'Focused' Elephants stomp Falcons

GAINESVILLE - Don Whitley scored two first quarter touchdowns to lead Class AAA No. 1 Gainesville to an easy 58-10 win over Flowery Branch Friday night in both teams' season finale.

The Red Elephants (10-0) completed their second straight unbeaten regular season. They will play host to Villa Rica next week in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs.

Gainesville coach Bruce Miller said it's quite an accomplishment.

"I thought our team came out very focused. The seniors wanted to go out being undefeated this year and we got some big plays early," Miller said.

Flowery Branch (4-6) could not get its power option running attack going against a stingy Gainesville defense.

And to make matters worse, the Falcons offense fell apart in the third quarter turning the ball over on four consecutive plays. The Elephants capitalized getting touchdowns off the turnovers to put the game away.

Flowery Branch's only score came on a 1-yard run by Aaron Shaw following a Gainesville fumble late in the game.

Whitley scored on runs of 39 and 25 and Joseph Maheffey scored three times as the Elephants piled up more than 300 yards rushing for the game.