The Saint Stephen’s Falcons Varsity football team took a short drive up I-275 on Friday night to challenge the Shorecrest Preparatory School Chargers but came up short in the last few minutes of the game.
The Chargers led all night long, but the Falcons were never very far behind.
The first points of the game came from a safety in the Falcons end zone, making the score 2-0 Chargers by the end of the first quarter.
On Shorecrest’s next drive, senior Sam Lynch intercepted the ball, but the Falcon offense was unable to capitalize and were stopped on fourth down.
Shorecrest scored the game’s first touchdown with 13.7 seconds remaining in the first half, making the score 9-0 Chargers at halftime.
After a lengthy rain delay, both teams laced up the cleats yet again for a wild second half.
Shorecrest got on the board first in the second half, and after the Falcons blocked the extra point, the score was 15-0 Chargers. However, the Falcons never lost hope, and came storming back on the next drive, culminating in a touchdown catch by senior Camron Tally from freshman quarterback Bobby Harrison. The Falcons failed the two-point conversion, making the score 15-6 midway through the fourth quarter.
The Chargers answered quickly with an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the drive, making the score 22-6 after the extra point was kicked.
The Falcons were able to respond with a lengthy touchdown of their own. Tally tallied his second score of the game, this time a 59 yard catch and run to make the score 22-14 Falcons after senior Tim Nutter caught the screen pass and ran it in for the two-point conversion.
The Falcons resiliency turned out to be not enough in the end, for Shorecrest scored another touchdown on the next drive, thus icing the game in a 29-14 win for Shorecrest.
Head Coach Tod Creneti said in his post-game speech that the Falcons “played with a lot of heart” but need to eliminate mistakes in order to pull out the “W” in close games in the future.
The Falcons play Moore Haven High School on Friday at 4 p.m. for their annual Homecoming game at Turner field.