MACON, Ga. — To pull off a road upset in the postseason, the Cook Hornets needed to avoid mistakes on Friday night against Westside-Macon.

After leading early and trailing by a score at halftime, the Hornets were well in reach of stunning the Seminoles. But miscues and bad breaks at inopportune times doomed the Hornets, whose season ended in the first round of the GHSA Class 3A state playoffs to the tune of a 32-18 loss.

Westside (8-3) advances to face Benedictine while Cook finishes its hard-luck season at 3-8.

“I felt like our kids played hard all year. We came into the playoffs 3-7, but we were probably about five plays from 7-3,” Cook head coach Bobby Jones said. “These kids have played hard, I’m proud of them.”

The Hornets didn’t have much trouble piling up the yards on the ground against the Seminoles, rushing for 221 yards with Jamarion Walker carrying it 26 times for 164 yards and two touchdowns. In fact, Cook scored the game’s first points, embarking on a six-play drive to begin the game. The drive comprised of all running plays ended on a 1-yard plunge by Walker on fourth down, putting the Hornets in front.

But as would be the case for much of the game, the Seminoles executed big plays and took advantage of mistakes by Cook. Westside quarterback Victor Dixon was 9-of-14 for 211 yards, four of those passes being 20 yards or longer. 

One of them? A 32-yarder to Jehlen Cannady for the first Seminoles score on a drive kept alive by a pass interference penalty against the Hornets.

Westside running back Tyshaun Freeman also did enough to keep the Hornets honest defensively, rushing for 86 yards and two touchdowns, one of which put the Seminoles out from 13-6 in the second quarter two yards out.

His biggest run came in the opening sequence of the second half that turned out to be Cook’s night in a nutshell.

Down 13-6 coming into the third quarter, the Hornets had a golden opportunity to grab momentum as they received the kickoff. Those hopes went south in a hurry. Cook fumbled the opening kickoff and two plays later, Freeman rambled 36 yards for a Westside score and 20-6 lead.

Cook did its best to rally back, driving to the Westside 21-yard line before being stopped on fourth a short. One play later, Dixon found a wide open Cannady for an 80-yard bomb for a 26-6 Seminoles lead with 6:54 left in the third.

“We’re very young in the secondary, we lost all that group from the year before and have had to grow up,” Jones said. “Their speed, it hurt us.”

As it has most of the year, Cook kept fighting in the face of adversity. Facing a fourth down at their own 40, the Hornets dug into their bag of tricks on a fake punt, and Keyshawn Lucy lobbed a pass downfield that was caught by Trey Smith. The play kept the Cook drive alive, and it resulted in an 8-yard touchdown by KJ Fiveash and the Hornets trailed 26-12.

Cook, however, was unable to get much closer as the two teams would exchange touchdowns as Westside took the win.