Dutch Fork High School’s five-year reign over Class 5A football ended this past Saturday.

A fourth quarter rally lifted Gaffney to a 22-19 victory over the Silver Foxes at Charlie W. Johnson Stadium.

The loss ended Dutch Fork’s 62- game undefeated streak, 61-game winning streak against in-state teams and state-record 28-game playoff win streak. It was also the first defeat suffered by the Silver Foxes since Sept. 1, 2017 against Fort Dorchester and first in the postseason since Nov. 27, 2015 against Dorman.

To become the first team to win the Class 5A title other than Dutch Fork since the classification’s formation and defeat the Silver Foxes for the second time in a state final, the Indians (15-0) came back from a 12-point deficit. The comeback began following Landon Bullock’s second interception of the game, which was followed by a 4-yard touchdown run by Tyler Smith and concluded with quarterback Grayson Loftis’ 40-yard touchdown pass to Suga Jefferies with 3:30 left.

Quarterback Davin Patterson rushed for two touchdowns of 20 and seven yards to give Dutch Fork a 13-0 lead. The PAT was missed, one of two by the Silver Foxes.

Dutch Fork’s lone second half score came on a 42-yard touchdown catch by Antonio Williams. The PAT was blocked, keeping the Silver Foxes ahead 19-7 with 5:04 left in the third quarter.

With 42 seconds left, Bullock intercepted Patterson a second time at the Dutch Fork 24. It took four plays for Smith to score from four yards to make it 19-14 with 11:20 left in the game.

Gaffney got the ball back with 7:07 left. On third and 15, Loftis found Jefferies for the go-ahead touchdown. Loftis then completed a two-point conversion pass to Deshon Corry to make it a three-point game.

Dutch Fork (12-1) drove the football to the Gaffney 46. A sack on Patterson and incomplete put the Silver Foxes in a fourth-and-21.

With Williams out of the game after a hard hit on an incomplete pass, Dutch Fork’s Jacob Hamilton was stopped two yards shy of the first down.

Gaffney ran out the remaining one minute and 44 seconds, and the standing-room-only crowd began to celebrate the school’s 18th state title.

“This is really what life is like. It is not a (62) game winning streak, five straight championships,” Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts said. “There is going to be a lot of ups and downs in life. Hopefully, they will learn from this. “We didn’t do a really good job football-wise, and there is some other things we got to work on. Hopefully, they will be good men when they graduate and young guys will work hard. It is hard to watch that (celebration) and young guys won’t have to watch that again.”