The upcoming week is an opportune time for the Savannah Christian football team to catch a break.
After starting the season 3-0, the Raiders have allowed 93 points in dropping their last two games, including a 52-21 defeat to Fellowship Christian of Roswell on Friday night at Pooler Stadium.
The Raiders are physically bruised, if not a bit emotionally, as they have been hit hard by injuries. They were without four starters for Friday’s game, including season-ending injuries to junior receivers William Bucey and Cain Tomlin. Among those injured during the game was standout sophomore offensive lineman RJ Brown, who has been battling an ankle issue.
Savannah Christian was already starting some players on both offense and defense and relying more on second-team and junior varsity players.
“We just didn’t play our best, obviously, and (the Fellowship Christian Paladins) are really good, and they’re healthy and we’re not,” Savannah Christian head coach Baker Woodward said in a postgame interview. “We’ve just got to get better and figure out what’s going to work. We knew what was going to work, but those players aren’t here right now. We’re banged up. We’re just going to go back to the drawing board. We lost to a team that, in my opinion, is probably going to be one of the state champs. It could be them, it could be Hebron (Christian), it could be us still. We’ve got to get back to work.”
In his on-field talk with the team after the final whistle, Woodward reminded the players that they don’t have a game this coming week. They have some time to get over the fresh disappointment of Friday’s setback.
“Let it hurt. Let it hurt. Let it hurt,” the coach said to them. “I’m proud of you. I’ll be more proud when you come ready to work on Monday.”
The game pitted two squads near the top of Georgia High School Football Daily’s composite rankings of six state polls for Class A-3A Private, with Fellowship Christian (now 3-1) at No. 3 and SCPS (now 3-2) at No. 5.
The Raiders couldn’t have started better, scoring on the third play from scrimmage when senior quarterback Blaise Thomas rolled to his right and found junior receiver Cam Yeldell behind the defense for a 61-yard touchdown pass.
After Karson Leake’s extra point, what came next, of course, was the kickoff. And that would be a major part of the Raiders’ undoing.
Kolton Driskell returned the kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown with 10:01 remaining in the first quarter to tie SCPS, which would not lead for the rest of the game.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Paladins scored on first down, as star running back CJ Givers refused to be tackled and found a lane on the left sideline for a 63-yard touchdown run with 7:55 left in the first quarter.
Givers, who verbally committed to Duke in June, is a three-star prospect rated the nation’s 507th player, No. 32 running back, and No. 56 player at any position in the state of Georgia in the 247Sports Composite rankings for the Class of 2026.
Listed at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, Givers finished the game with 155 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries.
The Paladins have another standout in senior quarterback Jonathan Granby, who has several Division I offers, including from Georgia Southern. He drove them from their 22 to the SCPS 7 with the help of a pass interference penalty on a long incompletion. The Raiders’ defense bowed up, and the Paladins settled for a 24-yard field goal and 17-7 lead on the second play of the second quarter.
Savannah Christian responded with a 73-yard scoring drive culminating in Thomas’ 5-yard run to the end zone.
Again, the problem was the ensuing kickoff, which the Paladins returned to the SCPS 8. Givers carried for 6 yards on first down, and Granby went the remaining 2 yards for a score and a 24-14 advantage with 7:31 left before halftime.
Givers and Granby are two of the most prolific offensive players in Paladins history in terms of touchdowns and yardage, and they added to their career totals with big games on Friday.
Granby was a modest 6-of-8 passing for 79 yards, but he threw for two TDs, including a 46-yard catch-and-run to Simon Cofrancesco with 12 seconds left in the half after the Paladins had stopped the Raiders on downs 30 seconds earlier.
The rather-sudden 31-14 halftime lead became 38-14 after Fellowship Christian returned the second-half kickoff to the SCPS 42 and took advantage of the short field with Granby’s 9-yard toss to wide-open tight end Mack Town.
“We needed to play our best tonight, and special teams hurt us,” Woodward said in the postgame interview, noting that more inexperienced players are on special teams because of injuries. “We’re just not good on special teams right now. We have a really good kicker (Leake).
“We had covered kicks OK until today,” he added. “We’ve just got to get better. No excuses.”
Givers added a 39-yard TD run in the third quarter and a 4-yard score in the fourth quarter, which used a running clock with the deficit at least 30 points. The Paladins never punted.
Thomas, who was often pressured when passing and found the going tough when running, got more than half of his yards through the air on that first connection with Yeldell. Thomas finished 6 of 14 for 108 yards.
Landon Tyson’s 10-yard TD run for SCPS with about three minutes on the clock accounted for the final score.
Woodward told his team afterward that, “We’ve got another season to play” with all four Region 3-A Division I games ahead after the last non-region contest against Blessed Trinity on Sept. 26.
The Raiders entered 2025 on a roll, having advanced to the GHSA Class 3A state championship game in 2023, followed by an undefeated 2024 season (including a win at Fellowship Christian). They then lost in the second round of the playoffs, finishing 10-1 and 4-0 in the region.
“We’re far away from being able to win region right now,” Woodward said in the postgame interview. “We’ve got to get better. You don’t get to spend as much time with the second-team and third-team guys because you’re working with the first team a lot. But no excuses. We’ve got to coach better. It’s on me, it’s on our coaches. We’ve just got to get better; there’s no way around it.”
| FELLOWSHIP CHRISTIAN 52, SAVANNAH CHRISTIAN 21 | |||||
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
| FC | 14 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 52 |
| SC | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 21 |
| First Quarter | |||||
| SC – Cam Yeldell 61 pass from Blaise Thomas (Karson Leake kick) | |||||
| FC – Kolton Driskell 84 kickoff return (Andrew Collins kick) | |||||
| FC – CJ Givers 63 run (Colt Turner kick) | |||||
| Second Quarter | |||||
| FC – Collins 24 FG | |||||
| SC – Thomas 5 run (Leake kick) | |||||
| FC – Jonathan Granby 2 run (Turner kick) | |||||
| FC – Simon Cofrancesco 46 pass from Granby (Collins kick) | |||||
| Third Quarter | |||||
| FC – Mack Town 9 pass from Granby (Turner kick) | |||||
| FC – Givers 39 run (Collins kick) | |||||
| Fourth Quarter | |||||
| FC – Givers 4 run (Turner kick) | |||||
| SC – Landon Tyson 10 run (Leake kick) | |||||
| Records—Fellowship Christian 3-1; Savannah Christian 3-2. | |||||
WEEK 5 - FINAL SCORES
Thursday, Sept. 11
Jenkins 63, Beach 14
Pierce County 39, New Hampstead 14
Friday, Sept. 12
Bethesda 47, Hilton Head Prep 0
Bryan County 42, Portal 35
Calvary Day 49, Windsor Forest 0
Islands 31, Groves 18
Effingham County 43, Bradwell 35
Fellowship Christian 52, Savannah Christian 21
Liberty County 40, Long County 34
Metter 38, Savannah High 6
Richmond Hill 41, Wayne County 9
Southeast Bulloch 47, Johnson 13
South Effingham 20, Lakeside-Evans 14
St. Andrew's 24, Augusta Prep 22
Photo: Courtesy proshot_media_
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