It was fun while it lasted, but Athens's undefeated season came to an end after five games on Friday. They lost to the Muscle Shoals Trojans on the road by a 56-42 margin. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Friday (39), the Golden Eagles still had to take the loss.
Despite the loss, Athens still got an impressive performance from Brogan Gross, who threw for 262 yards and five touchdowns, and also rushed for 70 yards. The dominant performance gave Gross a new career-high in rushing yards. Another player making a difference was Xavier Edwards, who rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries.
He was just one part of a punishing run game: Athens was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 222 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 153 rushing yards in eight consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Having lost for the first time this season, Athens fell to 5-1. As for Muscle Shoals, the win (which was their fifth in a row) raised their record to 5-1.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Athens will face off against Hartselle at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hartselle is coming into the game with three straight victories at home, so Athens will have to stop a squad with plenty of momentum. As for Muscle Shoals, they and Jasper are set to duel on Friday. Muscle Shoals knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 31 points or more in their past five contests -- so hopefully Jasper likes a good challenge.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
