FOOTBALL: Heroic plays by King, defense clinch second-straight East Laurens win vs. Southwest

EAST DUBLIN — It was a game of screens, flood routes, sacks, dropped passes, red zone stands — and punts, a whole lot of punts.

East Laurens and Southwest traded plenty of the above, but zero scoring, over a roughly 39-minute stalemate that followed the lone offensive touchdown by either team, punched in by the Falcons on their very first possession six minutes in.

The rest of their defense-dominated region matchup Friday fell to the kicking game, which had punts flying back and forth throughout. Most of them were fair caught or petered out. But in a game with that many, sooner or later, one team was liable to return one.

East Laurens’ Norrion King was the first to get that opportunity with three minutes to go, and took advantage of it as a ball off the foot of Rinaldo Callaway veered off its intended course toward the home sideline.

He caught it at the 30, made a man miss about 15 yards ahead, and then got an angle on everybody else toward the opposite corner.

Seventy yards and a Major Floyd two-point conversion run later, East Laurens had put away its third win of region play. An ensuing fourth-down stop closed out the 14-0 victory over the Patriots to get the Falcons on their first winning streak since 2021. The heartbreaker for Southwest is a second loss in a row, and its fifth of the season.

Both teams enter a bye week before their first of three remaining games. East Laurens will play at Washington County and Southwest will host ACE.

“Seen it, let it float in the air for a little bit, caught it, turned up the sideline, saw I had blockers coming from the inside, turned and took it to the crib,” King said, giving a postgame play-by-play of the touchdown return. “It was crucial. We needed to score. We had our backs against the wall all game. It seemed like we couldn’t get nothing going on offense. The defense played, did what they were supposed to do. Special teams make special plays, and we did what we were supposed to do.”

East Laurens head coach Jesse Hicks saw the play unfold from a slightly different angle on the sideline, but similarly could sense the opportunity for a clutch swing — and one his team was desperate for — just before it came along.  

“We put a lot into special teams,” he said. “I thought the kid’s a good punter, but sometimes he outkicks his coverage. And I knew it was going to come. That’s why I wanted the guys to kind of man ’em up, and keep em and let em come down. And when he kicked it up to that corner, I thought he would take it back the other way, cause that’s what we worked on. But he kind of came up our sideline a little bit and reversed field. I tell you what, that iced the game, and we needed that.”

The insurance was good to have, though the East Laurens defense — which made seven key stands in or near the red zone — kept the shutout regardless.

D-line anchor Caleb Jackson was as beastly as ever, with three of the team’s five sacks (all on fourth downs) and multiple tackles for loss. 

But with such a slim margin, there was a growing sense that the Falcons were only hanging on by a fingernail as they continually clung to an early six-point lead.

They could breathe easy for the final three minutes.

“The end zone wasn’t our friend tonight, but it was when we actually needed it,” Hicks said. “I’m so happy with what we did defensively.”

Converting when it mattered…

East Laurens was down to a fourth-and-considerable when it managed the early touchdown to close out a confident first drive.

King started it out with close to 50 yards on a swing pass. Jason Giles hit Floyd on a slant to move the chains again, but Southwest slowed the progress and got the Falcons into a do-or-die from roughly 16 yards out.

Giles dumped one off to Bryson Hazley on a right-side hitch and run, and the sophomore outran two Patriots to the pylon.

A low extra point kick by Giles — filling in for an inactive regular John Thang at placekicker — failed to clear the line, leaving the lead at 6-0.

That was about as much consistent success as East Laurens would have for the rest of the game.

The Falcons, on a majority of possessions, would be limited to a series or two by a variety of issues that made it a fairly sloppy game.

When not hampered by unforced errors, they were being badgered by some equally-disruptive members of the Southwest defensive line, which was led by the Rutgers-committed Callaway, with nine total tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and a strip. 

“Offensively, we were stymied tonight,” Hicks “A lot of drops, a lot of missed passes, not really protecting like we should, we’ve got guys running open.”

Southwest, with Chase Dupree back at quarterback from a monthlong injury, made a good bit more overall progress (301 to 212 in the total count), but also hurt itself in the department of penalties and mistakes, starting with a bad snap that ruined a golden opportunity right out of the gate, as East Laurens fumbled on the opening kickoff, and gave the Patriots prime position at the plus-35.

The setback would lead to a first of six Falcon fourth down stops. Another followed early in the second, as Southwest drove with designs on cashing in an East Laurens turnover, after Callaway knocked the ball loose from Giles on a sack, and Chauencey Brown recovered (to take the ball away as the home team pondered a second score on a short field). 

Dupree found Lavaris Harris on a shot to flip the field. A series of plays later, the Patriots were knocking again with goal to go.

But East Laurens broke up some passes in the end zone, and a Harris touchdown run was called back on a hold before the window of opportunity slammed shut as Dupree took a sack from Jackson. 

Punts ping-ponged back and forth until a third Southwest threat gained some steam in the last minute of the first half when Callaway broke a tackle for a sizable gain. But fourth and Jackson struck again, and the senior came in for a sack to get the Pats on downs for a third time.

Hazley intercepted a pass near the end zone to thwart another Southwest incursion to start the third quarter.

The Patriots would be turned away on downs for a fourth time as they made a longer journey to striking range on the other side of a three-punt sequence. Dupree’s completion to Mykel Henley got things moving, but East Laurens stiffened once Southwest reached goal to go.

Floyd met Tkorian Davis with a textbook tackle in the hole, and the Falcons strung out a stretch toss for no gain to get the series to fourth down from a decent ways out.

And once again, here came Jackson… this time unblocked and all over Dupree well before the first thought of a throw or scramble.

Early in the fourth, Southwest sputtered on another drive near the Eastside 25, as a fourth-down pass fell incomplete intended for Harris.

The Falcons, as with most of their second-half possessions, went three-and-out, but again rose up defensively as Dianco Murray laid into Dupree for a sack and 10-yard loss to compel the pivotal punt with 3:08 to go.

After East went up 14-0, Raquis Stanley and Logan Clements delivered the consecutive sack and TFL in a one-two punch that sealed it with 37 seconds left.

Clements held the defensive tackles lead with 12 total stops, and a tackle for loss. Jackson had six total and two for loss. Jeremiah Rozier and Lagen Mack also participated in sacks of Dupree, who threw for 237 yards on 17 completions. 

The Falcons followed up one of their best offensive performances of the year, in the prior week’s win over ACE, with one of their most frustrating since August. 

Though quarterbacks Giles (who pitched the first half) and Skyler Snead (taking over for the rest) were a quite impressive 16-of-29 combined, the attack of mostly short completions topped out at a modest 126 yards, and a number of potential drive-sustainers went to the turf after hitting sets of East Laurens hands. 

King ran for all but six of East’s 86 net rushing yards. 

A lot of the Falcons’ confidence in this one originated in the defensive and all-important special teams phases, but that confidence is about as high as it’s been so far in the Jesse Hicks era.

Two-straight wins have East Laurens just outside the top 4 in the region standings – somewhere it probably never envisioned being two weeks before – and on a steady climb in the GHSA’s postseason ratings toward an increasingly likely playoff spot later this season.

“We needed it,” King said of the victory. “Coach Hicks always says we’ve gotta turn the corner. We’re starting to realize it as a team, staff, everybody’s starting to put it together.”