Hephzibah's teary-eyed players walked off the wet field in disappointment.

Coaches and fans kept yelling one mantra: Keep your head up.

In their first home playoff game, the Rebels fell just short to Jonesboro, 18-17, in the first round of the Class AAAA playoffs.

Making just its second postseason appearance in school history, Hephzibah finished the season at 7-4. The Rebels narrowly missed the program's first trip to the second round of the playoffs. Instead, the Cardinals (7-4) advanced to face Region 1-AAAA champion Westside-Macon.

"It's a heart-breaker, man," Hephzibah coach John Bowen said. "We really had our shots."

The Rebels gained 340 yards of total offense, including 282 on the ground. Running back Antoine Nabors led the effort with 135 yards on 26 carries with a touchdown, while Demetrius Washington added 83 yards on 10 carries. Quarterback Connell Reddick ran eight times for 61 yards and added 58 yards passing.

Hephzibah killed itself with a slew of mistakes. The Rebels lost two fumbles and scored just three points on four red-zone opportunities, including three drives inside the 5.

On a first-half drive, Hephzibah had the ball on the 2 but lost 5 yards on an illegal motion penalty. The Rebels settled for a 23-yard Bernard Germany field goal.

In the second half, Nabors ran for a first down to the 5 but Hephzibah was called for holding. Later, Hephzibah was called for an illegal shift on fourth-and-1 from the 1.

"We played our hearts out," Reddick said. "We just couldn't punch it in."

Hephzibah took a 17-9 lead into halftime, but Jonesboro struck quickly in the second half.

Quarterback Cliff Crews, who scored on a 42-yard run early in the game, faked up the middle and bounced outside for a 65-yard touchdown to pull the Cardinals within two. Jonesboro failed on a two-point conversion run.

Cardinals kicker Eric Cheyney tacked on the go-ahead 22-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Hephzibah responded with a pair of long drives and tried to set up two short field-goal attempts.

On Germany's 23-yard try midway through the fourth, holder Marlon Jones couldn't get the snap down. He rolled out and threw incomplete.

On its final drive, Hephzibah converted two fourth-down plays to move down to the five with less than 30 seconds remaining. But the Rebels had no timeouts. Reddick downed the ball and then misfired on a pair of passes into the end zone.

Germany came back out for a 21-yard attempt. Again, Jones couldn't get the snap down. He rolled to his right and got tackled with 8 seconds remaining.

"This one hurts," Bowen said. "Little things just come back to haunt you."

Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.