The loss puts the Golden Eagles (5-3, 3-3) into a must-win situation in Friday night's game with Locust Fork, while St. Clair County (5-3, 3-3) drew into a tie with the Eagles and will play Oneonta.
Jacksonville started out looking like the strong team that the Eagle faithful have come to expect. Forcing St. Clair County into a three-and—out on its first series, the Eagles marched 80 yards and scored on a three-yard run by Travis Dunn. The extra point was good and Jacksonville was quickly on the board 7-0.
Just as quickly, St. Clair County marched down the field and scored on a 58-yard run by Sequoyah Humes, who had 153 yards and three touchdowns. He would also score on runs of six and 10 yards in the first half to put St. Clair County up 18-7 at halftime.
Jacksonville had to punt the ball on its first series of the second half and St. Clair County went right to work.
Quarterback Jervontes Goldsby ran 47 yards for a touchdown. Goldsby, who Jacksonville Coach Roland Houston had said before the game was one of the toughest runners to bring down, ran for 119 yards and also completed nine of 14 passes for for 125 yards.
St. Clair County's last TD came on a four-yard pass from Goldsby at the end of the third quarter.
With the score 32-7 Jacksonville got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter on a 55-yard run by quarterback Forrest Pearson. The two-point conversion was good to close out the game at 32-15.
Jacksonville was hampered by injuries and was missing key players. Fullback Stephen Waters, whose hard-nose running and key plays on defense have anchored Jacksonville throughout the season, missed the game with the flu. Offensive lineman Zach Cruse was also out with an injury.
Running back Cordero Little who had 57 yards rushing in the first half, sat out most of the second half and finished with 84 yards. Another running back, Coryell Elston, also sat out most of the second half after breaking loose on a nice 31-yard run.
However, Houston did not make excuses for how his team played.
"We're not going to use an excuse," said Houston. "We started out very good; we drove the ball downfield and scored. They got a big play on us after we scored on a long touchdown run and from that point we didn't react well. We have to handle that situation better.
"They came to play. Their quarterback was perfect. He played as good as I've ever seen him play. He's a great athlete. He didn't throw the ball all that well in the games that we saw but he was on target on everything he threw.
"They had their 'A' game and we had our 'D' game."
Houston feels that his team, despite being down, never gave up.
"The thing I'm proud about our kids is they didn't lay down later in the ball game," he said. "We kept fighting and we got a score later. Our defense played better later in the game but we dug ourselves too big of a hole to get caught up."
Jacksonville must now put this loss behind them and gear up to fight Locust Fork. Despite being 3-5, 1-5, Houston describes his next opponent as being, "very physical. They have good size up front; their backs run real hard and they can throw the ball with accuracy."
Even though there are many playoff scenarios that can be played out in this very tough region on Friday night, Houston says, "Like I've told our kids, there are a lot of things that can happen and you could worry all week about it, but if we don't beat Locust Fork we don't have a chance."
The Eagles will travel to Locust Fork for this must-win regional game.
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