Eastside knocked out of playoffs by South Pointe, 49-7

4-A powerhouse South Pointe dominated from the opening snap against Eastside, jumping out to a 42-0 halftime lead and cruising to a 49-7 win.

The Eastside Eagles had aspirations of being giant slayers against perennial 4-A power South Pointe on Friday.

But as they quickly found out, sometimes, it just isn’t David’s day. Goliath stood tall in South Pointe’s 49-7 thwarting of Eastside.

The loss ended the Eagles’ season in the first round of the Class 4-A playoffs.

“First off, congratulations to a well-coached South Pointe team led by Coach [Bobby] Collins and his staff. Those guys came out ready to play and got after it early,” said Eastside head coach Andre Woolcock. “They play a physical brand of football that we haven’t seen all season.”

The Stallions took it to the Eagles from the opening snap, jumping out to a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. By halftime, South Pointe had pushed the lead to 42-0.

South Pointe’s dynamic running back duo of Jalil Jackson and Aidan Turner did most of the damage to the Eagles on the evening, combining for 255 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

South Pointe added another score late in the third quarter before the Eagles finally got on the board near the end of the fourth with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Jaden Page to Baron Leonard.

Outmatched by a powerful South Pointe squad on both sides of the ball, it was an evening the Eagles will use as fuel heading into the offseason. But after finishing 2-8 in 2022, this year’s 6-5 campaign showed just how much Eastside has improved.

The Eagles reached the playoffs for the first time since 2019. They obtained their first region wins and overall winning record since then, too.

“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but anytime you improve your win total from the previous year, you have to consider it a success,” said Woolcock. “I’ve done a lot of reflecting. There are a lot of things I’d have done differently in some of our region games, especially. I could have put us in a better situation heading into the playoffs. I know I could have done better.”

Woolcock was emotional saying goodbye to his senior leaders after the tough loss. He’s confident, however, that he’ll have the team next year to carry the torch and improve even further.

“We’ve got a pretty solid foundation of guys coming back next season, guys like Quay Dodd, Zeke Funke, Cayden Workman, Scooter Foster. Those guys saw what it took to get here,” said Woolcock. “Now, they want to be the team that goes from 6-5 to winning the region and making a run in the playoffs.

“So we can’t dwell for too long. We’ve got to get back to work this offseason and see what this next group of seniors can do for us.”