HOSCHTON, Ga. — There’s nothing like football on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for Jackson County, they will now not get to watch the Georgia-Georgia Tech showdown next week.
That’s because the Panthers held off Milton, 24-19, on Friday at Panther Stadium to advance to the program’s first-ever Class 5A Elite 8 next week.
The loss for the two-time defending champion Eagles (8-4) snapped an 11-game postseason win streak going back to a 48-14 loss to Mill Creek in the 2022 Class 7A semifinals. It was their quickest playoff exit since 2017.
But it was more than just a win for Jackson County (11-1). It was a statement for a program that until last week had never won a playoff game in its 45-year history. Though it was hard to tell with the matter-of-fact attitudes afterwards.
“It’s a pretty big deal. We’re making history this year,” said senior running back Daylan Maxwell, who pounded out 183 yards on the ground. “We’re just not going to make it bigger than this. The job’s not done yet.”
Junior defensive back Kaleb Culver, who had an interception and a huge pass breakup on a crucial 4th down in the fourth quarter, said they came in thinking they could win.
“We didn’t expect to come into this game and pack it up. We expected to win,” Culver said, “and we expect to keep winning. We got just as good a shot as anyone else.”
He’s not wrong. The Panthers are one of just eight teams left in the Class 5A field. They will play host to Rome, which beat Houston County 38-28, next week at Panther Stadium, where they are 7-0 this season.
Jackson County coach Korey Mobbs, who has said all season this was a special group assembled for this moment, said he is definitely looking forward to his Thanksgiving meal next week.
“It’s a big deal because we get to spend Thanksgiving together. Not a lot of people get to do that during the football season,” he said.
As expected, the two defenses controlled the first half. Though, both offenses had chances and missed opportunities.
The Panthers opened the game with a quick down to inside the Eagles’ 25. But a no-call on a possible pass interference on Milton on fourth down gave the ball back to the Eagles.
Milton took advantage of the momentum, taking their first drive 75 yards, with Sheldon Atchison capping the drive midway through the quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead.
The Eagles then picked off a RJ Knapp pass at the Panthers 39 and looked poised to take early control. The Panthers, however, with help from two Milton penalties, forced a punt.
The Jackson County offense then unleashed Maxwell, who had two big runs to get them down to the Milton 7. But the drive stalled and Chris Burrows booted a 24-yard field goal to get the Panthers within 7-3 with 10:37 left in the half.
Milton answered that by driving inside the Panthers 10 again. But two stops forced the Eagles to try a 21-yard field goal, which was wide left.
The Panthers took that momentum and ran with it. They took their first lead, driving 80 yards, with Knapp connecting with Kaleb Clark on a 7-yard TD pass for a 10-7 lead with 21 seconds left in the half.
After forcing a Milton punt to open the third quarter, Maxwell delivered the biggest blow of the game, twisting, turning, and then breaking out of the pack to race 43 yards for a touchdown to push their lead to 17-7 midway through the period.
The Panthers defense, led by tenacious play from senior lineman Slade Swierczek, then had its best stretch of the game, stopping the Eagles on a 4th down run on a fake punt, forcing another punt, Culver then picked off an errant Ben Halevi pass, and then Culver got his pass breakup on the next possession.
The last one gave them the ball deep in Milton territory on downs, and Maxwell capped the short drive with a powering 3-yard scoring run for what looked like the nail-in-the-coffin lead at 24-7 with just 2:21 left in the game.
“The DBs played their best game of the season tonight,” Mobbs said. “And Daylan is the most even-keeled guy that there is. But he truly believes he’s the best player on the field.
“He proved that tonight. That last touchdown was a pure weight-room run and it turned out to be huge.”
That’s because the Eagles finally were able to make some traction against the Panthers defense. Halevi capped a quick drive in just under a minute with a 4-yard TD pass to Grant Haviland to cut the lead to 24-13 after a failed 2-point run.
Then, Milton recovered the onside kick and Halevi connected with Ayden Williams on a 5-yard TD pass to make it 24-19 with 43 seconds left.
But Jackson County recovered the next onside kick and ran out the clock on Milton’s 3-year playoff run and kept their modest two-game playoff streak going.
Mobbs said they’ll worry about the histrionics later.
“We’re not worried about that. We’re worried about practicing another week,” he said. “This is a special group of kids, and we have fun doing what we do. But nobody said it couldn’t be fun.
“You know, we’ll have time to reflect (on all this). But we don’t want to reflect right now. We want to keep our foot on the gas.”
NOTES: The 11 wins for the Panthers sets a new program record that they set last week. … Milton outgained Jackson County 318-313 but nearly one-third of that came on the final two drives after the Panthers built the big lead. … The Eagles big bruising running back, Bentlly Hickman, had 117 yards but was held out of the end zone and three times was stuffed in short-yardage by the Panthers front-7 with a chance to prolong drives. … Halevi finished just 14-for-31 for 179 yards. … Panthers QB RJ Knapp was a modest 9-for-13 for just 99 yards. But he was 3-for-4 on the first drive of the second half to help open up space for Maxwell. … Silas McDaniel had 5 catches for 42 yards for the Panthers. … Swierczek had a half-dozen tackles from his noseguard spot, several times throwing Bently for a loss on crucial downs.
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