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It was a defensive struggle last Friday night when Luverne took on Georgiana in the last game of the regular season.

Both defenses came to play, as the two teams combined for less than 300 total yards.

Luverne was the first to make a play, as Desmond Mahone intercepted Georgiana at midfield and returned it to the Panthers’ 20-yard line.

The drive was stalled, however, as Georgiana made a great defensive stand to keep Luverne off the scoreboard.

Luverne would find a rhythm midway through the second quarter as the tigers capped off a nice drive with a 6-yard touchdown run from Keehshaun Glanton to put Luverne up 7-0.

The score would stay the same until the fourth quarter when Georgiana would fumble the ball on their own 10-yard line, only to be recovered by Luverne DE Jonathan Smith. After missing the extra point, Luverne would go up 13-0.

That’s all the Tigers would need, however, to put the Panthers away.

Georgiana was only able to muster up 129 total yards of offense in the game – 31 from the passing game and 98 on the ground.

And while Luverne had 135 yards of total offense, it was timely turnovers that helped the Tigers pull this win out. Georgiana finished the game with four turnovers – one interception and three fumbles.

This was Georgiana’s last game of the season, as the 4-5 Tigers will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Luverne (7-3), now must prepare for their away game against GW Long (8-1) in the first round of the 2020 AHSAA State Football Playoffs.