The FHSAA football rural state championship game against Hawthorne and Blountstown was billed as a defensive game.

It makes sense.

The teams have combined to give up just six touchdowns during the 2025 postseason run.

This year’s state championship would go to whichever team found a hole in the other’s impenetrable wall first. Hawthorne was the quickest on the draw taking the lead at the top of the second quarter and taking it through the wire for 24-8 victory over Blountstown.

“This is no surprise,” Hawthorne head football coach Cornelius Ingram said. “I'm being honest, and I'm not a cocky guy, and I mean that in the most humble way. This is not my surprise. My players give up lunch time every single day.”

The road to the Hornets' third state championship in four years started long b

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