COVINGTON, Ga. — The Eastside Eagles and Jefferson Dragons squared off Thursday night at Sharp Stadium for the Region 8-AAAAA crown. Eastside came out on the losing end 35-0. 

It is the Eagles’ only loss in region play for the 2023 season. 

Head coach Jay Cawthon highlighted what he believes went wrong for his squad. 

“We had some opportunities early. Field position killed us. You can’t give a team like that a short field,” Cawthon said. “Our kids played hard. Really the first drive of the second half we knew that was going to be a big series. It kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit. But we’ll see how we respond.” 

Eastside went into halftime trailing 14-0 with Jefferson receiving the second half kickoff. It did not take long for the Dragons to add seven points to their lead, either. 

With just a few plays and 56 seconds of game time, Jefferson scored to extend its advantage 21-0. 

Five star Sammy Brown rushed through the Eagles’ defense for his second touchdown of the contest. Brown’s first score was from a yard out on Jefferson’s first drive. 

The senior running back converted the hat trick later in the third quarter to put his team ahead 35-0. 

It was a running clock in the final quarter and Jefferson coasted to the region title. 

Despite the outcome, however, Cawthon has full confidence his team can bounce back for next week’s home playoff game. 

“It’s like I told them in [the locker room], ‘We got to let this one hurt for a couple of days, but we got to flush it,’” Cawthon said. “We’re in the tournament now. We’re one of 32. We’re at home. We’ll see how we respond. We responded well after our other two losses this year. We’ll see how we respond. I think we will.” 

Eastside (7-3, 5-1) earned the No. 2 seed for the Class AAAAA playoffs. The Eagles’ first round matchup details have not been announced yet. 

It will be the first time Eastside has hosted a playoff game since the 2020 season when the Eagles defeated Southwest DeKalb 3-0. 

With the regular season finished, Cawthon mentioned how his players have grown over the course of the year. 

"I think we’ve gotten better as the year went along,” Cawthon said. “We’ve handled some adversity. This is another place of adversity that we gotta handle. This is the first loss we’ve had being the home team. There’s 10 seniors in there that don’t want next week to be their last game.’”