Southwest DeKalb’s trek through the playoffs took it to Griffin, where the No. 3-seed Panthers faced the No. 2 seed from Region 4-AAAA, the Griffin Bears. That is where a staunch defense and a ball-control ground game, both the equal of the Panthers’, gave Griffin the 10-7 win.
Trailing 10-0 with less than 8:00 left in the game, Southwest DeKalb put together its best drive of the night, marching 86 yards to come within three on a Daniel Litt 6-yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Mitchell. Litt finished the night 8-of-19 passing for 104 yards and the touchdown. Mitchell had four receptions for 28 yards. “My team did a good job, my quarterback did a good job,” Mitchell said. “We just didn’t have enough time.”
Dion Hamilton led the Panthers with four catches for 69 yards.
Southwest DeKalb (9-4) was faced with even worse field position with under a minute left to go in the game after a Griffin punt pinned the Panthers at their own 4. Behind a couple runs and a pass by Litt, as well as a personal foul call on Griffin, Southwest DeKalb advanced the ball out to the Griffin 41-yard line. There, the Panthers ran out of time after three straight incompletions.
A Sheldon Hancock 1-yard touchdown run helped put Griffin up 10-0 with 5:13 left to go in the third quarter. The Panthers held the fullback to 11 yards on 10 carries, but wingback D.J. Morgan paced the Bears with 86 yards on 18 carries. Linebacker Muhasibi Wakeel was once again active, leading Southwest DeKalb’s charge on defense.
Midway through the second quarter, the Bears got a 24-yard field goal from Edward Glanton to take a 3-0 lead. The scoring drive was extended several plays earlier, when Griffin quarterback Marcus Waller converted a 4th-and-12 pass attempt at the Southwest DeKalb 24-yard line to Dontre Morris, putting the Bears at the Panthers’ 9. Waller only threw two passes, with the other complete as well.
Southwest DeKalb did not play a sharp first half. In addition to giving up the fourth-down pass play, the Panthers were stopped on a fourth-and-short on their only penetration into Griffin territory and also had a punt blocked. “We should have executed better,” Mitchell said. “We slacked off the first half, we should have come back the second half, but I’m proud of my team.”
“Youth caught up with us and some issues on the line,” Panthers coach Buck Godfrey said. “But that’s part of football. You grow from this.”
The Panthers, who committed eight penalties for the game, began their playoff run with a 27-7 win at Villa Rica and followed that up with a 13-0 victory over Cedar Shoals one week ago. The nine wins are the most by Southwest DeKalb since 2000 and Godfrey is pleased with what his team was able to accomplish. “Gratifying,” Godfrey said. “One of the best [seasons] we’ve ever had at our school based on the experience we had coming back from last year, which was next to nothing. I’m real proud of those kids.”
Griffin (10-3) moves on to face Southwest DeKalb’s Region 6-AAAA mate Tucker next week in the semifinals. Since both teams are No. 2 seeds, a coin toss will be needed to decide where the game will be played.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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