The Dragons got out to a slow start and couldn’t generate much offensively in a 20-7 State Championship game loss at the Mercedes Benz on Wednesday evening against Calhoun.
Not much went well for Jefferson (11-4) in the early minutes. Calhoun took its opening drive in for a score on a Hudson Chadwick TD run. After a quick 3-and-out, the Yellow Jackets (12-3) got a 21-yd TD on a QB keeper from Trace Hawkins for the 14-0 lead with 5:11 to go.
The Dragons fumbled after a big pass and catch in the red zone but held Calhoun to a punt. In desperate need of points, Gavin Markey delivered with a 3-yd TD on the first play of the second. Neither team had much going offensively the rest of the half until Carlos Lopez was good on a 39-yd FG as time expired, putting the Jackets up 17-7 at the break.
It was slow going again for much of the third, though Lopez knocked in a long 48-yd FG with 2:15 left for the 20-7 lead, which was firmly in place as the game reached the final period.
A seemingly promising drive was ended abruptly on a Hunter White interception of Markey just outside the red zone. On the next Dragons drive, on the first play, Jake Jordan picked off Markey on a deep ball with under 7 minutes to go. With one last shot, Markey orchestrated one last drive. A pass to the end zone was ricocheted into Jordan’s hands. Calhoun took a knee to finish off the game. Jefferson finished as State Runner-Up for the second time since 2020.
