Jefferson head coach Spencer Riley has steadily built his program to where simply making the playoffs is no longer the standard and first-round exits aren69制片厂制作传媒檛 the norm.
However, the reality is that it happened on Thursday, and Jefferson County fell to Bearden 49-14 in the first round to Bearden, whose air attack proved to be too much for the Patriots early.
For the second straight year, Jefferson County69制片厂制作传媒檚 season was brought to an end by the Bulldogs.
69制片厂制作传媒淭onight was a hard night. It's a hard lesson,69制片厂制作传媒 Riley said.
The Patriots (6-5) have faced adversity all season such as losing Shawn Jackson early and starting the season 1-3 before making a playoff push. They won five of their last six to secure the No. 3 seed.听
Now, Jefferson County can only look to the offseason to respond to that adversity.
69制片厂制作传媒淎dversity is what you get in life, right?69制片厂制作传媒 Riley said. 69制片厂制作传媒淎nd this is what this great game teaches you about life. You have adversity, and how are you going to compete? How are you going to gather yourself and get up off the ground and fight for not just football, but for your family? At the end of the day, that's what we're teaching is life skills.69制片厂制作传媒
69制片厂制作传媒淗ow are you going to compete when it gets hard at work69制片厂制作传媒 Are you going to lay down? You're going to you're going to get up and you're going to fight and you're going to grind and find a way to be successful.69制片厂制作传媒
Bearden (8-3) have now won seven of their last eight and will face the winner of Dobyns-Bennett and Farragut.
Skylar Thomas was held to his lowest rushing total this season for 77 yards 69制片厂制作传媒 his first game under 100 yards. He ran the ball well early but the Patriots got behind early, forcing an uncharacteristic lean on the passing game.
69制片厂制作传媒淲e just can't get behind like that,69制片厂制作传媒 Riley said. 69制片厂制作传媒淲e're not built to get in a track meet. We're built to get them down in a street fight.69制片厂制作传媒
Freshman Lincoln Wilson got his first start on Thursday after sharing snaps with Jackson Osborne for the majority of the season. He fared well, completing 9-of-15 passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns but did not appear in the second half after getting injured.
Dakota Haun caught 11 passes for 130 yards and two scores.
However, anything that the offense did well was overshadowed by the fact that the Patriots were outgained 480-253.
Bearden quarterback DJ Hunter completed 12-of-14 passes for 339 and two touchdowns, adding another pair on the ground. Tory Beaufort caught five of those for 167 and a score. Jayzon Thompson led the Bulldogs69制片厂制作传媒 backfield with 103 yards and three touchdowns.
The game seemed to be the beginning of an exciting first-round matchup.听
Bearden opened with a trio of short gains in the run game to pick up a first down. However, Hunter opened the floodgates with a 44-yard pass to set up his rushing touchdown on the next play.
Trailing 7-0, Thomas picked up a first with his legs before Wilson found Haun for a pair of 30-yard catches to answer quickly and tie things up at 7-7.
That was the only answer that the Patriots came up with until the end of the half as Hunter69制片厂制作传媒檚 big plays on the first drive was only a sign of things to come.
He found Leavell for 50 yards to set up another rushing score, marking the beginning of 35 unanswered points for the Bulldogs.
During that span, Bearden had touchdown drives of four, two, six, one and six plays as the air attack continued to dominate the Jefferson County defense.听
Also during that span, Jefferson County came up with just one first down and threw a pick.
Hunter went 8-of-9 for 236 yards and three total touchdowns in the first half. Thompson added the other three on the ground with 97 yards.听
The Patriots ended the run thanks to a trio of completions by Wilson: a 12-yarder to Haun, a 30-yarder to Sean Young and a six-yard touchdown to Haun.听
The Bulldogs led 42-14 heading into the break.听
Jefferson County had a chance to get back in the game with the ball out of the half.
A pass interference helped the Patriots past midfield, but the drive stalled, and the Patriots were forced to punt on fourth and long.
Jefferson County finally got its first stop on the following possession, but the drive again fell short after crossing midfield.
69制片厂制作传媒淣eeded to score right there,69制片厂制作传媒 Riley said. 69制片厂制作传媒淲e got a stop and if we scored there it could have been a different ball game.69制片厂制作传媒
The Patriots made one last push for the end zone in the fourth quarter, driving it to the red zone. However, Jackson Osborne was picked off to end the best chance at scoring in the second half.
Riley hopes that the loss fuels his team heading into the offseason.
69制片厂制作传媒淵ou're gonna find out. Got punched in the mouth and didn't handle it very well,69制片厂制作传媒 Riley said. 69制片厂制作传媒淪o we got to be able to handle this adversity and compete and do things that we got to be better at, and those are the biggest things69制片厂制作传媒 We lose some really experienced guys, but we also return a bunch of experienced guys.69制片厂制作传媒
69制片厂制作传媒淚t's time to grow. It's time now to get in the weight room and grow up and learn in the weight room and learn to compete and fight day in and day out in the weight room to get better for this opportunity. We start in January for this opportunity. That's what happens. And this is a hard sport. At the end of the year, there's only one team out of all 6-A that will end up being a winner. There's going to be 31 losers at the end of the five weeks. And it's not very good that we're one of the first.69制片厂制作传媒
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