10-0: Mavericks make history
It was Senior Night for the Mavericks and they celebrated by beating visiting Sequoyah 70-13.
Anderson County fans enjoyed fireworks — literal and figurative — all night.
The Mavericks opened scoring with a five-play, 61-yard drive, which ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Mason Phillips with 10:47 left in the first quarter.
Clayton Utley kicked the extra point to stake Anderson County to a 7-0 lead they would not relinquish.
Later in the quarter, the Mavericks put together a four-play, 54-yard drive that was capped by a 32-yard touchdown pass from Stanton Martin to Ryan Moog.
Utley added the PAT and Anderson County led 14-0 with 3:53 left in the first quarter.
Roughly two minutes later, the Mavericks went 69 yards in just three plays as Martin threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Michael Carroll.
Utley kicked the extra point to give Anderson County a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
Sequoyah opened the second quarter with a 15-play, 82-yard drive, which resulted in a three-yard touchdown run by Garrett Blair.
Matt Lee added the extra point to cut the Mavericks’ advantage to 21-7 with 8:33 left in the half.
Anderson County answered quickly as two plays later, Moog hauled in a 55-yard touchdown pass from Martin.
Utley added the extra point and the Mavericks led 28-7 with 8:13 remaining in the half.
A couple of minutes later the Chiefs added another score when Josh Stakely scored on a 31-yard run.
The two-point conversion attempt failed but the Anderson County lead was trimmed to 28-13 with 6:05 left in the first half.
Later in the second quarter, the Mavericks went 45 yards in four plays as Martin threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Dalton Wilson.
Utley kicked the extra point to push the Anderson County lead to 35-13 with 1:45 remaining in the half.
The Mavericks got the ball back less than a minute later and took advantage of the opportunity as Moog scored on a 48-yard touchdown pass from Martin.
Utley’s extra point gave Anderson County a 42-13 halftime lead.
The Mavericks’ defense opened scoring in the second half as Wilson returned an interception 43 yards for a touchdown.
Utley kicked the extra point and the Anderson County lead grew to 49-13 with 11:09 remaining in the third quarter, putting the game in a continuous clock.
Later in the quarter, Marquise Gallahar scored on a 19-yard run.
Utley kicked the PAT and the Anderson County lead swelled to 56-13 with 3:59 left in the third quarter.
With the starters out of the game, the Mavericks found the end zone in the fourth quarter as they went 60 yards in eight plays. The drive concluded with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Stone Hatmaker to Cannon Carpenter.
Utley kicked the extra point and Anderson County increased its lead to 63-13 with 8:28 left in the game.
The Mavericks wrapped up scoring when Jonah Wilson scored on a five-yard run.
Utley sent the final point over the crossbar and the Mavericks picked up the 70-13 win.
“We’ve been talking about it [going unbeaten] for a while. From the beginning we wanted to win a region championship. Once the season got going and the kids were playing pretty good, we saw going unbeaten as a possibility. Some of our expected challenges early in the season turned into 50-point blowouts, 10-0 became a realistic vision,” said Davey Gillum, head coach of the Mavericks.
“It’s a great accomplishment for our kids to go a whole season without a hiccup. It all goes back to how much these kids played as freshmen and sophomores playing against Catholic, Fulton, and Greeneville. What they’ve gone through the past three years has helped prepare them for this season,” he said.
Martin finished 12-17 for 300 yards and five touchdowns.
He finished the regular season with 2770 yards passing and 41 touchdowns. He also added 527 yards and five touchdowns rushing.
Gallahar had 51 yards and a touchdown on eight carries to lead a stable of running backs who saw action Friday night.
Phillips led the team in rushing for the season with 733 yards and 13 touchdowns on 94 carries.
Wilson had six catches for 119 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs. He led the Mavericks with 40 receptions for 775 yards and 16 touchdowns for the season.
Moog had three receptions for 135 yards and three touchdowns Friday night.
Defensively, Phillips led the team with nine tackles, including two for loss.
Thomas Roberts finished with eight tackles, including two for loss.
Andrew Hatmaker had eight tackles while Gallahar finished with seven tackles, including one for loss.
Wilson finished with three tackles and two interceptions.
The Mavericks finish 10-0 and Region 2-4A Champions.
They host Grainger on Friday at 7 p.m. in the first round of the playoffs.
“We’re not looking past Grainger. They are a very good football team and they are big. They moved the ball on Greeneville and pushed their D-line,” Gillum said.
“We’re approaching this as a new season. We have a record of 0-0,” he said.
Game Stats
SHS AC
First downs 12 18
Rushing yds. 83 133
Passing yds. 83 350
Comp/att/int 9-26-2 15-21-1
Total yds. 166 483
Turnovers 3 1
Penalties 5-45 9-71
Time of poss. 30:10 17:50
