Patrick Henry beat every team in SCISA 8-man football this season except for one. Unfortunately that team was the Patriots' state championship opponent.
The Pats fell 42-26 Friday to undefeated Wardlaw Academy, which had toppled PHA 56-6 earlier in the season.
"We played as a team, with honor for our school and families," said Grant Youmans, the team's leading scorer on the night. "We gave it all we had, all four quarters."
The Patriots knew they would be in for a battle royale.
"We've already played them, and seen all the film since, and there's no escaping it: their line is very big and quick, and their backfield is full of very fast backs," PHA coach Mike McCoy said. "You have to play a perfect game, and even then you need a turnover or two to have a chance."
PHA's coaching staff spent most of last week designing a special alternative offense to combat their foe's size and quickness.
"We looked at old Andrew Jackson game films and installed their old Jet Sweep offense, and it did help us move the football on Wardlaw better than our base I-formation or our spread," McCoy said.
But those bulky linemen were a factor early as they repeatedly stopped PHA in the first half, frequently leaving Patriots QB Sheldon Swofford running for his life.
At the same time, those speedy backs scored touchdown runs, and the fastest of them all, Malik Lee, returned a punt 84 yards for a score.
Late in the second quarter, after Kyle Johnson recovered a fumble and gained spark for the Pats, McCoy's offense managed to put together a drive capped by Swofford's 1-yard pass to Youmans. Patrick Henry went into halftime trailing 20-6.
PHA took the second half kickoff and continued to move the ball, but sacks and penalties kept them out of the end zone. Wardlaw scored on a Lee 74-yard run and went to the fourth quarter leading 26-6.
Another Lee touchdown run gave Wardlaw a 34-6 lead, but the Patriots caught on fire. Touchdown passes of 35, 63, and 32 yards from Swofford to Youmans gave the Patriots hope and 20 points in the final quarter, but they were unable to get over the hump and finally fell 42-26.
"Wardlaw is every bit as good as we knew they were and they maintained control of the game. However, our team maintained a close score ... and we challenged Wardlaw to play at a higher level."
The PHA offense was led Swofford, who threw for 248 yards and connected with Youmans for four touchdown passes. While Youmans found tough going up the middle of the hostile Wardlaw defense from the fullback position, he had 248 receiving yards on 10 catches from the backfield. He finished the season with a total of 1,740 rushing yards and 399 passing yards.
Paul Daniel DeLoach played the jet back position and he was the Patriots' leading rusher with 95 yards on the night.
On defense the Patriots were led by junior Gibson Wall, whose 10 tackles gave him 125 total tackles for the season.
Seniors CJ Sheffield, Cody DeWitt and Kyle Johnson had eight, seven and three tackles respectively. Youmans added six tackles.
"All of our seniors had a good game for their final performance for our team, and all three of them will be missed greatly," McCoy said. "All that being said, we have a great squad returning next year, only losing four seniors and the nucleus of the offense and defense still intact."
Senior Jacob Barnes has been out for the duration of the playoffs because of a knee injury and had to watch his comrades from the sidelines.
"I was proud of the team's effort in the championship game," he said. "Even though I missed all the playoffs, our team had a wonderful season! We passed expectations and played like a true unit."
"I will always remember this season and especially our championship run. I hate we did not win state but when you do your best at the end of the game it doesn't matter what the score is. I am honored to be a member of the state runner-up 2011 Patriots and am thankful for the lifetime lessons and memories I made this season."
PHA had stormed through their region schedule undefeated, topped Trinity Collegiate in the first round of the playoffs, and avenged an early season loss to King Academy in the semifinals to finish 11-3 as the state runner up.
This was Patrick Henry's second recent championship game loss to Wardlaw, also falling 78-54 in 2009. The Patriots' 11 wins this season were their most since the 1994 season, when they last won the state title (defeating Wardlaw).
PHA seniors Johnson, Sheffield, and DeWitt will be playing in the 8-man All-Star Game to be held at PHA's Cone Field for the fourth year in a row on Dec. 3.

Kelly Marie Brown and Greg Jones contributed to this story.