BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Talk about fighting until the end. On the final play of its football season, with its backup quarterback, trailing by 34 points, South Effingham threw a Hail Mary pass and scored a touchdown.
The Mustangs lost to region champion Brunswick 46-19 last Friday night at Glynn County Stadium, and it probably took less than three minutes for South’s playoff aspirations to meet their inevitable realization.
But head coach Loren Purvis saw a season of building after having a 2024 season of freefall.
“It’s tough to end the season like that (against Brunswick), but I’m really proud of what the kids did,” Purvis said. “To put in the work and go into Weeks 9 and 10 with a chance (at a state tournament berth), that’s remarkable.”
South Makes Big Strides
South, winless a year ago, finished 4-6 (4-4 in Region 1-5A) this season, and its four region wins were the most by the school since 2015. The Mustangs beat three Augusta-area schools – Greenbrier, Evans and Lakeside. A year ago, those schools beat SEHS by a combined score of 140-6.
South needed a win and a Greenbrier victory over Glynn Academy to sneak into the playoffs as a No. 4 seed. Glynn won 16-13.
“We beat the teams we should’ve beaten and we could’ve beaten Statesboro (a 27-17 loss) and New Hampstead (a 14-6 loss),” Purvis said. “I like to think we were good enough at times (to be a playoff team).”
Pirates Dominate Early
Brunswick (8-2, 7-1) didn’t need any help controlling its own destiny against the Mustangs. It scored a touchdown on Haze Kent’s 13-yard run four plays into the game. Kent, a four-star athlete (projected as an offensive lineman) who is committed to the University of Florida, then scored on a two-point conversion without being touched.
The Pirates recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff and scored on Nigel Gardner’s run about a minute later. Kent’s two-point conversion trot (again untouched) made it 16-0 with 9:32 left in the first quarter. Brunswick led 38-0 by halftime.
“They jumped on us quickly, almost before we could think ‘what just happened,’” Purvis said.
Mustangs Finish Strong
To the Mustangs’ credit, they continued to play hard despite the score or missing starting quarterback Liam Coburn, who was out with an injury.
Maddox Vasquez scored on a 3-yard run on the final play of the third quarter. Danny Murtha added a second Mustang TD on an 8-yard run with 2:37 left in the game.
And senior Jayden Hair came down with the 37-yard Hail Mary pass from quarterback Kiran Boggess as the scoreboard read 0:00.
Looking Ahead
South will have key senior leaders graduate, but a strong nucleus of returnees led by Coburn, Vasquez, Murtha and linebacker Cole McMurry (the team’s second-leading tackler as a freshman) will be expected to step up.
“We’re still in the process of building a (winning) standard here,” Purvis said. “I think we can get there.”
