South Doyle stuns Mavs with 22-21 win
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Garrison Terry tried to get around a South Doyle defender during Friday night’s game. - Collin Riggs
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A defender dives for ACHS’s Gavin Noe during a rush downfield. - Collin Riggs
Anderson County came up just short of a win at South Doyle High School against the Cherokees in a non-conference game on Friday, Sept. 11. The Mavericks lost 21-22.
The Mavs started out strong, with a quick two touchdowns in the first quarter to put them up 14-0 against the Cherokees, and a 7-7 tie in the second quarter put the score at 21-7. Unfortunately, the Mavs began to run out of steam in the second half, as multiple players began cramping up on the field.
The Mavericks began missing tackles as South Doyle began running the defense ragged.
There were no touchdowns in the third quarter, but South Doyle scored midway through the fourth, giving Anderson County the ball.
Unfortunately for the Mavs, they couldn’t move it enough to make a difference, and had to punt it back to the Cherokees. With a minute left, the Cherokees scored. They originally lined up to kick the extra point, but, after a penalty on the Mavericks, the Cherokees changed their line and prepared to go for the two-point conversion.
Both teams met at the line and held for a number of seconds as both teams struggled to push as hard as they could.
When the refs finally blew the whistle, though, the ball lay just over the line, putting South Doyle ahead for the first time that night.
The Mavericks got the ball, and made an effort to get in field goal range with seconds left on the clock, throwing back-to-back first downs to move the ball to midfield. If they could get in Daniel Bethel’s kicking range, a field goal would have won the game for them. Unfortunately for the Mavericks, on the pass that would have put them well within field goal range, South Doyle intercepted the ball, sealing the win and setting the final score.
Even with a hard second half, the Mavericks still came out on top stat-wise, finishing with 219 rushing yards to South Doyle’s 195, and 199 passing yards to South Doyle’s 70.
Anderson County finished with an enormous 418 total offensive yards of the game to South Doyle’s 265, averaging 6.2 yards per play.
Both teams finished with four penalties apiece, keeping the game relatively clean, and both teams threw two interceptions. On third-down conversions, Anderson County squeaked out one over South Doyle, managing three of 11 to South Doyle’s two of 12.
Gavin Noe again led the Mavs on rushing, gaining 164 net yards.
Behind him, Josh Miller managed 46 yards.
Stone Hatmaker threw for 199 yards across the game, including two touchdowns (to Gavin Noe and Josh Miller), while Bryson Vowell was the lead receiver for the Mavs, with six catches.
Zach Shannon led the defense for the Mavs, with two unassisted tackles and seven assisted.
David Gillum, head coach for the Mavericks, was frank about the loss.
“We just didn’t really execute well enough consistently on offense,” Gillum said. “We kept the defense out on the field for too long and they just got tired. I can’t really complain; the kids played hard. It’s part of the problem with playing kids on both sides of the ball.
“At the end of the day, though, the kids played well, played physical, and played hard. We’ve got to clean some stuff up on offense, but we’re as optimistic as ever. We’ve got time before we play East Hamilton and the big guys at the end of the season. We’ve got a few things we need to address, and we’ll spend the back half of this season trying to address it.”
