Jonathan Finch had absorbed such a large degree of punishment during his 29 carries, he was surprised how easy this one was.

"My Lord, a truck could have fit through there," said the Evans running back, describing an 11-yard touchdown scamper in the third quarter that had him raising his arm in celebration halfway to the end zone.

Finch ran for two of his three touchdowns 54 seconds apart in the third quarter and had 218 of Evans' 260 rushing yards in a 28-16 victory over Hephzibah on Friday night. The Knights' victory rearranged the Region 3-AAAA standings: three of the four playoff-bound teams -- Hephzibah, Lakeside and Evans -- are 6-1 with two games to play. They wore down the Rebels a year after struggling on offense during a nine-point win.

"I don't think we even ran 30 plays on offense, it didn't seem like," said Hephzibah coach John Bowen, whose team actually rushed 25 times and attempted 21 passes. "They did a good job of keeping our offense on the field, but we executed about as good on offense as we have all year."

Said Finch, "Pound, pound, pound -- we wanted to wear them down."

Hephzibah's 10-7 halftime lead vanished on Finch's 11-yard run with 3:54 left in the third quarter and fumbled on its next play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Finch was dashing into the end zone again.

The Rebels pulled to within five points early in the fourth quarter, but Evans quarterback Troy Griffith threw a 56-yard TD pass to Justin Black on third-and-3. It was the biggest conversion for Evans, which accumulated 21 first downs and 420 yards against a defense that had shut out three of its first seven opponents.

"We tried not to line up in the same formation more than two times in a row; we didn't want to be too predictable," Evans coach Marty Jackson said. "The offensive line did a good job, apparently. From the sidelines, it looked like we were winning the battle."

Finch, who accounted for the two most important touchdowns last season in Evans' 21-12 win, posted season highs in rushing yards and attempts. He also scored on a 6-yard run in the second quarter.

The Rebels (6-2, 6-1) led 10-7 at halftime on a 50-yard pass from sophomore Terry Robinson to his older brother, Gary, who caught all but one of the team's eight completions for 158 yards.

Evans (7-1, 6-1) forced an incomplete pass on fourth-and-2 inside its own 25-yard line with four minutes left to clinch the win in a swiftly played game.

The teams combined for only two fumbles (one lost) and two punts.