East Flat Rock – After a first half in which Andrews football didn’t always take advantage of its opportunities, the Wildcats left no doubt in the second half on the road at East Henderson. A 13-6 halftime quickly ballooned to 40-6 in the third quarter, as Andrews’ running game was too much for the Eagles in a 54-30 win.
“I think halftime it was just realizing we haven’t played to our potential in the first half and we better get our act together in a hurry and figure some things out,” Andrews head coach James Phillips said. “It was a kind of a little heart-to-heart at halftime.”
Andrews (2-0 overall) dominated East Henderson (0-2) at Hugh Hamilton Stadium last year, but the Eagles look like they’re playing with more energy under first year head coach Colton Brackett. And though East Henderson’s spread offense was able to move the ball at times, the Eagles defense could not stop the Wildcat’s ground attack.
North Buncombe used a similar strategy the week before to snap an 18-game losing streak, and the Wildcats racked up 523 rushing yards. Dalton Rose and Eli Aguilar both ran for over 100 yards for the second straight week. Rose ran for 278 yards and three touchdowns on just 15 carries, while Aguilar added 117 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
Andrews wasn’t firing on all cylinders in the first half. After a nine-yard pickup to start the Wildcats first drive, Aguilar slipped in the backfield and Andrews later turned it over on downs. Aguilar made up for it, intercepting a pass from Eagles quarterback Lex Burns that was tipped by Rose, then capping off the ensuing 6-play, 70-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.
East Henderson responded with a 10-play scoring drive of their own, which included two fourth down conversions. The second fourth down conversion was also a touchdown, with Burns finding Isaac Schulz for a 31-yard strike to cut the Andrews lead to 7-6 as time expired in the first quarter.
After both teams turned the ball over on downs on their next drives, Andrews extended the lead. Rose took a handoff 67 yards down to the Eagles nine-yard line, before Samuel Preston punched it in on the next play.
That would be the only touchdown of the second quarter, and the Wildcats did exactly what they needed to in the third quarter to put the game away. Rose scored his first touchdown of the night on the opening drive of the half, then ran for a 72-yard touchdown and a 27-6 lead on the next. East Henderson fumbled on its next drive, and immediately Graham Burch took a double handoff through a wide open hole for a 34-yard touchdown. Then after Aguilar returned an Eagles punt to the East Henderson 30-yard line, Holden Todd’s 24-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 40-6.
“It took us a little while to kind of get our blocking worked out,” Phillips said. “And it took me a little bit to figure out what adjustments we needed to make, what sets we needed to be in and what would work for us.”
The Eagles still fought to make the final score respectable, but the Wildcats were never seriously threatened. With Burns going down with an injury, junior running back James Robinson took over at quarterback and completed 12-of-18 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns. East Henderson’s offense was simplified with a backup quarterback, mainly looking for big gains downfield. But the Eagles still couldn’t stop Andrews, with Rose and Aguilar each adding touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats are back at home this Friday against New Faith Christian Academy. The Riverdale, Ga. private school team is only in its second year, and lost 42-0 to Murphy last year. Phillips is not always a fan of playing new teams. However the Wildcats goal for non-conference play is to improve, and he still sees some things to clean up.
“The difference between good teams and great teams is in the execution and the little details,” Phillips said. “We’ve still got so many little details to get better at.”