By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Victory was within reach at Robbinsville Friday, but Hayesville didn’t answer when opportunity knocked, not once, but twice in the final 7:15 of a Smoky Mountain Conference battle royale Robbinsville led 26-20.
The first opportunity came when Hayesville’s Dawson Devane recovered a Robbinsville fumble near midfield with 7:16 remaining, but the door remained shut when the Yellow Jackets went nowhere on three tries and had to punt.
Three minutes later, Hayesville earned an even better chance to tie the score or snatch the lead when Will Brown recovered a fumble that gave the Black-and-Gold first-and-10 just 19 yards away from the end zone.
The Yellow Jackets got no closer than the 16 after three carries for eight yards were offset by a five-yard penalty. An incomplete fourth-down pass ended the possibility of Hayesville, 5-4, 1-3 in the SMC, of upsetting Robbinsville, 8-1, 4-0 conference, and preserved the 26-20 score.
“We were at the 19 with first-and-10 and we couldn’t score. We have to learn to make plays in those situations,” Hayesville Coach Chad McClure stated after his team took an elite SMC football team to the wire for the third time this year. “We had chances. We had a lot of missed opportunities.”
Hayesville once again played inspired ball. The Jackets couldn’t overcome Robbinsville’s big plays — a 64-yard touchdown run by Cuttler Adams on the fourth play of the game, a 42-yard pass that set up a five-yard touchdown run by Adams, a 60-yard touchdown pass, and a 45-yard touchdown haul by Adams.
“The big plays were the difference,” McClure remarked. “It’s strange. In football, a game will come down to a couple of plays.”
One could argue that a couple of smaller plays helped Robbinsville hold off the boys from Clay County.
The first play that begged review came when Hayesville, trailing 26-13 in the third quarter, went for broke on fourth-and-1 at Robbinsville’s 37 yard-line. Taylor McClure, still not quite 100 percent after being injured two weeks prior, carried for his first and only time, smashing into a wall of defenders and churning his way to the 39. Unfortunately, the ball was spotted at the 38 and Robbinsville took over.
The second crucial big/small play came with Hayesville on defense and Robbinsville buried at its own one-yardline, the Black Knights still leading 26-13, early in the fourth when Tre Graves stormed into the hosts’ backfield and sacked quarterback Donovan Carpenter for what appeared to be a safety. Instead of awarding Hayesville 2 points and ordering Robbinsville to kick off, the officials ruled that contact occurred before the goal line. Two plays later, the Black Knights punted.
“They go up 26-13 on us and at that point you don’t know how kids will respond. We came back and scored and forced some turnovers,” McClure said.
Hayesville responded promptly with its own big play on second-and-10 after the punt. Graves bolted through Robbinsville’s front, sidestepped two linebackers and sprinted 27 yards for a spectacular touchdown run. Isaac Chandler’s kick closed the gap to 26-20, Robbinsville.
Two plays later, Devane recovered the aforementioned fumble that preceded the first missed opportunity.
Chandler certainly made the most of his field goal chances, splitting the uprights twice in the final :34 of the first half.
Chandler’s 6 points in a half minute was made possible by Graves’ scintillating 36-yard kickoff return after Robbinsville went up 14-7, followed by Cole Vining’s 31-yard romp that moved Hayesville to the hosts’ 14-yardline :34 prior to the intermission.
Chandler’s 31-yard boot with :15.7 on the second quarter clock cut the lead to 14-10.
Then, a big play by Hayesville. On ensuing kickoff, Vining zoomed down field and made a sliding fumble recovery around Robbinsville’s 20.
Chandler nailed the second field goal from 36 yards out with just :2.4 showing to trim the Black Knights’ lead to 14-13.
Hayesville’s first touchdown was also a big play. Down 6-0 early in the second quarter, Tate Roberts rifled a 9-yard pass to McClure, who high-stepped his way down the sideline to pay-dirt on a 24-yard reception. Chandler’s kick put Hayesville on top 7-6.
Chandler had five tackles in addition to the 8 points he scored.
McClure made three catches for 44 yards and led the defense with seven tackles.
Michael Mauney also caught three passes – four if you count his interception.
Graves rushed for 78 yards on 16 carries, 4.9, added 36 yards on a kick return, caused a fumble and made five tackles.
Vining had 47 yards on 11 tries, 4.3.
“Our running backs ran hard,” McClure said.
Roberts hit on 8-of-17 passes for 72 yards.
“Tate did a good job with his reads,” McClure stated.
Seth Leek had five tackles. Lane O’Dell had four.
Hayesville’s fourth SMC test comes in the form of Andrews on Senior Night this Friday in Hayesville.
“It’s going to be tough again this week,” McClure remarked. “We are getting great effort from our guys. It’s really hard to have three tough games in this conference and come up short. We Just have to persevere and trust the process. In hindsight, we could very easily be 5-0 in the SMC.