ROSWELL, Ga. — Rabun County did what it does best against Fellowship Christian on Thursday.
The Wildcats used a pair of long touchdown passes and then watched the defense hold off a furious fourth quarter rally by the Paladins in a tough 21-16 victory at home.
The Class A Division 1 second-ranked Wildcats (6-0) got a pair of long touchdown passes from Keegan Stover to Jaden Gibson of 73 yards and 50 yards, one in the first quarter and one in the fourth. In between the defense picked off two Fellowship passes, including one in the final two minutes to help preserve the win, and stopped the Paladins on downs once..
The 73-yard strike between Stover and Gibson gave Rabun County a 7-0 lead in the opening three minutes. Fellowship Christian answered back with a 32-yard TD pass from Caleb McMickle to Clay Shepler early in the second quarter to tie the game.
The Wildcats made great work of the two-minute offense to close out the half as Stover scored on a 2-yard run to cap a 10-play, 37-yard drive with just 7 seconds left in the half for a 14-7 lead. The drive was kept alive by a pair of key passes from Stover to Lang Windham.
It stayed that way until the fourth quarter when Fellowship pulled within 14-10 on a 23-yard field goal from Nathan Chapman. Less than three minutes later Rabun County struck with Stover and Gibson connecting on the 50-yard bomb for a 21-10 lead with just under 7 minutes left.
But the Paladins answered quickly needing just 50 seconds, capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass McMickle to Josh Milhollin.
The Wildcats defense then did the rest.
Rabun County finished with just 318 yards of total offense. Gibson, who is chasing the state’s all-time receiving record, had 9 catches for 178 yards and is now just 349 yards from Stan Rome’s record of 4,477 yards.
