By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com 

                  The huddle went on for several minutes, the words of the no-longer-the-head-coach occasionally drowned out by a sob or collection of sniffles.

          It was hard for Upson-Lee to break that huddle and emerge feeling what was unexpected:

          The heartbreak of the Knights’ first loss of the season coming in the final game of the season.

          Upson-Lee couldn’t find its normal offense, and Oconee County made a fairly early goal stand for a 1-0 win Saturday night over the Knights in the GHSA Class 4A state championship at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

          Ironically, the last time Upson-Lee was shut out was in a season finale, last year in a 2-0 loss to Chestatee in a semifinal.

          This one hurt so much worse, for obvious reasons.

          It was the final game for head coach Matt Bentley, who is leaving the team to become the high school’s assistant principal.

          It was the final game for Chase Winters, owner of a hefty resumes and honors galore on the regional and state level, now headed to Georgia Southern.

          And it was the final game for a 16 seniors, a group that kept Bentley from taking an administrative job for the past few years.

          “Absolutely,” Bentley said of breaking up for the final time and without the expected conclusion. “I told every one of them I love them. I felt like they’re all my sons. That’s the way I’ve treated them every year I had ‘em.”

          The Knights finished 19-1-1, the Warriors 16-4.

          “It was a special season,” said Bentley after his 15th season as U-L’s head coach and 19th on the staff. “We’re the second best team in the state, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m so proud of ‘em, I can’t hardly stand it.”

          That finish for 16 seniors will be on Bentley’s mind for awhile.

          “Absolutely,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll hit me when I get home that it’s over. But right now, I just feel for the boys and the tears that they shed, and I just want to be there for them.”

          The lone score came nearly 14 minutes in, the first such event against Upson-Lee since April 5 when Perry became the second straight 5-1 victim.

          The Warriors’ defense got to know Winters well, zeroing in on him with regularity once the ball got within 30 yards of goal. That clamping down was a little harder late when the Knights had several possession in scoring range, one of Winters’ late shots going a little high and bouncing off the football goalpost crossbar.

          Upson-Lee’s attack was hampered by the absences of Jordan Massey and Bryson Teal, defenders sitting out two games for red cards handed them in the quarterfinal win over Blessed Trinity. That led to some position moves that had an impact on offense.

          “We were fine in the back,” Bentley said. “Just having to move (forward) Rhett Baucom to the back and not being able to attack and put him into the attack really hurt. His left foot and his tactical knowledge of the game, it really helps us. That hurt tonight.”

          And it affected depth on a warm night.

          “Just short-handed, playing guys with guys coming off the bench in a starting role,” Bentley said. “It really hurt not having those two starters. … We were tired. They were beating us us to a lot of balls that maybe if we had a little fresher legs we could have gotten to.”

          There was a late very-near-miss, right after a disagreement between Upson-Lee’s Drae McDuffie and Oconee County’s Dylan Kapczynski,  when they tangled up and hit the turf, Kapczynski bouncing off the chest of McDuffie, who gave a  shove to Kapczynski’s chest while getting up.

          A free kick followed from about the 35-yardline and just out of bounds.

          Berklei Rakestraw’s boot was on target only for Oconee County goalkeeper Hunter Andrews to extend and tip it over the top of the net, with less than two minutes left.

          Seconds ticked away with no action, and the Warriors got the ball down to the other end of the field. As the clock wound down, clearly Upson-Lee wasn’t going to get a chance at a game-tying goal in the final seconds, after missing a few moderate opportunities a few minutes earlier.

          Sweat mingled with tears as the Knights trudged to back to the bench while the Warriors sprinted to the other side to celebrate with their fans after the program’s first state title.

          Players hugged, or stood stunned watching the celebrate across the way. There was no yelling, no throwing of equipment, just the quiet pain of reality, that this dream season ended in nightmare fashion.

          “They were exactly what I expected,” Bentley said of Oconee County. “A good, solid team.”

          But …

          “I’d really like to run it back,” he said. “I really would, with a full squad. But hey, that’s the way life is. My guys who were out there, they fought with everything they had.”