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South Effingham Falls to Bradwell 62-28, Heads to State Playoffs
South Effingham football
South Effingham’s Danny Murtha scores a touchdown against Bradwell Institute on Friday night in Hinesville. Despite the 62-28 loss, the Mustangs (7-3) are headed to the state playoffs for the first time since 2019 and will travel to Athens to face No. 9 Clarke Central in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs. (Pat Donahue / Effingham Herald)

HINESVILLE, Ga. — The worst-case scenario for South Effingham against Bradwell Institute came to fruition Friday night.

The Mustangs made mistakes and were forced to play catch-up — not the game plan against a team with track speedsters across its lineup.

“They took advantage and they beat us. There’s not a lot to say,” said SEHS coach Loren Purvis about Bradwell’s 62-28 victory in the regular-season finale.

The Mustangs (7-3, 4-3 Region 1-6A) weren’t penalized too badly in the postseason rankings, dropping two spots to No. 24, and learned Saturday they will travel to Athens for a first-round Class 6A state playoff game against No. 9 Clarke Central.

South will be making its first state playoff appearance since 2019. The Mustangs will be looking for their first state playoff win since 2012.

The excitement of the playoffs should lessen the pain of Friday’s Tiger bite.

“We’ve done a lot of incredible things this season no matter what happened against Bradwell and I think the kids understand that,” Purvis said.

Mistakes fuel Bradwell's big night

South had some good moments in Hinesville. The Mustangs recorded one of their better offensive games with 392 total yards, including 210 rushing yards on 35 carries by running back Khyran White.

White finished with two touchdown runs of 5 and 1 yards and scored a two-point conversion. Danny Murtha scored on a 5-yard run and added a two-point conversion, and Cade Womack scored on a 9-yard run just before halftime.

But two South interceptions and a fumble — all in the third quarter — fueled a 34-point Tigers run in just 8:35, turning a 28-20 halftime deficit into a 62-20 nightmare.

“It was uncharacteristic to have a game like that. Usually, we’ve been in the plus with takeaways,” Purvis said.

A costly second-quarter turnover

A game-changing moment came in the second quarter. White broke through the line and was racing toward a potential 67-yard game-tying touchdown.

But inside the 5-yard line, White had the ball punched out of his arm. The ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback, giving Bradwell possession with its 21-14 advantage intact.

The Tigers scored later in the quarter on Jah’barri Felix’s 26-yard scramble to make it 28-14.

South cut the lead to 28-20 with a touchdown 43.3 seconds before halftime.

But the Mustangs, who beat Bradwell 26-21 last season, couldn’t slow down the Tigers in the third quarter. Cameron Keeve had touchdown runs of 27 and 44 yards to make it 42-20 less than three minutes into the second half.

Felix finished with four touchdown passes and ran for a score. Keeve had three touchdown runs and caught a scoring pass.

Turning the page to the playoffs

“The game got out of hand quickly. As we go forward, we can’t let that happen,” Purvis said. “We had a bad game, but we don’t want this (memory) to go on to Monday. Now we’re preparing for the playoffs.”