Coming off of their second straight victory of the season over Union Grove 19-14, Starr’s Mill returned home for their final non-region game of the season against the Sandy Creek Patriots. Both offenses struggled for most of the game, putting the fate of the game into the hands of the defenses. When it was over, the Panthers took the victory 10-7.

“[Sandy Creek has] a real good defense,” head coach Chad Phillips said. “We played a lot of football against them… We didn’t execute nearly like we needed to. There’s three brand new guys [on offense] that are still going through a learning curve.”

Sophomore quarterback Will Yarbrough was let loose to throw the ball, going 3-for-8 with 32 yards and an interception. For the fourth time this season, senior a-back Devin Barnett led the team in rushing with 17 rushes for 84 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore Greigh Joseph made his second game with the Panthers with six carries for 27 yards.

Sandy Creek ran a carousel at quarterback with sophomore Geimere Latimer, junior Sadfar Mccray, and senior Jax Fisher, combining to go 9-for-23 with 66 yards and an interception. Their rushing attack came together for 33 yards on 24 carries. The Patriot offense neither scored a touchdown nor cracked 100 yards of total offense.

“We just had to be more physical than they are,” senior cornerback Nate Kearns said. “We just had to manipulate our coverages so they didn’t know what we were doing, and we just had to make sure the first read was not open.”

Following the first Sandy Creek drive, Yarbrough threw an interception right into the hands of senior Kylan Wimbish on his first snap of the game, only to get the ball back after a quick three and out from the Patriot offense. The succeeding drive from the Panthers lasted about five minutes, where the offense powered through the Sandy Creek defense all the way into the red zone, resulting in a 29-yard field goal by senior Connor Marke for a 3-0 lead.

“I think we were just really nervous out there,” junior fullback Brandon Mathis said. “We weren’t making our blocks, we weren’t capitalizing when we needed to. We were still sticking in there, and I think that’s how we won the game.”

Sandy Creek’s next drive was another three and out, including a big sack by junior Barrett Schmidlkofer on third down. Starr’s Mill drove down the field play after play, from the first quarter to the second quarter, culminating in a 9-yard touchdown run by senior Devin Barnett to extend the lead to 10-0.

In the ensuing kickoff, senior Jared Davis took the kick from their own two-yard line for a return. Around midfield, he was almost taken down by a Panther, but neither his elbows nor his knees touched the ground. With the play still alive, Davis escaped and went all the way to the house for a 98-yard kick return touchdown. Following that wild turn of events, the score was now 10-7.

On the next Panther drive, an incomplete pass from Yarbrough to senior Cole Bishop set up a field goal for Marke. He missed the 46-yard attempt. 

The next drives from each team resulted in punts. Sandy Creek kept the ball for the rest of the half, attempting to push through the Panther defense. By the end of the half, their drive resulted in a turnover on downs to end the second quarter with Starr’s Mill still leading 10-7.

From this point onward, the defenses dominated the game. With the ball, the Panther offense repeatedly had to power through Sandy Creek’s defense. They had to convert on third down twice, and fourth down once to get all the way within the red zone. A third down pass attempt from Yarbrough went just outside of the reach of sophomore tight end Josh Phifer.

“We do have a lot to improve,” Mathis said. “Effort was mostly there. I think we tried our hardest out there. We had a lot of missed techniques that we need to get them straight next week.”

Marke made the following field goal attempt, but a penalty allowed Starr’s Mill to continue their drive from the seven. On their redemption set of downs, the Panthers fumbled the ball, which was recovered by the Patriots. Even so, Sandy Creek was stuffed within their own 20-yard line on their next drive.

Starr’s Mill ran through another three and out, punting the ball back to Sandy Creek with 14 seconds to go in the third quarter. The Patriots carried their possession into the fourth quarter, still trailing 10-7.

Their drive started strong with two quick conversions, but a sack by junior Colin Bartek put the defense back in control and pushed Sandy Creek back to third and 15. However, a controversial helmet to helmet call gave the Patriots a new set of downs. Another personal foul on the next third down allowed Sandy Creek’s drive to stay alive.

“We just had to get a stop so our offense could get back and pick it up,” Kearns said.

The Patriots’ drive continued on as they milked the clock. Slowly but surely they took their time, converting twice on fourth down to get within the red zone with roughly six minutes to go in the game. The Panther defense stuffed them on their attempts on the first three downs. On fourth down, Sandy Creek attempted a trick pass play that was immediately shut down, ending Sandy Creek’s drive with less than five minutes to go.

Attempting to run the clock, the next two runs by Starr’s Mill accomplished nothing to set up third and 11. In a pass play, Yarbrough dropped back and darted the football right into the hands of Phifer to keep the drive going. Now out of their own red zone, the Panthers converted one last third down, and went in victory formation to win 10-7.

With non-region play at an end, the Panthers head into region play with a 3-1 record. This week the Panthers have been on a bye week in preparation for their first region game against the Harris County Tigers. Harris County is currently ranked no. 10 in AAAAA according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and recently fell to Newnan 34-21.

“It’s good to get a little of a break, recover from a little bit of nagging injuries,” Phillips said. “We’re gonna go back to details with what we do offensively and go ahead and start looking at Harris County and get a good plan for them, get more than a week in advance to get prep for them.”

Region game one and homecoming night at Panther Stadium versus Harris County will commence at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 9.