By Gary Corsair
Staff Writer
Hayesville refused to be Robbinsville’s whipping boy this year. In fact, the Yellow Jackets landed more than their share of punches Friday on the Frank R. Long Memorial Stadium turf.
Hayesville fought with vim and vigor before falling, 21-9, Robbinsville’s smallest margin of victory over the Black-and-Gold since the Black Knights won 34-31 in 2012.
In nine games since that nailbiter 10 years ago, the Graham County boys beat Hayesville by an average score of 45-14. In years past, 21-9 would have been the halftime score.
This year’s game wasn’t as close as 21-9 implies.
Hayesville held Robbinsville scoreless for the first 17:52 minutes of the game, cut the lead to 8-3 before halftime and pulled within a single touchdown before the Black Knights iced the game with 5:45 left to play.
The win gave Robbinsville (7-3 overall, 3-2 conference) third place in the Smoky Mountain Conference. The loss provided the Yellow Jackets (5-5, 1-3 SMC) with confirmation that they can play with anyone.
“I was proud of our kids,” Hayesville Coach Chad McClure remarked. “We had our chances. It was a one-score game until they scored later. Our kids, just like they’ve been doing all year, they’d didn’t quit. They kept fighting.”
The fighting spirit was manifest by a fired-up defense that made it clear early on that Yellow Jackets would not be bullied.
Jacked up Jackets repeatedly made big plays. The biggest kaboom came midway through the first quarter when Taylor “Hit-and-Run” McClure turned into a human torpedo and detonated on quarterback Bryce Adams as the passer released the ball. The NFL-intensity thunderclap — which was neither dirty, nor late — resulted in a questionable roughing-the-passer penalty.
Taylor continued making big defensive plays. In fact, he tipped away a potential touchdown pass at the 3 yard line on the next play. Hit-and-Run finished with 10 solo tackles and a total of 15, twice as many as any player on the field.
Taylor wasn’t the only stalwart defender in that scoreless first quarter. Logan Caldwell broke up a pass on second-and-19 during Robbinsville’s first possession (two plays later, the Black Knights punted). And “Mighty Mite” Mike Mauney blanketed a receiver so thoroughly that a third-and-8 pass fell incomplete on Robbinsville’s second possession (Hayesville took over on downs a play later).
In the second half, Cameron Payne had a big 9-yard sack.
“They’re making plays, that’s what players do. It’s fun to coach when kids play like that,” Coach McClure said. “That’s one of our focuses; to play better defense. And I think we have, and it’s giving us chances in ballgames we haven’t had in recent years.”
The linebackers and secondary were especially effective. Robbinsville had just 2 yards passing on 1-of-5 attempts.
In the pit was a different story. Hayesville’s line has clearly improved, but Robbinsville’s bigger bodies had the upper hand. The Black Knights gained 340 yards on the ground.
That’s a lot of yards, but they didn’t translate into a lot of points because Hayesville defenders repeatedly came through when a stop was needed. That was obviously when Robbinsville’s first three possessions ended in a punt and two incompletions on fourth down.
“I thought our line had one of its best outings of the year. I was looking at the film and they did some things really well,” Coach McClure said. “Robbinsville is a good team, a very good defensive team. With the exception of Murphy, they’ve held people to pretty low scores.”
The Black Knights finally broke the shutout with six running plays in a row in the second quarter. The biggest gainer was the final run, a 17-yarder into the end zone by Cuttler Adams, who finished with 221 yards on 24 carries. Bryce Adams added the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
Hayesville answered with its first sustained drive. It was a thing of beauty.
Caldwell, cool as a Carlotta’s snowball, marched his troops with pinpoint passing, deft ball fakes, and a 12-yard scramble that put the Gold-and-Black in field goal range.
Three times the Yellow Jackets executed on third down, with a 5-yard run off left tackle by Kyle Lunsford, a sweet 25-yard pass from Caldwell to Bryan Davenport that moved the ball midfield, a crucial 14-yard pass from Caldwell to Avery Leatherwood with :55 left in the half.
Coach McClure then wisely ran the clock down to next to :11.6 (reducing the odds Robbinsville would tack on another score) and called on “Automatic” Isaac Chandler, who came through with a 36-yard field goal to cut the lead to 8-3.
Coach McClure’s fear that Robbinsville would respond with a big play was realized on the first play from scrimmage after the kickoff when Cooper Adams blasted into the secondary. Hayesville fans, coaches and players resumed breathing when Mauney and Davenport saved the day by knocking Cooper out of bounds. The half ended :04 later.
Optimism prevailed in the Hayesville locker room during a delightful halftime show by the HHS Band. Imagine being within a single touchdown to Robbinsville and the Black Knights would be kicking off to launch the third quarter.
Hit-and-Run McClure clearly believed; he gained 8 yards on the first two plays of the first series of the second half. Unfortunately, an incomplete pass forced Hayesville to punt. What a punt it was. Leatherwood popped the pigskin 56 yards.
Seven consecutive rushing plays put Robbinsville into enemy territory before the Yellow Jackets defense said, ‘Enough is enough.’ The Black Knights were forced to punt after a take down by Jeremy Graves on first down, an incomplete pass when “Party Crasher” Asher Brown did a Velcro number on Bryce Adams on a post pattern, and a bone-crunching, 9-yard quarterback sack by Cameron Payne forced Robbinsville to punt.
Robbinsville returned the pain by sacking Caldwell on a third-and-3 and the Yellow Jackets returned the ball with another Leatherwood rainmaker, this one covering 50 yards.
Big gainers by Cooper Adams advanced the ball inside the 10, where Hayesville held firm until for a few downs, before Bryce Adams found pay dirt to put Robbinsville up 14-3.
The fourth quarter began with promise when Taylor caught a Caldwell aerial and busted his way to 21 yards down the sideline, and Lunsford hauled in a Logan lob and went 26 yards.
With the goal line just 25 yards away, the Robbinsville secondary got super sticky. With his receivers covered like a Moore Insurance policy, Logan threw two incompletions — one resulted in an intentional grounding penalty — and scrambled for a zero, which necessitated a punt.
Fortunately, the Hayesville defense was also stingy and Robbinsville punted.
This time, the offense clicked. The fireworks began when Caldwell found Taylor on the sideline for a 40-yard gain. Two incompletions and a 1-yard loss resulted in fourth-and-11 at midfield, but Caldwell found Lunsford, who made the greatest catch of the season. The pass was tipped and went straight up in the air as two defenders hit, but Kyle reached up and claimed the ball for a first down.
Not to be outdone, Taylor McClure made a leaping catch two plays later, and lunged into the end zone for a 35-yard reception and 6 to make the score 14-9 with 5:40 left to play.
The impossible dream was within reach, but Robbinsville controlled the ball and the clock with a nearly unstoppable rushing attack and eventually punched the ball in with 1:53. A two-pointer finished the scoring.
Caldwell led the Hayesville offense with 191 yards passing— (his season high — and 30 yards rushing. Taylor McClure had 4 catches for 97 yards and 26 yards on the ground. Lunsford pulled down 3 passes for 55 yards.
“I can’t say enough about the kids’ effort,” McClure said. “They’re just giving us everything they got, and as a coach that’s all you can ask for. I hope it builds their confidence as we move forward. We are looking forward to the playoffs, to see where we measure up.”
Box score
Hayesville 0-3-0-6 — 9
Robbinsville 0-8-6-7 – 21
Hayesville Rushing: Logan Caldwell 12/30, Taylor McClure 8/26, Tre Graves 1/5, Dawson DeVane 2/5, Kyle Lunsford 3/5
Hayesville Passing: Caldwell 11/21, 191 yards, 1 Td, 1 Int.
Hayesville Receiving: McClure 4/97, Lunsford 5/55, Avery Leatherwood 2/24, Bryan Davenport 1/16, Michael Mauney 1/1-1
Hayesville tackles: McClure 15, Davenport 7, Mauney 6, DeVane 5, Cameron Payne 5, Cadwell 4, Lunsford 4, Jeremy Graves 4
Honey From the Hive
• Does anyone have a better kicking game than Hayesville?! Punter Avery Leatherwood is pulverizing the pigskin, even when he gets a low snap. As for kicker Isaac Chandler, the day is coming when he’ll win a game with a 50-yard field goal.
• Kudos to Hayesville’s linemen. The boys in the trenches have improved significantly.
• The playoffs are like a new season, and fans deserve some new, fresh in-game music. Let’s begin by retiring that tired, annoying Crazy Train intro (“I … I … I …”) with something hot like the intro to Never Say Never (by Romeo Void), The Walls Came Down (by The Call) or Up Around the Bend (by CCR).
• How good is the Smoky Mountain Conference? “I think all six teams have a chance of winning this week,” Coach McClure said.
• Coach McClure has fond memories of Hayesville’s last playoff victory: “It was at Alleghany, in 2016. We went up there and nobody expected us to beat them.”
• It sure was good to see Roman Jones in the Robbinsville lineup. Roman was told he would never play sports again after a serious dirt bike accident when he was in junior high school.