FLOWERY BRANCH — It doesn’t seem that long ago -- just one month in fact -- that people were ready to shovel dirt on the Flowery Branch season. The Falcons were 1-2 and coming off back-to-back shutout losses to open Region 8-AAAAA.
To make matters worse, the Falcons lost their top two quarterbacks as well. Bleak may not have covered it.
Even Falcons coach Chris Griffin admitted he was a little worried.
“We had lost our No. 1 guy (Nick Lance) and then our No. 2 guy (Jasen Johnson) and we had some other things going on. It’s not the way you want to start region play,” he said. “You’re always concerned when you lose your top two guys at any position, but especially so when it’s at quarterback.”
Despite the worry, Griffin and his staff never let the panic set in. Four weeks later, their calming influence, and a renewed accountability by the seniors, has the Falcons right back in the thick of the region race.
Flowery Branch has reeled off three wins in their last four games to sit at 4-3 overall, 3-3 in region play to put them just 1/2-game behind Winder-Barrow and Salem for fourth place. They are just 1 1/2 games behind third-place Gainesville, which they meet in the season finale at City Park.
The offense, which went 10 quarters without scoring and tallied just 34 total points in the first three games, picked up the pace. Behind third-string quarterback junior Kory Graham, the Falcons have averaged 28.7 ppg over their last four games. Senior wide receiver Cortez Davis and senior running back Trey Wilcoxson have helped take some of the pressure off Graham.
Graham is 42-of-85 for 516 yards passing with six touchdowns and six interceptions. Wilcoxson leads the team in rushing with 736 yards while Davis has 147 yards rushing with two touchdowns and leads the team in receiving with 338 yards and four touchdowns.
The defense has also done its part, allowing just 18 ppg over the past month. The defense recorded two scores -- a touchdown on a fumble recovery and a safety -- in last week’s 28-21 win over Clarke Central.
“The defense has really stepped up and allowed us to get things going offensively,” Griffin said. “We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel on offense. We have just tried to put Kory in situations where he can be successful. We’ve done a better job of that lately.
“But, Kory also has improved tremendously from that first game he got in and the offensive line has played extremely well all season. Cortez has been a big playmaker for us, and Trey has been consistent all year. The seniors really stood up and took on the leadership and accountability for the season.”
The key now will be to keep the momentum going. The Falcons missed out on the playoffs last year for the first time in a decade. They already are ahead of last year’s pace with wins over Heritage, Conyers and Clarke Central, teams they lost to in 2014.
The Falcons will play host to winless Apalachee (0-6, 0-5) on Friday, and, on paper, it looks like a huge mismatch. The Wildcats have scored just 12 points all season and have yielded the most points (231 total, 38.5 ppg) in 8-AAAAA. Griffin said this is no time to relax, however.
The Branch then has a bye week before closing out the regular season with Salem and Gainesville, both of whom are directly ahead of the Falcons in the 8-AAAAA standings.
“We’re taking Apalachee very seriously,” Griffin said. “We don’t talk about the playoffs but we know we can’t afford a letdown. Those last two games won’t mean much if we don’t take care of business this week.”
Griffin said the bye week comes at a much more opportune time for this Falcons than in year’s past. They took their bye week in 2014 in the second week of the season. They wanted something a little more advantageous in 2015.
“It came so early last year that it really didn’t help us. We wanted to have our bye week later in the season to help us get ready for a playoff push and Loganville agreed to move their game up,” Griffin said. “Even though we lost to (Loganville), it’s working out much better for us this year.”
Griffin said they are looking for a strong finish and feel the progress of this group gives him plenty of reason for optimism.
“It’s a tough finish, but we feel we’ve improved so much from those first few games that we’re really not the same team,” Griffin said. “The mindset on this team is so much more positive than last year. It’s been very business-like.
“They feel they can beat Salem and Gainesville. But for us to do that we will have to do all the little things better that we weren’t doing at the beginning of the season.”
