WINSTON-SALEM — Washington’s storybook season came to a close Saturday evening on high school football’s biggest stage. Despite a valiant effort by a shutdown defense, the Pam Pack fell to western regional champion East Lincoln, 14-13, at Wake Forest’s BB&T Field in the 2-AA state title game.

Click HERE for a photo gallery from the game.

Similar to the Dec. 13 thriller against Farmville Central, Washington found itself pinned back against its own goal line with less than a minute to go, down one point, 99-yards being the difference between a state championship and a discouraging bus ride home.

“When you have no timeouts and you’re on the 1-yard line, you got your back against he wall … you really can’t practice it,” said head coach Sport Sawyer. “You can run through it and do some things, but when it’s happening live, it’s totally different. We thought 99 yards, we have some speed, less than a minute left, I was hoping there was one second left on that clock there at the end to see what we could do.”

Sawyer never got that second.

An 18-yard run by Markel Spencer and an 8-yard pass by quarterback Patrick Thompson to Hassan Credle moved Washington outside its own 20-yard line. But on the next play, Thompson spiked the ball out of the shotgun, an illegal procedure resulting in a 10-yard penalty and a loss of down. With less than 20 seconds left, it was a crippling flag. Thompson tried to improvise, making a dash towards the sideline to stop the clock and give the Pam Pack a shot at a Hail Mary, but the senior quarterback was stopped just inches short, allowing the clock to expire before the team could attempt a desperation heave.

“If we played next week under these circumstances, our guys, (who) are great guys, would do something totally different,” Sawyer said. “East Lincoln played very well and sound football, so you can’t take anything away from them.”

As advertised, the game was truly a battle between air raid offense and athletic defense. If the score is a testament, both entities seemed to cancel each other out, as Washington and East Lincoln exchanged drives early, but had trouble finishing in the red zone.

For Sawyer’s offense, uncharacteristic turnovers stunted drives, which developed into a series of missed opportunities down the stretch. Through the first two series, the Pam Pack ran a combined 26 plays. Senior running back Markel Spencer, who led the team with 2041 rush yards entering the contest, had difficulty breaking free for the big run, although he managed to pick up yards in small chunks.

With 4:40 to go in the second quarter, East Lincoln struck first. Running and passing, Mustangs quarterback Chazz Surratt led a charge up field. On the 50-yard line, Surratt aired out a deep ball to sophomore Cameron Dollar, who fought his way through two Pam Pack defenders and came down with the football — an acrobatic 41-yard reception. Surratt would finish two plays later with a 6-yard touchdown run.

On the ensuing Washington possession, senior Stepfon Rodman had an answer, capping off a 65-yard drive with a touchdown run to the outside, sneaking just inside the right pylon.

After a defensive-minded 24 minutes, Washington and East Lincoln were knotted at seven.

Then, a fumble by Surratt finally gave Washington the prime field position to strike. Receiving the ball on the 50-yard line, Rodman and senior Xzavier Clark, who finished with 100 yards on 14 carries, pieced together a handful of big runs. The end result was a 3-yard touchdown run from Clark right through the heart of the defense. However, a mishandled snap would result in a blocked extra point — one that was ultimately the difference in the ballgame.

And on the ensuing Washington possession, a fumble on Pam Pack’s own 16-yard line gave the Mustangs the chance to answer, quickly.

Surratt went on to single-handedly engineer a fourth quarter drive to reclaim the lead for East Lincoln, a drive capped off by a 10-yard touchdown pass to junior Coleton Banks. The Mustangs converted the extra point and would go on to halt Washington’s next three drives.

“We generally don’t turn the ball over. Tonight, there were a couple plays. We played hard, but those turnovers were costly,” Sawyer said.

“A lot of disappointment in tonight, naturally, but we had a great fan base out there and all week it has been great.”

In his final game for Washington, Spencer notched 111 yards on 23 carries, while Rodman recorded 83 yards on 13 carries.

Surratt was awarded Offensive Most-Valuable-Player for his 15-for-28, 212-yard performance.

Despite amassing 315 total yards, 46 more than its opponent, Washington could not lock up its first state championship in team history. For East Lincoln, the team closes the season with a perfect 16-0 record and the championship marks the second in three years under head coach Mike Byus.

“We have a great group of guys and a great coaching staff,” Sawyer said. “Our guys work hard and we felt like the harder they worked the better we’d be. We’re just very proud of them and I didn’t see any letup in them.”