MABLETON — Mike Sherman ran for a game-high 112 yards and McEachern also got two touchdown passes by Ty Clemons to hold off Pebblebrook 30-23 at Falcon Stadium on Friday.

The Indains gradually built a lead in the second half, but it could never put the Falcons away.

McEachern eventually took its biggest lead of the game with 8:35 left in the third quarter when Clemons connected with TJ Rahming on a 71-yard touchdown pass to make the score 23-13.

McEachern’s final touchdown of the contest was set up by another Pebblebrook turnover, this one through a fumbled punt attempt by the Falcons. Clemons notched his second touchdown pass of the game on an 11-yard toss to Malik Williams late in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.

After facing Grayson and Walton, two consensus top-five teams in Class AAAAAA to start the season, McEachern coach Kyle Hockman knew that a contest against regional foe Pebblebrook would also be a difficult contest.

“Both teams kept fighting tonight and we’ll get better as the season goes along,” Hockman said. “I’m happy with the poise that our offense, especially our quarterback, showed in the second half and a win against an excellent team like Pebblebrook is a good way to start the regional part of our schedule.”

It was also a game the new Falcons coach Tommy Macon felt his team could have won.

“I told our team after the game that if we played to our potential and didn’t have a slow start, we definitely could have won tonight’s contest,” said Pebblebrook head coach Tommy Macon. “We’ll practice hard this upcoming week and take out frustrations out on Harrison next week.”

Perry Seldon finished the contest with a team-high 82 yards rushing for the Falcons. Huntley also ran for 63 yards along with throwing for 185 in the loss.

Pebblebrook (0-3, 0-1 in Region 4AAAAAA) scored the first points of the game on a 56-yard pass touchdown pass by Dezmond Huntley to Shauntez Smith with 7:05 left in the first quarter to give the Falcons the early 6-0 lead.

McEachern (1-2, 1-0) responded with a 36-yard touchdown run by Sherman to give the Indians the 7-6 lead.

The Falcons took a 13-7 lead on a 54-yard touchdown pass by Huntley to Justin Simms.

McEachern answered with a 7-minute drive near the end of the first half which consisted of 16 plays, 81 yards and concluded with a 4-yard touchdown run by Sherman to tie the score at 13-13 late in the second quarter.

“The ball was slippery out there and we wanted to give our defense a rest,” stated McEachern coach Kyle Hockman on the Indians’ late second quarter drive. “It was good to see our young team learn to close a scoring drive.”