Bryan County got the help it needed to get a berth in the Class A-DII state playoffs. The only problem was: the Redskins did not help themselves.

In a stunning turnabout, Bryan County turned in its worst overall performance of the season Friday night against a Metter team playing only for pride. And that pride won out as the Tigers posted a 35-0 win that brought the Redskins’ season to a screeching halt.

Coach Cherard Freeman’s team, a 35-14 winner over Jenkins County in its last outing and apparently peaking, went into the contest knowing that some dominoes would need to fall into place. A win over Metter coupled with a Portal upset of McIntosh County Academy would put the Redskins in the playoffs.

Portal held up its end of the bargain when it beat the Buccaneers, 27-24, but Bryan County, appearing to be wound up tighter than a $2 watch, played nowhere up to its potential. The result was an ugly loss reminiscent of some of those which took place before Freeman showed up six years ago.

Metter (5-5, 4-4), ranked in the top 10 at mid-season and in contention for a region championship before things went sideways, entered the game riding a three-game losing streak and having lost four of its last five.

The Tigers, however, dominated the line of scrimmage and turned a pair of freshman quarterbacks loose on the Redskins while getting a sterling performance from senior running back Mike Ricks who had been the team’s starting quarterback since his freshman season.

Bryan County, McIntosh and Metter all finished with identical records---5-5 overall and 4-4 in Region 3A-DII play—but the Bucs earned the No. 4 seed on tie-breakers having beaten both Bryan County and Metter.

Screven County (10-0, 8-0) won the region championship with a 21-20 win over Emanuel County Institute (7-3, 7-1) Friday night. Jenkins County (6-4, 5-3) grabbed the No. 3 seed for the playoffs which start Nov. 14.

“Knowing it was the end of the season coming up and coming off a bye week it was very disappointing,” Freeman said. “We just had to play better than we did tonight.

“As a coaching staff we didn’t have our kids ready to play. Metter came to play and we didn’t.”

Offensively Bryan County had only one first down and it didn’t come until the opening minute of the fourth quarter on a 10-yard run by Eli Koskela. The Redskins had only 38 yards rushing on 25 attempts and completed one of 10 passes for one yard while being intercepted twice. They were so bottled up they never once crossed midfield.

Anddreas Mckinny who entered the game with 799 yards rushing, had 24 yards while Koskela added 21. Ger’bravion Collins had 665 yards on the season but he was minus 16 against the Tigers. Collins was sacked twice after been moved to quarterback in the fourth quarter.

From a total yardage standpoint Metter didn’t have overwhelming numbers as it had 249 total yards, 120 on the ground, but it obviously made the most of its opportunities.

Ricks had been the starter at quarterback since his freshman year but in order to jump start a slumping offense veteran coach Lee Shaw—he is now 195-124 for 28 seasons—moved Ricks to running back and started using freshmen Bates Harrison and Collins Shuman at quarterback.

Shuman proved to be the more effective of the two. He completed 5-of-7 passes for 95 yards and two touchdowns. Kahne Brown led the Tigers ground game with 73 yards and Ricks added 60.

Ricks had a night to remember. He scored the game’s first touchdown on an 8-yard run and minutes later made it 14-0 by catching a 38-yard scoring pass. In the third quarter he threw a 3-yard touchdown pass on an option play after taking a handoff from Shuman and repeated the play on the two-point conversion.

After a scoreless first quarter the Tigers struck for 20 points in the second. After Ricks scored twice Shuman hit Elijah Dickerson on an 8-yard pass with 59 seconds on the clock. Metter then added touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters as it was never pressed by the Redskins.