Eastside bounces back behind Kenai Grier and dominant defense

Eagles return home and overpower Loganville

COVINGTON, GEORGIA – After dropping last week’s game on the road to undefeated Loganville, Eastside bounced back Thursday night at home against Heritage-Conyers with a dominant 27-3 win.

One of the state’s best-kept secrets, the Eagles improve to 5-2 on the season and 2-1 in Region 8-AAAAA with the win.

One of the state’s best running backs, Kenai Grier scored two touchdowns on the night and the Eagles' defense held the Patriots to just three points. The defense is allowing just 10.9 points per game this season, which is on pace to be a school record.

Despite the impressive victory, it wasn’t the best of starts for the Eagles. The first quarter ended in a scoreless tie before Grier scored on a 25-yard run on fourth down to give the hosts a 7-0 lead on the first play to start the second quarter.

“We came out a little flat,” Eastside head coach Jay Cawthon said. “We were making the same mistakes over and over again. They know they did not play well, we just got to bounce back and have a lot more energy in two weeks. The bye week has come at a good time.”

After a stop on defense, Eastside scored again, this time on a 10-yard run from quarterback E’Sean Arnold.

The Eagles took a 14-3 lead into halftime and added to it in the third quarter. Grier’s most impressive run of the night came on a short touchdown run late in the third quarter when he trucked a Patriot defender en route to the end zone.

“(Kenai) does things that you don’t coach, he is a special back, and we need to keep giving him the rock,” Cawthon said.

Eastside running back Kenai Grier scored two touchdowns on Friday. He now has 13 this season is closing in on 1,000 yards rushing for the season / Photo credit Kenai Grier Huddle

Eastside led Heritage-Conyers 20-3 heading into the fourth quarter and Jayden Barr put the game out of reach with a 45-yard touchdown run with just under 11 minutes remaining in the game.

The standout on defense for the Eagles was D’Von Duplessis, who finished his night with three sacks. Grier now has 13 touchdowns on the season to lead the Eagles on offense. The senior is also closing in on 1,000 yards rushing for the season.

The Eagles will enter a bye next week before facing Clarke Central in two weeks. A win would lock up a playoff spot for the Eagles. They then will play host to Winder-Barrow before finishing the season on the road at Jefferson.