Houston County, the four-seed out of Class AAAAA’s Region 2, came into Lakeside and took down a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive week as it handed the Panthers a 63-12 loss Friday night in the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs.
The loss signaled the end of a season shouldn’t be forgotten for Lakeside just because of this one loss that knocked the Panthers out of state championship contention.
Head coach Steve Hibbitts and his staff took a team that finished with a 7-3 record a season ago and turned it into a 10-2 squad that made it to the second round in the second biggest classification in the state.
Tough from the beginning
Friday just wasn’t the Panthers’ night, and the frustrations began to mount early as star quarterback Ty Jones got banged up on the game’s first series and never looked to be at full strength the rest of the night.
It was an expectation, coming into this game, that Houston County’s offense was going to create problems for this Lakeside defense, and with playmakers such as Isaiah Mitchell, a three-star wide receiver prospect, Houston County met and exceeded those expectations.
Mitchell starred with four receiving touchdowns —three of those coming through the air from 4-star quarterback and Memphis commit Antwann Hill Jr.
Houston County will now move on to play the second best team in the nation, Milton, while Lakeside begins processing the season that was.
“We were just trying to play catch up from the start,” said Hibbitts.
A historic Lakeside season
Enough about the game. It needs to be recognized just how outstanding and historic Lakeside’s 2024 campaign was.
The Panthers tied the school’s best record in program history and scored the most points for any offense in school history with 418.
It was fitting to see quarterback Ty Jones get into the end zone one final time in the third quarter, though the score had already gotten far out of reach. Those are always the ones that tug on the heart strings, especially when a player has made the kind of impact on a community that he has.
Parents, fans, players and coaches will look back on this season for a long time and remember the good nights that this team had. Those are the things you remember most when you think back on these years.
Hard to say goodbye
Next up will be recruiting for a lot of these players as Lakeside has sort of emerged as a recruiting hotspot here lately and there’s no doubt that a lot of this talent can play at the next level.
Every time Hibbitts spoke about them this season he always complimented this team and how close his players are to each other and how that played a huge part in this 10-win season.
No wonder, then, why he calls this senior class a special one that will be tough for him to watch walk out the door.
“Several of them have been starting since they were freshman,” Hibbitts said. “So it’s going to be weird not seeing them on the field. They give everything they’ve got. A lot of them play different sports too. What I most enjoyed this year was seeing them come together.”
