Southside Christian goes back-to-back in winning Class A football state title
Southside Christian repeated as state champions on Saturday afternoon.
Ja’Corey Martin ran for three touchdowns as the Sabres defeated Bamberg-Ehrhardt 28-0 in the Class A championship game at Benedict College’s Charlie W. Johnson Stadium.
It’s the school’s third state title overall and second straight. The theme of repeat champs continues in Class A —Green Sea-Floyds won back-to-back titles in 2018-19 before Southside’s current run.
The Sabres have won 22 straight games, with their last loss coming in 2019.
“I think more so than anything, we have had a good group of juniors and seniors the last two years,” Southside coach Mike Sonneborn said. “It is special. They aren’t a ton to look at. There is probably two college football players in this senior class. The rest played their last high school football game.
“They are really good high school football players, and it is just an honor to coach them.”
Martin, a junior, had a big game through the air and on the ground. He was 11-of-20 passing for 272 yards and also rushed for 77 yards.
The Southside passing game was able to get a lot of big plays in the passing game, something Sonneborn thought they would be able to exploit coming in the game. Tyler Harof led the team with three catches for 106 yards.
The Sabres’ defense limited B-E’s running game and also came up with a big goal line stand with a stop on fourth-and-one with SC leading 21-0. Southside outgained the Raiders 382-114. B-E had 35 yards on its first play of the game and managed just 79 yards after that.
“We were just so good in stopping the run and that was one of the biggest advantages we had in this game,” Sonneborn said. “Bamberg runs the football and we are really good at stopping it. That was a huge advantage for us.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
