By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Jeff Ratliff had accepted the trophy, and talked to his team, while “We are the champions” blared from the speakers at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.

          Usually, the visits to Macon around this time have been mighty pleasant ones, Gatewood winning state championships in 2018, 2019, and 2020, the last two seasons ending in the semifinals on the road.

          But the friendly confines weren’t so friendly, Gatewood suffering from mistakes and turnovers in the biggest game of the year, Edmund Burke coming up with just enough offense for a 16-10 win Friday night in the GIAA Class AA state championship game.

          Gatewood finished 10-3, Edmund Burke 12-1 after its first state championship.

          “We fumbled the ball,” Ratliff said, succinctly and accurately describing his team’s downfall. “Defense played great all night. You got to take care of the ball.

          “We got down there, several chances to score in the first half, second half.”

          Edmund Burke head coach Andy Woodward has many Central Georgia ties, having coached at Trinity Christian, Tattnall, and Mount de Sales.

          This was his best trip back to Macon.

          “Our school had never won a state championship before,” the second-year head coach said. “All the credit to the coaches and our kids for making all the plays in the game.

          “I’ve got a bunch of kids who have been playing football for Edmund Burke since they were 9 years old. So the fact that they could see through to the journey and the end of that was unbelievable.”

          Gatewood tied the game at 10 late in the third quarter on Ames Johnson’s 1-yard run. It was tied at 10 when Gatewood’s offense got stuck deep and punted, giving Edmund Burke sweet field position at the Gators’ 33.

          A questionable targeting call added 15 yards to a short gain, and quarterback Grant Moble went in from 14 yards out with 9:25 left. The PAT hit the left upright and missed.

          The Gators converted a fourth and 3 on their next possession, and picked up 33 on a nice pass from Johnson to Blake Callaway.

          But the drive stalled, and Johnson was rushed hard and then picked off on fourth down at the 5.

Edmund Burke ran almost two minutes off the clock, and Gatewood couldn’t come up with the big play to get close enough to tie.

          Edmund Burke won 20-14 in the regular-season meeting.

          “We stopped the run better,” Ratliff said. “The first game, we had trouble with the run.”

          Gatewood held Edmund Burke to two of its three lowest-scoring games of the season, the Spartans topping Piedmont 15-0 and Robert Toombs 14-7 in the only other games in which they scored less than 22.

          “The bottom line is you can’t turn the ball over,” Ratliff said. “And you’ve gotta score when you get in the red zone. We didn’t do either. Our defense played great tonight. They played well enough to win.”