Eastside football grounds Newton with run game, solid defense for first rivalry win in six years
By Artez Kelly
Eastside players prepare to run through its team banner just before the start of the 21st football meeting between Eastside and in-county rival Newton. | Photo courtesy of Dr. Duke Bradley, III
COVINGTON, Ga. — For the first time in six years, The Eastside Eagles found themselves on the winning side of their rivalry with in-county nemesis, Newton.
Eastside used an opportunistic defense and a stellar two-touchdown performance by 3-star Georgia Tech commit Jayden Barr to soar to a 26-15 victory over the Rams Friday night in the first of three in-county football matchups to be played at Sharp Stadium.
From the get-go, the energy was charged as the ecstatic Eagles fans packed inside Sharp to see what the 2024 Eastside football team was all about.
"This was special,” said Eastside head football coach Jay Cawthon, praising the effort of his Eagles and reminiscing on that night six years ago when Eastside last beat its arch-rival. "Tonight brought back a lot of memories."
The roster for those 2018 Eagles was good enough to finish the year 12-1, losing to eventual state champion, Blessed Trinity in the quarterfinals of the Class AAAA state playoffs. That Eastside team made history as the first GHSA-playing varsity high school football team to post an undefeated regular season.
Whether or not this year’s team will be as good as that one remains to be seen. But, at least for one night, it was.
Newton’s Andrew Leslie, right, celebrates an early Newton touchdown with a teammate during the Rams’ 26-15 loss to the Eagles on Friday, August 16, 2024. | Staff photo by Deshon Hardeman
Friday turned out to be a big game, not only for Eastside as a team, but for Barr, individually, as he kicked off his senior season in style.
Barr’s first touchdown of the night opened the scoring for both teams, and was a sign of things to come as the Georgia Tech pledge made big plays on both sides of the ball all night.
Two fumbles and, perhaps, some questionable clock management before the end of the first half cost Newton big going into the third quarter. With mere seconds remaining in the second quarter and Newton trying to punch in a score in the red zone, time expired before the Rams could get off even a chance for a field goal, allowing Eastside to take a 10-6 advantage into halftime.
The combination of Barr and Myles Mims running the ball led the Eagles to a 16-6 lead, as Barr found the end zone for the second time early in the third quarter.
Then, with four minutes left in the third quarter, and within two plays of each other, two of Eastside’s players went down with injuries — Jayden Barr first and Tennessee commit Christian Gass. However, Cawthon stated they both’s injuries were minor.
“It was really just bad cramps, and it was a humid night,” Cawthon said. “And those guys, they hydrate, hydrate. But they know – our guys know they have to attack the conditioning part. They know that, and I think it opened a lot of their eyes tonight, the other guys, that with conditioning, we gotta roll with it.”
Eastside dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball throughout in its first win over Newton High since 2018. | Staff photo by Deshon Hardeman.
With two key players out of the game, the Eastside offense, indeed, kept rolling. Mims gave the Eagles their final touchdown on a burst right through the heart of the Rams’ defense from about 15 yards out, giving them a 26-9 advantage with 1:57 left in regulation, all but ending any hopes of a Newton comeback.
Newton did respond with a rushing touchdown from Malik Brightwell, but as the rain came down on the Sharp Stadium turf, so too did Newton’s chance of making it seven straight against Eastside.
Once the clock struck zero, the Eastside student section and fans of Eastside cheered like a team that just beat its rival. Now, it looks like Eastside is on track to receive its first Chick-fil-A Newton Cup — the trophy given each year to the team that defeats the other two in-county rivals on the gridiron.
To do that, Eastside (1-0) will need to knock off Alcovy (0-1) on Friday August 30 at Sharp. Before that, Eastside will travel to Hiram for another non-region matchup.
Meanwhile, Newton (0-1) will be in action next Friday at Sharp, facing an Alcovy squad it hasn’t lost since 2009. The Tigers fell to Arabia Mountain Thursday, 66-31 in their season opener.