East Laurens takes Bleckley County to brink of upset; Royals survive to run record to 9-1

It was somewhat apropos that the East Laurens middle and high school bands struck up an encore of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the special feature of their combined halftime show, as the Bleckley County Royals began to disperse from the locker room area at the new Falcon Field, and a visibly relieved head coach Von Lassiter stood just outside the doorway collecting his thoughts. 

They were no doubt expecting a challenge out of an underrated East Laurens team that had been playing its best football of the season down the stretch of October, but on the eve of Halloween, got much more of a scare than they had bargained for in what proved to be the region rivals’ most nail-biting game since 2016. 

The Royals weren’t exactly fighting for their lives, coming in with a playoff destiny that was more than secure, nor was East in any sense playing the role of walking dead, with some postseason hopes that are just as alive and well as the season’s midnight hour draws close at hand. 

But the creeping Falcons put Bleckley’s once-beaten record and expected top-four playoff seeding in some definite danger with a strong senior night showing that had the outcome in question right up until the very end. 

A final fourth-down stop for the Royals would drive the last nail in the coffin, and seal shut a 21-14 victory in their regular-season finale that didn’t come easy at all. 

“Coach Hicks and his staff had those guys ready to play tonight, and we were not,” Lassiter said. “They had our number. They lined up and did some things a little bit differently. They’ve just got a good football team, man. They really do. They can get to the playoffs and beat a lot of people. They’ve got really good athletes, and they had a heck of a gameplan against us, so I’ve gotta give those guys credit. 

“We didn’t help ourselves. We turned the ball over, got down there and didn’t score a couple of times. Just a poor performance on our part, against a good football team, and when you do that, you’re thankful to win.” 

The chilling experience might serve as a cautionary tale to anyone from here on who might overlook East Laurens, as its high-upside roster begins to play to potential late in the year. 

The Falcons took two first-half leads, and mounted a final drive that came within range of a score to tie or win with only minutes to go, in a performance that defied both trends of the season (in which they’ve overwhelmingly not played well on their home field) and rivalry series (with a Bleckley margin of victory averaging five touchdowns in seven double-digit wins since the start of the Lassiter era in 2017). 

“I don’t think they expected us to play the game we played,” said East Laurens head coach Jesse Hicks. “Our kids played their hearts out. I’m so proud of these young men, the way they played and the way they stuck it out.” 

It was a second-straight 200-yard passing night for Falcon quarterback Skyler Snead, who threw 15 completions for a career-high 243, and go-ahead touchdowns to both Major Floyd and J.J. Wright, who were among a collection of productive receivers. 

Bryson Hazley led the group with four catches for 94, and Floyd had five for 70. Wright and Gary Stockton also contributed 41 and 38 respectively on a combined five receptions. 

But the Bleckley defense also held East Laurens to just 30 yards rushing on 16 carries. And that deficiency, against the 150 yards of the Bleckley’s Zyion Love who scored all three opposing TDs, was what had East Laurens – despite the early leads – playing from behind in the battles of possession and field position. 

The Falcons spent most of the second half stuck in their own territory, but came up with some key plays through the air when they needed them to turn the last of only four possessions into a plus drive that gave them a chance to tie or win in the last few minutes… and the way the night was going, you got a strong sense that East would have likely gone for two and the win in the event of a touchdown. 

It was not the most promising of starts, after Cody Register’s punt and a Floyd fair catch pinned the Falcons inside their own 10. 

They’d wind up taking a first-down snap from the end zone after an ineligible man penalty reversed the opening play, and would retain the option of punting and living to fight on one more potential possession as the clock reached the 6-minute mark. 

But East quickly hit the point of no return after some quick progress on Snead’s sprint-out completions to Wright and Floyd, and a double-digit run by JaBryan Bigham to cross midfield. 

Snead hit Hazley for another first down, and Floyd drew a holding foul that got the drive to the red zone with a healthy 2:35 still to play. 

But disaster struck on the other side of a timeout as a snap over the head occurred at the worst possible moment to start the new series with an eight-yard loss. 

A scramble of two, illegal procedure penalty and Cadrian Rumph sack then put the Falcons in a do-or-die fourth down with close to 40 yards left. 

The pocket held for Snead to lift a desperate pass in the direction of tight end Tawan Horne down the middle of the field, but Royal DBs Kelvin Sneed and Jason McNulty both rose to tip the ball well out of his reach. 

“We had a shot right there at the end, we just couldn’t get it into the end zone,” Hicks said. 

Love on the run… 

Three yards and a cloud of dust is definitely not the label you’d normally use to describe a Bleckley County offense known for its explosive plays that’s on pace (scoring an average of 34.5 points per game) to trail only last year’s as the program’s second most prolific all-time. 

The Royals, with respect to the East Laurens ball-hawks lurking throughout the secondary, were content to not take too many chances putting the ball in the air, and instead of racing up and down the field, found themselves shortening the game with a steady diet of runs. 

“We’ve been able to do that,” Lassiter said. “That’s what’s good about this team is they’re able to do what we need to do to try to win the game… We’re fine with three yards, we’re fine with milking the clock, we’re fine with whatever.” 

Love, the feature in a handful of rotating backs, got them everything they needed on small, meandering runs to piece together drives a few yards at a time. 

The senior would score the same way, disappearing into a sea of blockers up the middle and leaning to break the goal line somewhere in their midst, on each of his three touchdowns – to tie the game in quarters 1 and 2 and give Bleckley its first lead midway through the third. 

The Royals ran into some late penalty issues that stalled out a second of two drives with a chance to put the game away early in the fourth, after coming up empty at the tail end of the third as Jeremiah Rozier helped force a fumble on a carry by Isaiah Simeton that gave the ball over yards ahead of what seemed like an inevitable TD.

“We just can’t turn the ball over,” Lassiter said. “We can’t have negative plays, and I thought we busted some a little bit, so we’ve gotta get better.” 

Several key stops on third down, and one fourth, back in the first half also aided East Laurens in holding the Royals to a total that ties their lowest output of the season in a lone loss against Dublin. 

Stockton paced Falcon defenders with 10 total tackles. Hazley, Floyd and Rozier finished with eight apiece. 

“We’re talking about what’s supposed to be the best offense in 2A football,” Hicks said. “You can’t say too much about what they did, and what we did. But we did our job… I’m proud of the fact that we did it, Coach Selby and those guys on the defensive side. It was awesome, the kids played well. You don’t want to lose a football game, don’t get me wrong. But that’s something that we haven’t seen here in a while, the way our kids stood up and fought tonight.” 

That fight was on the fiery side as emotions ran high, throughout, for both teams. 

Personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct flags flew right and left, at a high rate during the first half, when chatter and pushing/shoving were pretty routine in the aftermath of plays. 

The climate thankfully cooled along with the intensity for both teams after the half, though tensions were still audible as players of each shared some parting words from opposite sides of the field on their way off. 

Several of the game’s penalties that went against East Laurens gave Bleckley a 15-yard boost midway through key drives. 

“Everything was chippy tonight. They knew what was at hand,” Hicks said. “Too many penalties. Those really hurt us tonight.” 

A high-flying first half… 

East Laurens came out firing in the first quarter after forcing a punt on Bleckley’s opening drive. 

Snead found Hazley for a big play over the middle to set up his 14-yard fade to Floyd, for an over-the-shoulder catch in the back left corner, that put the Falcons on the board first less than four minutes into the game. 

The Royals drove quickly to answer, penetrating the Eastside 10 on a diving grab by Gage Harris, before Love’s first touchdown from about a yard.

East drove 89 yards to go back ahead after forcing a turnover on downs early in the second period, though it was on the verge of a different sort of momentum swing as Bleckley angled to force a punt that would result in great field position. 

Snead found the diving Hazley on a rollout catch to convert a third and long to get things moving, and they went quickly from there. Several plays later, he’d hit J.J. Wright on a 21-yard crosser for the score to put the Falcons back up 14-7. 

Bleckley, with an East Laurens personal foul to help out halfway through, dinked and dunked its way back to the end zone, where Love scored again. 

The 14-point tie survived a scary situation with a minute or so left in the half, as East Laurens turned its back on a Register kickoff that everyone figured would roll on into the end zone for a touchback after hitting around the 15. 

But the ball instead spun dead at the 1, remaining in play as both teams made a mad dash for a recovery. Hazley got there first, and managed a short return that would be mostly negated by a dead ball penalty. 

The Falcons’ series from the 1 endured two close brushes with a safety after a play for no gain on first down. The next snap was fumbled, and only narrowly made it back across the goal line (if it even did) after an offensive recovery. 

On third down, Snead’s throwaway from the end zone fell incomplete in bounds, but officials declined to drop a flag for grounding. 

The protection held for Logan Gibson to get the punt away, and Bleckley – whose Kix Foskey was tackled on a promising return by Lagen Mack – couldn’t find the end zone on about three more plays before the half. 

Bleckley took its first and final lead after forcing and partially blocking an East Laurens punt on the opening drive of the third, and ground its way inside the 5 for Love’s third touchdown.

The Royals (9-1 overall, 5-1 region 2-AA) will have a Friday to rest up as they await word of their playoff draw, though they’ll be assured of a home game and likely two or three more when the state tournament begins next month. 

Despite the loss, East Laurens (3-6, 2-3 region) will still have some momentum to take along to the Shamrock Bowl for next Friday’s rivalry game at Dublin. 

What can they do to build on it? 

“It sounds cliche, but you’ve got to flush it and get ready to play again,” Hicks said. “That’s all you have to do. Our kids know we can play. It’s just one of those things, what group is gonna show up? I know the way these kids feel tonight, they’ll be prepared and ready to play Dublin.”