Chaos unleashed
Mavs shut down Carter Hornets
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Anderson County’s Andrew Meier leads the Maverick defense on a sack during play Friday night. - Ken Leinart
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Anderson County’s Braden Miller leaves a Hornet defender grabbing ground with a move for additional yardage Friday night in the ACHS region win over the Carter Hornets. - Ken Leinart
The Carter High School Hornets were supposed to have the “chaotic” defense — designed to get the ball back in a hurry.
Friday night it was Anderson County High School’s defense that unleashed chaos and set the tone early in the Mav’s 49-22 region win that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate.
The Mavs opened the game with a pick-six on the fourth play, with Daylen Cole picking off the pass and taking it home from 24 yards out.
After Chris Nelson’s PAT, the Mavs had a quick 7-0 lead (11:03 left in the first quarter) and had pretty much made a statement about how the game was going to go.
Israel Small almost got a pick, Gavin Noe got a sack, then Cole got his pick.
“They’re a good football team,” Anderson County Head Coach Davey Gillum said.
“Every team matches up different and we’re kinda built for this.
“In the secondary and our linebackers … We understand how to cover this.”
Anderson County chaos scored 49 points in the first half, rested the starters for the second, saw the Hornet’s first string get two scores against the JV Mavs — and a third Carter score with JV on JV play.
Walker Martinez was … Well, Walker Martinez.
He connected with Eli Braden for the Mavs’ second score with 5:24 left in the first quarter. He guided the Mavs to a third score in the first quarter — Moog doing the damage from five yards out.
As the first quarter ended, Anderson County had a 21-0 lead — with Nelson being perfect on PATs.
The second quarter was much of the same. Anderson County started the quarter with a five-yard TD combo, Martinez to Braden Miller, with 11:37 left in the first half and a 28-0 lead.
The Mavs had to punt on their next drive — penalties being the culprit (two illegal procedure calls).
“We really prepare well every week. The guys are learning the scheme every week. We just have to get rid of the penalties … We have to clean up that garbage,” Gillum said.
Not that having to punt slowed the Mavericks down.
With less than seven minutes left in the first half, the Mavs got a Martinez to Braden TD (35-0); a Gavin Noe steamroll from three yards out (42-0); and Martinez to Bryson Vowell strike for a 21-yard TD (49-0).
And here’s the scary thing: Noe scored his three-yard TD with 48.1 second left in the half. Eli Davis gave the ball back to ACHS with the Mavs’ second interception of the night and Martinez used less that 20 second to connect with Vowell for the final Maverick touchdown.
Nelson was perfect on the night with, going seven-for-seven on his point afters.
“That defense is a lot harder to scheme against than it looks. It’s very chaotic,” Gillum said.
“They try to bury what they do defensively. They want to run a lot of offensive plays, score a bunch of points, throw the ball, all that kind of thing, and get the ball back as fast as possible. “They’re going to try and outscore you 98-90. What they want to do is cause a lot of chaos, cause a lot of negative plays and along the way get an extra possession from you with a turnover.”
It didn’t work out for the Hornets Friday night.
“It’s a lot on the OL (offensive line) in the protection game and the run game make sure all the different blitzes and chaos is accounted for. They did a good job picking all that up, giving Walker time. The receivers made plays, the running backs ran hard.
“And we were given some two man and man-to-man coverage and they were trying to be super aggressive, so we gave our receivers opportunities to make plays and Walker made throws.”
It also helped the Maverick cause to have a defense that didn’t bite into any of the Hornet offensive schemes.
“Gavin Noe and Andrew Meier were good at bringing pressure inside when we’re only bringing four … It’s almost check mate a lot of times,” Gillum said.
“The speed we bring off the egde, the athleticism, and power … Gavin Noe is the fastest guy around, the strongest guy around, and meaner than anybody around. You have all that coming at you and then you a couple of more kids doing the same thing, it’s tough.”
The Mavs have a short week with Gibbs comes to town Thursday.
The Mavs will honor Murphy Fair Thursday night.
“He’s done so much for high school football in Tennessee and deserves recognition on his retirement and for all the things he has done for the kids,” Anderson County High School Athletic Director Gary Terry said.