High school football: Carver Tigers fall in GHSA Class 4A state championship in Atlanta
Carver’s first football state championship celebration in over a decade will have to wait at least one more year after falling to Benedictine in the 4A state final in Atlanta on Friday, 35-28.
The Tigers had a chance, late in the third, to draw level with Benedictine, the charter school out of Savannah that beat 2020 state champion Marist to reach this year’s title game. Jaiden Credle took a handoff and darted to the right, but was hit and fumbled. The ball rolled into the end zone and the Cadets recovered. One play later, they celebrated in the opposite end zone after Auburn commit Holden Geriner threw his third long touchdown of the afternoon.
Geriner added a fourth touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to seal the win for Benedictine, and tossed a throwback pass on the final drive of the game that allowed the Cadets to run out the clock.
Though the Tigers lost Friday at Center Park Stadium in Atlanta, the trip to the game was their first state championship appearance since UGA Run Game Coordinator Dell McGee roamed the sidelines in 2007. The loss capped the Tigers’ best season since that championship game victory, and nearly put a perfect cap on a remarkable three-year turnaround under current head coach Corey Joyner.
“We’ve been fighting against injuries, fighting against weather, we didn’t practice Monday so I was worried about that —- but it showed the resiliency of this team,” Joyner said. “And the attitude and character of this team when times get hard.”
Friday’s game seemed like, for the longest time, it would be the latest in Carver’s run of tight playoff victories: Their path to Atlanta included home comeback wins over West Laurens and Cedartown.
The Tigers hung around and had multiple chances to take the lead during the contest, but Benedictine’s defense did enough to limit Carver’s offense outside of quarterback D.J. Riles and running back Jaiden Credle.
Riles, a senior and Middle Tennessee State commit, finished with 230 yards passing and two touchdowns. Credle ran for 184 yards and two touchdowns, including a 53-yard run with five minutes left that kept Carver’s comeback hopes alive.
Evenly-matched game goes Cadets’ way
The two teams were as evenly matched on paper as they could get: Neither had lost a game since September, and Carver was undefeated since its season opener.
It showed, by way of an evenly-matched game.
The time-of-possession split was nearly even (Benedictine won that 25:26-22:34), and both teams eclipsed 400 yards of total offense (Carver 467, Benedictine 465). But the game was won by the Cadets on a few distinct plays:
- Geriner’s 58-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Za’Quan Bryan, after the defensive back appeared to slip
- A Jaiden Credle fumble inside the Benedictine 10-yard line, a play during which he was knocked into his own teammate
- A third long touchdown pass by Geriner, 80-yards to Kameron Edge, on the very next play
Carver, though, did not fold, to its credit. Riles hit William Bonilla for a 13-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to six.
And Credle’s late touchdown run gave the Tigers a real shot at a win.
“We could’ve checked out with five minutes left,” Joyner said. “Bam, we bust a run and have an opportunity. But, we give up a big pass, so that kinda hurt. That kinda hurt.”
The Tigers move to Class 3A next year. According to GHSA’s region aligments, they’ll compete in a Region 2-3A along with Columbus, Jordan, Kendrick, Mary Persons, Peach County, Pike County, Spencer and Upson-Lee.
Given the Tigers’ performance in Class 4A since Joyner’s arrival, another trip to Atlanta isn’t out of the equation.
“We’ll get back to work in January, and start back on our next quest in triple-A,” Joyner said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 7:53 PM.
