LILBURN — On the second play against Shiloh on Friday, Kalik Barnes rolled out on a pass and when he threw the ball he took a shot from a General defensive lineman.

When he popped up, he knew he was back.

“It felt old. It felt good,” Barnes said. “That’s when I realized that everything was all right.”

The hit came five weeks after another defensive lineman hit Barnes. That hit did not feel good. Of that hit, Barnes only remembers the wind-up and the result. He saw Grayson’s Joseph Champaign coming. He remembers his teammates lifting him off the ground. Adrenaline and pain erased the seconds in between. That is best for Barnes. The hit cracked his jaw and shortened the quarterback’s senior season. He tried to play, but it hurt.

“It was horrible,” Barnes said of the pain.

But Barnes was lucky, the break was in the front and not in the back of his jaw. He didn’t need wiring, just rest and time. He couldn’t throw a pass for two weeks or eat real food for five. He sucked down bottles of Ensure and patiently waited for cookies to melt in his mouth.

“It was one of the worst things I have ever been through in my life,” said Barnes, whose first real meal was the Canal Street tilapia at Taco Mac. “If I ever break a bone, I know not to break my jaw.

“It was like I hadn’t eaten in years.”

He also couldn’t talk too much. His jaw would not open all the way.

Barnes smiles wide now and talks with a purpose. It’s hard to imagine his grin or words limited by pain.

“Now I can get back to yelling again,” he said.

His timing could not be better.

Barnes’ return last week helped push the Panthers to a win over Shiloh and set up Friday’s playoff play-in game against rival Brookwood. A win would mean a return to the playoffs for Parkview and more football games for Barnes. And that is just the start.

“This game is the most important game of the season because it can make or break us,” Barnes said. “As a football player, you want to be the team that can make a story of yourself.”

Barnes already made his story. The initial diagnosis of his break put his return between four and six weeks. This week is week six. Any longer and the break ends Barnes’ career at Parkview. But the belief kept him working.

“It played a key role in healing and coming back,” Barnes said of the hope of playing another game for Parkview. “I had to keep telling myself, ‘You are still a part of this team. You have to keep working because you are going to be back and when you do come back you want to be back at full force.’ I had to keep reminding myself to keep pushing. Once you get hurt, you can easily get off track and stop being motivated and doing the simple things.”

Barnes did them all. Along with sucking down liquid meals and cookies, he kept in shape, throwing passes and running during practices. He also tutored his replacement, Jack Esmonde.

“When Kalik went down, Jack stepped in and did a great job,” said Parkview head coach Cecil Flowe. “Kalik, the whole time, helped coach him.

“He is a shot in the arm. There is such poise about him. He is a senior leader and the guy that is supposed to be in there. Just to have him back is very exciting. It’s good for the offense.”

Before his injury, Barnes was on pace for a record season throwing the ball in Parkview’s new spread offense. He had thrown for 1,045 yards and 10 touchdowns, and the Panthers were 4-1 when they met Grayson.

“Kalik was on his way to 2,000 yards passing when he got hurt,” Flowe said.

But the yards meant less to Barnes, who now has 1,238 passing yards and 13 TDs, than the wins.

“It wasn’t so much about me. I know people always say that, but it wasn’t really about me, it was about the success of this team,” Barnes said. “It was moreso about the success of how this senior class left and the name we gave ourselves. I am more concerned about making it to the playoffs and doing well in the playoffs than I am about breaking records.”

When he says the team means more, Barnes is earnest and emphatic. He wants to keep playing football in college, but more than that he wants to keep playing football at Parkview. And the only way to do that is to win.

“You want to be a team that, as a fan, they say, ‘They made something out of nothing.’ Not many people think we are going to do much with our season,” he said. “We want to be the team that is looked over and want to be the team that makes it. We believe we can do it and that is all it takes. We have the talent to do it. We just have to believe.”