Photo by Keith McCurry Michael Mauney, No. 24, reacts to catching a touchdown for Hayesville's only touchdown in its second-round playoff loss to Mountain Heritage.
By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Don’t be surprised if Mountain Heritage is crowned the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 1-A state champion in three weeks.
“They’re a really good team,” Hayesville Coach Chad McClure said. “I think they’ve got a shot to go pretty deep into the playoffs.”
Mountain Heritage, undefeated in 10 games, seeded No. 2, and averaging 46.1 points per game, certainly played like a championship-caliber team in a 51-7 rout of Hayesville in the second round of the playoffs in Burnsville, N.C. on Saturday, Nov. 23.
“They did a really good job of keeping the ball from us in the first half. We may have only had three possessions in the first half. We didn’t have a lot of yards,” McClure said. “We played hard, we just couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t move the ball on them.”
Mountain Heritage only needed 1:48 to score its first touchdown, on a 28-yard run. The Cougars added three more touchdowns for a 30-0 lead — all on runs — before halftime.
“I was very pleased with the way we executed on both sides of the ball. They are very tough and a well-coached team and I thought jumping out to an early lead was the key for us,” Mountain Heritage Coach Joey Robinson said.
Mountain Heritage added two touchdowns in the third quarter and another score in the final stanza.
“They have a lot of speed,” McClure stated.
They also had a tough defense. The Cougars limited Hayesville’s heralded rushing attack to 65 yards.
The Yellow Jackets added 59 yards and a touchdown via the airwaves as Tate Roberts and Lance Coker each completed two passes. Coker accounted for 47 of those yards.
Three of those completions belonged to Michael Mauney, who displayed his usual tenacity in leading the Jackets offense. Mauney had 57 yards in receptions, 54 more on four kickoff returns and averaged 5.7 yards on three carries. He also had five tackles.
Dawson Devane also had some success. Double D averaged four yards on four carries. Tre Graves led Hayesville in rushing yardage with 28 in addition to 37 yards returning punts and kickoffs.
Kasen Chastain led the Jackets in tackles with six. Graves, Colton Bruggers and Will Brown had four tackles apiece.
Hayesville’s lone touchdown came when Mauney gathered a fling from Coker right before the end of the game. Freshman Josue Salas kicked the extra point.
Salas is one of 38 underclassmen McClure will count on next year to improve on a 4-8 record that began with a 0-4 start.
This season didn’t turn out the way it should have, but McClure and his hardworking staff can take solace in knowing that the Jackets were probably the best 4-8 team in the state.
“I’m proud of the way they continued to battled through adversity. I felt like we had a lot of adversity through injuries and other things. We had a couple of games I felt like we could have won,” McClure said. “I felt like at the end of season we were playing better football than at the beginning. We had a good group of seniors. They had more than 20 wins in their career.”