By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

As memorable as the LaGrange College Panthers’ season was in 2008, it was a hair away from being even better.

In the second game of the season, one week after their memorable victory over Birmingham Southern, the Panthers nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback victory over the Shorter Hawks.

Trailing 28-10 in the fourth quarter, the Panthers scored two unanswered touchdowns to get within five, and with moments remaining, they found themselves on the Shorter 23-yard-line.

Quarterback Drew Carter tried to get the ball to Mario Wallace in the end zone, but Shorter’s Bud Keith came up with a game-saving interception to preserve a 28-23 victory.

The Panthers went on to win their next eight games to complete a 9-1 regular season, and they fell to Millsaps in the opening round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

LaGrange College was dominated by Shorter in the first two meetings in 2006 and 2007 before last year’s epic game.

Today in Rome, the Panthers will try to take the next step against the Shorter Hawks.

The Panthers will look to get over the hump against the Hawks and capture the Governor’s Cup for the first time.

“Shorter, in a lot of ways, we’ve measured ourselves against them,” LaGrange College head coach Todd Mooney said. “They started their program a year in advance of us. They came a long way in a short time and got into the (NAIA) playoffs last year as well.”

Phil Jones has been the only coach Shorter has ever known, and he is 26-19 in his first head-coaching position.

“It starts with their head coach. Phil Jones is as class an act is there is.,” Mooney said. “They have a great staff, they play hard, they’re physical. This is a big challenge for us. It’s one that our guys are very motivated for.

“Shorter is a program where we know what we’re going to get. They’re going to be very sound, they’re going to run well, and they’re going to challenge us in every spot.”

The Hawks, who went 9-3 a year ago and won a conference championship, lost their season opener to Division II Lenoir-Rhyne.

After trailing 14-0, the Hawks fought back to make a game of it before losing 21-14.

LaGrange College opened its season with a 30-27 win over Birmingham Southern, with Josh Stripling making a short field goal as time expired.

The Hawks run an option-oriented offense that had trouble getting anything going last week, but has been extremely effective over the years.

In three previous games, Shorter has scored 110 points against LaGrange.

Quarterback Ben Williams leads the Shorter attack, and A.J. Cooley - who averaged 130 yards a game last year - will get a lot of the carries.

The Hawks are primarily a running team, although Williams did go to the air 11 times a week ago, which was more passes than he attempted in any game in 2008.

Williams threw for a career-high 115 yards and had two touchdown passes.

“Lenoir-Rhyne gave us the opportunity to throw the ball and we took advantage of it,” said Williams. “It was an eye-opening game for us, but it was good to see. That game will help us later on.”

Mooney isn’t expecting the Hawks to get pass-happy today, though.

The Hawks have always been primarily a running team under Jones, and that won’t change this year.

“They’ll establish the run,” Mooney said. “They’ll put you in positions all day long where you have to be perfect with your assignments. They have very talented players to do that. That presents a challenge for a defense, no matter who it is. They’re very good at what they do.”

Mooney said he’s also impressed with Shorter’s defense, which is led by All-American linebacker Logan Lillis.

“Defensively, they play a very strong 3-4,” Mooney said. “They’re physical up front. They run well, and they have good guys in coverage.”

For the Panthers, in last week’s narrow win, Stripling made four field goals, Mario Wallace had 239 all-purpose yards and scored two touchdowns, and freshman running back Dustin Cannon ran for 100 yards on 15 carries, mostly in the second half, and quarterback Drew Carter completed 19-of-27 passes for 193 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.

The Panthers did have some problems, though, in all phases of the game.

This week in practice, Mooney said the team has done a good job of addressing those issues.

“Between the post-game discussion and watching film, they knew what they needed to do this week,” Mooney said. “It’s been very easy to get them rolling.”