By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Lafayette Christian football program has been around for a decade, and the team has amassed an impressive list of accomplishments during that time.

Most notably, Lafayette Christian won the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association eight-man state championship in 2015.

The one thing the Cougars have never done is win a region championship, and they’ll have a chance to make that a reality next week.

Lafayette Christian, which is off this week, will finish the regular season with a home game against Hancock Academy on Nov. 2.

The Cougars (5-4 overall) are 3-0 in the region, so if they win next, the region crown will be theirs.

Lafayette Christian remained perfect in the region with last week’s 34-0 blowout win over Fullington Academy.

Lafayette Christian has already secured one of the region’s two playoff spots, but there is obviously still plenty to play for.

“We’re going to be the first or second seed, and we’ll be in the playoffs regardless. It’s just whether we host or not,” Lafayette Christian head coach Nate Shaw said. “So there’s still a lot of motivation. We want to secure that winning record in the regular season.”

Lafayette Christian lead 13-0 at the half last week before blowing things open in the final two quarters.

Quarterback Landon Whitley, who was a freshman starter on the 2015 team that won a state title, had a big night.

Whitley had three scoring runs, and he threw touchdown passes to Nathan Karvelas and Mitch Crandall.

“Defensively, I thought we were very strong,” Shaw said. “Offensively, I feel like we can be more efficient. We could have put that game away earlier. It was 13-0 at the half. We moved the ball well, but we were a little bit sloppy. We put the ball on the ground a couple of times.”

After next week’s game, the Cougars will begin pursuit of another state title, this one in the 11-man division.

In 2015, Lafayette Christian had to win three playoff games to capture the title.

There will only be four teams in the playoffs this year, so two wins will be enough to secure the championship.

“There’s only two levels of playoffs,” Shaw said. “So if we can get past our first round, we’ll get a chance to play for the cup.”