Friday’s
game
pits
4-win
teams
By Gary Corsair
Staff Writer
Hayesville football fans never want to play Murphy, but the potent Bulldogs will be welcomed with open arms this Friday night.
Granted, the welcome will be begrudging, but the Yellow Jackets are ready to play a team that’s lost two games. Hayesville’s last two opponents – Tuscola and Andrews – have a combined record of 12-0.
Of course, there’s a good chance that the Bulldogs, 4-2, and ranked No. 7 in Class 1-A by MaxPreps, will wear out their welcome before the night is through.
Then again, Hayesville might just pull off the upset.
“They’re a good team,” Hayesville Coach Chad McClure said. “We can play with anybody, but we have to do it for four quarters.”
Last Friday at Andrews, the Yellow Jackets played near their potential for two quarters and only trailed 14-7 at the intermission.
“In the first half, we played with them and competed,” Coach McClure stated. “At halftime, I told them that we had to get a stop and that it was still a one-possession game.”
That scenario quickly disappeared. The black-and-gold wheels came off in the third quarter, when Andrews (6-0, No. 3 in Class 1-A) erupted for 23 third-quarter points on the way to a 50-7 victory in the first Smoky Mountain Conference game for both schools.
“In the third quarter, a lot of bad things happened in a short span of time,” Coach McClure said.
Bad thing No. 1: Andrews began the second half with 8-play scoring drive that covered 78 yards.
Now down 21-7, Hayesville answered with a 24-yard kickoff return by Michael Mauney, followed by 2 carries for 8 yards by Taylor McClure.
Optimism filled Hayesville hearts. Then, a quarterback sack. An incompletion on fourth. Andrews took over on downs.
Three plays later, Austin Martin scored his third touchdown.
After an onside kick that Hayesville recovered, the Yellow Jackets squandered excellent field position by fumbling the ball away. Four plays later, Andrews quarterback Donovan Bateman scored. The point-after kick put Andrews up 35-7.
Game over, although the Wildcats would add two fourth-quarter touchdowns against Hayesville reserves.
“Andrews is a very good team,” Coach McClure said. “They have kids with great size and their defense is very sound.”
That sound defense held Hayesville to 31 yards rushing on 22 carries.
Most of the Andrews gargantuans who dominated on defense also controlled the trenches on offense. The Wildcats rushed for an astronomical 510 yards, an average of 8.1 per carry, as three players gained between 97 and 112 yards.
“They really shut our running game down,” Coach McClure said. “They’re pretty smart kids. They attacked and we did not block very well.”
Passing was a different matter. Hayesville’s Logan Caldwell connected on 10-of-17 flings for 128 yards and a touchdown.
Caldwell came out hot, completing his first 7 passes. One of those aerials — an 18-yarder on third down that Mauney turned in a 25-yard gain — kept Hayesville’s only scoring drive alive. Fittingly, Mauney was on the receiving end of the Yellow Jackets’ biggest play of the night. On fourth-and-8 at Andrews’ 35, Caldwell rolled out and heaved a jump pass as he reached the sideline. Mauney, in the endzone, collected the ball for 6. Isaac Chandler’s point-after kick tied the score, 7-7.
Andrews answered with a 13-yard, 79-yard march to the promised land for a 14-7 advantage.
Hayesville was still very much in the game.
The Yellow Jackets got to midfield before surrendering the ball after a fourth-down incompletion, but opportunity knocked again just three plays later when Taylor McClure throttled Bateman, the pigskin popped loose, and Hayesville’s Avery Leatherwood recovered.
Racing against the clock, Hayesville reached its 40-yardline on a 17-yard pass from Caldwell to Kyle Lunsford, but the prospect of tying the game before halftime evaporated when Andrews picked off a pass as Caldwell was hit — Logan’s first interception of the year (after 83 passes).
Speaking of passing, Murphy quarterback Cole Laney threw for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Bulldogs 49-14 win over Cherokee last Friday.
In fact, Laney has thrown for more than 100 yards in each of Murphy’s last three games – two of them wins.
“They’ve thrown the ball a lot more than in recent years, but we expect them to run, especially after seeing how well Andrews ran on us,” Coach McClure said.
The Bulldogs certainly have horses capable of churning up the Astroturf. Thoroughbred No. 1 Hunter Stalcup has gained 688 yards, averages 10.1 per carry, and scored 15 touchdowns — 10 of them on the ground.
Friday night will definitely be a test.
“We have to control what we can control,” Coach McClure said. “We just have to continue to get better at what we do.”
Honey From the Hive
• Taylor McClure led Hayesville’s defenders with 15 tackles against Andrews. Of course, he had lots of opportunities — Andrews ran 57 plays to Hayesville’s 40.
• Hayesville hasn’t beaten Murphy since 2006.
• The Hayesville sideline will be a little fuller from now on. Several freshmen from the JV team have been added to the roster and Coach Chad McClure says most of the newbies will get playing time.
• Keep your fingers crossed. There’s a chance Asher Brown and Zek Furby will come off the injured list in the very near future.