ATLANTA — The Jenkins flag football team made school history as the first girls team to reach a state championship final in any sport and the Warriors earned the chance to play under the bright lights of Mercedes-Benz Stadium where they faced off with two-time defending state champion Greenbrier on Monday.
The Warriors rose to the occasion and showed off the athleticism and big-play ability that led them to the Benz, but Greenbrier shut down Jenkins in the second half, when the Wolfpack scored two unanswered touchdowns to pull off a 20-13 victory and win its third straight state crown.
Jenkins coach Brianna Brooker, who also coaches the Warrior basketball team that features most of the flag football standouts, was emotional after the loss and let her girls know how much they mean to her in an impassioned talk in the locker room after the setback. Last year, the Jenkins basketball team lost in the state semifinals to eventual champion Cherokee Bluff on a buzzer beater.
"This is not the way we wanted it to end," said Brooker, a Jenkins alum who was a standout basketball player in her prep days. "But I want you to be proud — you've done something no other girls team in our school's history has done. Last year we went to the state semifinals, and this year we got over the hump to reach the championship game. Next year, our goal is to come back here and win it."
Greenbrier struck first when sophomore quarterback Addisen Odom connected with Mamie Cate Pangle on a 22-yard scoring strike.
But Jenkins responded. Quarterback I'Yarna "YaYa" Lee closed out an impressive drive with a 1-yard pass that Angelique Fleming took in for a score on a well designed play, but the Warriors missed on a pass for the conversion and trailed 7-6 with 8:36 left in the half.
At the end of the first half, Odom tried to air out a deep ball that was picked off by Iycess Scott, who was downed at the Warrior 7-yard line with 13 seconds left in the half.
It seemed like the half would end there, by Lee dropped back and launched a deep ball that senior star A'Niyah Browner raced under to catch in stride en route to a 73-yard touchdown as Jenkins took a 13-7 lead into intermission.
But Greenbrier never panicked and the Wolfpak kept plugging away. Odom hit Aaliyah Silver with a long pass to set up a short touchdown run by Carrington Meyers as Greenbrier tied the game at 13 with 5:58 left in the third. Then Odom found Abby Lester from 18 yards out for the go-ahead score with five minutes left.
"We gave up two really big plays in the second half that cost us," Brooker said. "I think taking the lead into the second half, it kind of took us off our game in a way — it was like we almost didn't stay in attack mode. We knew who their go-to people were, but it just seemed like we didn't have enough oomph in the second half."
Odom was 10 of 15 passing for 171 yards and the two touchdowns ad Silver caught four passes for 82 yards to lead Greenbrier.
Lee was 12 of 19 passing for 175 yards and the two scores, and ran for a team-high 38 yards. Browner had three catches for 124 yards.
"I felt like we came out and fought until the end, but they wanted it more than we did today," said Browner, who recently received flag football scholarship offers from Emmanuel University and Milligan University. Browner is also a star guard on the basketball team, which is currently ranked No. 5 among Class 3A teams in the state by Sandyyspiel.com. She said she thinks this loss might help the basketball team as it prepares for another postseason run.
"This was a great experience, it was new to us to play in a championship game," Browner said. "Today showed us that we have to play until the end, you can't stop when you have the lead. They kept playing hard and scored twice in the second half to beat us."
Lee is a junior and will be back behind center at quarterback next year, and she is also a standout basketball guard.
"I think we'll learn from the mistakes we made today," Lee said. "But I'm proud of the season we had and thank God for the opportunity we got to play at Mercedes-Benz. I think this loss is going to motivate us in basketball and in flag football next year."
There's not much time to worry about the loss, as the basketball team will be in action Tuesday night at Liberty County. Brooker said the toughest part of the loss was that it was the final game for seven seniors, who have meant so much to the Warrior program.
"I take coaching this team serious and losing this game hurts," Brooker told the team in the locker room. "But I'm grateful to all of you and I want you to know you'll always have me in your corner, no matter what you do in your life. I know we fell short today, but that doesn't take away from this moment. I love you all for real."
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Greenbrier edges Jenkins to win third straight flag football state title
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