Missed opportunities on a wet field ended the French Camp season with a 15-0 loss to homestanding Stringer in the opening round of the 1A playoffs.
“It wasn’t raining, but it had rained, so the field was pretty wet,” said coach Nathan Wright. “That was probably more to their advantage than to ours.
“They like to pound the ball. They run it a lot. We like to go half and half and it really injured our passing game. We had some open guys. I think if we had a dry ball, we would have been all right.”
French Camp was in the red zone three times, but came away empty each time, losing a fumble and turning the ball over on downs twice.
“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Wright said. “We’d hold or we’d jump offsides or do something to create long downs for us.”
The Panthers trailed 6-0 at the half, then lost three fumbles in the third quarter when Stringer added a field goal and a touchdown. “That was really the difference in the game.”
French Camp managed only 122 yards of offense, nearly all of it by quarterback Holman Edwards. He carried 15 times for 69 yards and completed eight passes for 53 yards. Calvin Johnson had four receptions and Bradley Edwards three.
“Holman was really beat up, but he played with a lot of effort and a lot of determination. I wish he had had dry hands to throw it,” Wright said.
Stringer had 224 yards, 190 on the ground. Anthony Thomas carried 23 times for 90 yards and R.J. Holifield four times for 72 yards, including a 58-yard run to set up the Red Devils’ second touchdown. Cooper Rogers and Devin May scored the TDs on short runs and Hunter Burkeen booted a 29-yard field goal.
Wright praised his team in defeat. “The team effort was our best all year. If you can feel good about a loss, that’s one I can feel good about in terms of aggressiveness and not backing down.”
He said everybody played well on defense, especially linebackers Bradley Edwards, Stephone Thompson and Zach Gilmer. Gilmer had eighth tackles, Edwards even and Thompson six.
Clayton Leathers led the team in tackles for the season with 89, one more than Edwards. Thompson had 73 tackles, including a team high 17 for losses.
French Camp finishes 7-5 and 6-2 for third place in Region 3-1A.
“I think this team achieved about everything they could have,” Wright said. “We got everything we could have out of our players in terms of effort. I could not have asked for anything more. I’m really appreciative of these guys.”
For his senior season, Edwards passed for 1,111 yards and 12 touchdowns and ran for 778 yards and 15 TDs. Johnson, a sophomore, was the leading receiver with 36 for 383 yards and three TDs.
Stringer (11-2) has a road game Friday at Nanih Waiya in the second round of the playoffs.
