COVINGTON, Ga — The Eagles of Eastside opened up region play with a dominant victory over the Flowery Branch Falcons 48-12 on homecoming night.

Junior quarterback Payton Shaw led the Eagles with the first half onslaught offensively. He had three passing touchdowns in which two of them went to senior Tyler Hoff for 15 and 30 yards, respectively.

“Based on what we saw in film we thought they would stack the box which gave us the opportunity to throw the ball deep,”Eastside head coach Jay Cawthon said. “He did a great job delivering the ball and giving our receivers a chance to make a play.” 

Junior running back Tyler Solomon also caught a passing touchdown from Shaw to continue the offense's great night in the air. Eagles’ senior and Georgia Tech commit Jayden Barr had two rushing touchdowns on the ground. 

The Eagles defense dominated the first half as well — the unit only allowed six points and forced two turnovers. The Falcons only touchdown drive was set up by an Eastside fumble on its own 20 yard line.

Both turnovers for Eastside were created by senior Tyler Marks as he caught two interceptions in the Falcons territory.

“We always tell our guys to do their job and Tyler certainly did that on two outstanding plays,” Cawthon said.

Multiple passing touchdowns were called back as the Eagles committed penalties to negate the scores.

“We told our guys that we have to stop committing penalties that can hurt our team,” Cawthon said. “But, our guys fought through a little adversity and I couldn’t be more proud of guys for overcoming adversity.” 

This year’s matchup was a polar opposite of the game between the Eagles and Falcons a year ago.

In 2023, the two teams went into overtime before the Eagles pulled out on top 39-32. 

The win moves Eastside to 5-0 on the season with a 1-0 start in Region 8-AAAA play.

Next up, the Eagles (5-0, 1-0 AAAA Region 8) will go on the road to Danielsville to take on the Madison County Red Raiders next Friday at 7:30 p.m.