Prince Avenue Christian football flounders in private class state championships to Hebron

Posted by author December 18, 2024 Football

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ATLANTA — Prince Avenue Christian has finished state runner-up for the second time in five straight trips to Mercedes Benz Stadium.

The Wolverines played flat and ended up losing 56-28 to Hebron Christian in the GHSA Class 1-3A Private State Championships on Wednesday. This was Hebron Christian’s first-ever state title win.

“I mean, hats off to our kids,” head coach Greg Vandagriff said. “They’ve had a great year. You can’t win them all. Today’s a good example of that. … That was (the senior class’s) 58th ball game. Not many kids have played 58 ball games in their four years, so again, hats off to their legacy.”

The game, which was a rematch after Prince Avenue Christian took the regular-season win over Hebron Christian 34-31 on Nov. 1, got out to a hot start with the Lions seeking revenge. HCA junior wide receiver Devon Caldwell, who finished the game with 18 touches for 180 yards and three touchdowns, kicked off the scoring with a 40-yard sprint to the house.

PACS sophomore quarterback Ben Musser responded on the very next play with an 80-yard mad dash to pay dirt, putting the Wolverines on the board immediately. But that’s where it fell apart.

Hebron Christian went up 14-7 after the first quarter on a touchdown from senior quarterback Thomas Stallworth, who finished the game with 9 completions on 15 attempts for 172 yards and 20 carries for 84 yards and 4 touchdowns.

The Lions got to start the second quarter on the Prince Avenue 12-yard line, which had been set up as the clock ran out by a 41-yard reception from junior Jarvis Mathurin. Caldwell scored in the first 10 seconds after falling short on the first play to make it 21-7 as senior linebacker Mac Bradley went down with an injury.

Sophomore running back Andrew Beard was just short getting Prince Avenue a necessary first down, conversions coming as more of a struggle Wednesday than normal, and then he was out for the remainder of the game with a lingering injury from the semifinals.

Mathurin took advantage and scored again on the first drive of Hebron’s next drive, and then Caldwell made a 30-yard sprint to make it 35-7 just before halftime.

Prince Avenue finally found their footing just before the clock ran out on the first 24 minutes when sophomore wide receiver Hudson Hill set up junior wide receiver CJ Dockery for a touchdown off a 54-yard gain. They went to the locker room 35-14.

Caldwell opened the third quarter the same as the second, setting up Stallworth for the score on a 47-yard run. Musser replied instantly with another fake handoff to Hill and spun his way through tough defenders to make it 42-21.

Stallworth leapt over the group at the 1-yard line to add another seven to the board with 6:33 to go in the third quarter.

Musser — who finished with 15 completions on 23 attempts for 159 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, as well as 13 rushes for 176 yards and 3 touchdowns — made the final end zone trip for the Wolverines with 11:24 to go in the fourth quarter.

The Lions’ quarterback managed to tack on one more in the final 50 seconds to make it 56-28.

“We played the toughest schedule we’ve ever had in our school’s history,” Vandagriff said. “We played the number one team from South Carolina, number four team from North Carolina, so that allowed us to be ready for these tough games. But again, when your best player (Beard) can’t play, it’s going to be hard to come out and win. That’s what happened. Andrew couldn’t so (the rest of us) did the best we could.”

Prince Avenue Christian ends its season 10-4.