For a program that just started at the beginning of last season, the Lake Oconee Academy football team has seen tremendous progress in its second year.
The Titans (4-5) most recently defeated the Georgia School for Innovation and Classics Patriots (0-9) by the final score of 43-0. The game didn’t even last a full half as Lake Oconee Academy quickly found itself up 43-0 at the end of the first quarter.
That is when the officiating crew stepped in.
The referees came over to make Titans’ head coach Patrick Stewart aware that the Patriots were willing to forgo the rest of the contest. The unique win marked the second in a row for Stewart’s squad, and he was proud of all the seniors that stepped foot on the field last Friday night.
“I hate it for the seniors that [GSIC] had to forfeit after the first quarter, but every senior skill player was able to score, so they were still fired up about that,” Stewart said. “The kids in general are fired up as we work hard for Piedmont [Academy] in a couple of weeks. I think it would be a great statement win, and that we’re more than capable of winning that game.”
Players such as quarterback Garrett Payne and fellow senior Harrison Tollison were able to show off their athleticism with scores against the Patriots to get the home crowd rocking.
The Titans only led by two touchdowns heading into the last three minutes of the quarter but found a way to find the end zone four more times before the results were final. One of LOA’s scores came off an interception returned for a touchdown, and the other five came off just five plays from scrimmage for the Titans’ offense.
With another bye week coming up, Stewart is counting on the extra rest days and the senior core to make sure the Titans have momentum heading into the team’s last game of the season Nov. 4 against Piedmont Academy.
“Sumner Coleman has really been a great leader for us. He’s not vocal, but he leads by example and the same with Harrison Tollison. He leads with how hard he works,” Stewart said. “You know, it’s not a big vocal group of seniors, but they are all there on time and do the little things right. They always try to push each other by competing, and we’re going to miss all of them.”
Looking ahead, Lake Oconee Academy played Piedmont Academy (1-7) last season and fell to the Cougars, 48-12.
Stewart acknowledged that playing on the road is always a challenge, especially in Monticello.
“Piedmont has always been known as a tough place to play at, so they’ll have a pretty good home-field advantage, so to speak,” Stewart said. “We’ve been trying to throw some of their plays in at practice to try and get a good idea of how they’ll look.”
Ultimately, Stewart feels as though the team has a good game plan to try and finish 5-5 on the season, and admits that they’ll have to pressure the backfield on defense to disrupt the Cougars’ offensive game plan.
“We’ve got to stop their quarterback because he’s a really good athlete, and then they have a couple of skill guys to throw to,” Stewart said. “We’ll have to get pressure on the quarterback to make him get it out of his hand quickly.”