First game jitters costly in Hayesville’s opener

An old Chinese proverb says, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and if that's true, Hayesville’s  first two steps of the season were missteps. Those mistakes played a large role in Hayesville’s 34-21 home-loss to the Enka Jets.

Electing to receive the opening kickoff, the Yellow Jackets failed to corral the football and it was recovered by Enka. Barely 1:46 later, the Jets promptly scooted in for their first score. On that play, the Yellow Jackets received an unsportsmanlike penalty and lost senior Jake McTaggart for the rest of the game. The penalty allowed the Jets to kick off from Hayesville’s 40-yard line and their ensuing onside kick was successful at the Jackets’ 8-yard line. Two plays later, the score was 14-0.

After receiving the kickoff, the Jackets fumbled the second snap, but quickly settled down. The defense stiffened and held the Jets to a punt. With 2:26 remaining in the first quarter, quarterback Logan Caldwell ran in for Hayesville’s first score. It looked like the home team had gained their footing and were ready to compete. However, Enka’s running attack, along with the passing prowess of their undersized quarterback, proved a greater challenge to the Jackets’ defense and the Jets scored again before halftime to make it 21-7.

In the locker room, head coach Chad McClure and staff had their hands full preparing their players for the second half. About his halftime pep talk, McClure said, "The other coaches and I told our guys to shake off the rocky start and get back to all the good things we had worked on in practice. We definitely made some changes in blocking assignments and coverages and told them to focus on execution. We had to get back in the game one play at a time."

It looked like that was what Hayesville’s players needed to hear as the defense forced a punt by the Jets a few plays after they received the kickoff. The Jackets’ defense was led by Kyle Lunsford, who had a fumble recovery and nine solo tackles in the game. He was aided in the defensive attack by Issac Chandler, and Bryan Davenport, who each contributed seven solo tackles to the team's total of 53 solo tackles.

Hayesville’s young men played valiantly as they outscored the Jets 14 to 13 in the second half. Without those two missteps in the first four minutes of the game, the Jackets’ chances of winning would have improved. However, since an entire game last 48 minutes, this one will be chalked up as a 34-21 loss.

McClure was extremely high on the resiliency of his team and singled out the exceptional play of quarterback, Caldwell, who was 15 of 25, 261 passing yards, seven carries for 49 yards, two touchdowns and an interception safety late in the fourth quarter.

The head coach was equally impressed with his receiving core as Asher Brown had five receptions, 100 yards and a touchdown . Running back Kyle Lunsford totaled four receptions for 80 yards, catching the bulk of Caldwell's passes.

So where does that leave the Jackets as they get ready for the Franklin Panthers? "We have some holes to shore up,” McClure said. “But all in all, we need to continue to work on our conditioning since most of our guys are involved in almost every snap."

McClure then focused on the positives, saying, "We are fewer in number than we would like. However, our guys are getting stronger, more aware of their individual roles and our leaders are stepping up to keep us moving forward." For Jacket Nation, that's a step in the right direction.

Hayesville will travel across the mountain Friday, Aug. 27 to take on the Panthers of Franklin. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.