everybody thought was going to be very good because of all the youth and losing all that talent. Our kids just compete and I’m proud of them.”
The Vikings (5-4, 4-1 Region 7-AAA) and the Rebels went into halftime tied at 29. But East Hall’s defense slowed down Fannin County (4-5, 2-3) while its offense went to work.
The game was sealed when Brad Davis, the region leader in passing yards coming in, was intercepted late in the fourth quarter by senior Triquece Ware on Senior Night.
“It’s a great win against a tremendously talented team,” Gray said. “Man, they’re good.”
For quarterback Austin Parker, it was all about belief that the Vikings would come out on the winning side.
“We know we can beat anybody we want to if we just stay positive. That was our mindset,” Parker said. “We wanted to send these seniors out right because it is senior night. We were focusing on everything we had to do to get the job done.”
The Vikings struck once in the fourth quarter, a 3-yard scamper for Jacquen Hopkins. Hopkins set up the score with a 40-yard run on a reverse from the Rebels’ 43-yard line.
Hopkins’ score was the third in a string of touchdowns for East Hall.
After the Rebels went up 36-29 on their ninth play of the second half, the Vikings responded in three plays.
With runs of 19 and 1 yards by senior running back Jiel Vargas, East Hall set up at the 50-yard line.
From midfield, Parker (15-of-22, 262 yards, 3 TDs) took the snap and found Markese Jackson for the second of his two scores on the night.
Coming out of a 14-14 first quarter, the Rebels scored first in the second on a 7-yard run. They lined up in an odd formation, which usually shifts into a field goal formation, and snapped the ball quickly. The play caught the Vikings off guard and put Fannin County up by eight.
Less than three minutes later, East Hall answered with a 1-yard run from Deon Ellison.
The Vikings lined up for the 2-point conversion and Parker delivered a strike through the hands of a Fannin defender with Hopkins on the receiving end to tie it up.
The Rebels used a 1:25 to score on a 24-yard pass from Davis to Jacob Reece. A 3-yard run for Ellison tied the game at 29-29 just before the break.
Both teams came out firing as they each scored a pair of touchdowns with less than 10 minutes off the clock.
Parker found Jackson (6 receptions, 165 yards, 2 TDs) for the first score of the game, a 78-yard reception from the receiver. A short run got the Rebels on the board.
The Vikings took the lead again with a short run of their own as Vargas stepped in from the 1-yard line.
Davis (16-of-22, 194 yards, 2 TDs, INT) found magic as he hit Cooper Earls (five receptions, 75 yards, TD) for a 57-yard pitch and catch.
Vargas finished the game with 31 carries for 126 yards and a score. He would have finished the game with 169 yards, but due to running out the clock on the final play of the game, he cost himself 43 yards.
The senior running back credited all of his yardage to the offensive line’s push. Gray credited the line and Vargas for keeping the Rebels’ offense off the field.
The Vikings shut down Davis in the second half. The quarterback was 13-of-15 for 184 yards in the first half. After the half, Davis was just 3-of-7 for 10 yards and an interception.
The defense also stepped up against the running game, holding the Rebels to just 130 yards on the ground.
Offensively, East Hall outmatched Fannin, putting up 537 yards of total offense to the visitors’ 324.
The win cements the Vikings in the 2015 playoffs for the second straight year.
For Vargas, getting to come back home for a playoff game in his senior year is more than he could ask for.
“To be honest, it means everything to me to come back one more time to Valhalla and give my heart out on this field,” Vargas said. “I’m ready for it and excited.”
Next week East Hall will visit Banks County, which is battling for the fourth playoff spot in the region.