Hickory – It’s always good to come away with a 28-0 win, but Andrews head football coach James Phillips still thought his Wildcats could have played better against the Hickory Hawks on Friday night.
Yes, the defense pitched its third shutout of the season, and the running game averaged more than six yards per carry. But there were also four turnovers and seven penalties, leaving Andrews wanting more despite improving to 4-1 on the season.
“There was just some frustration there all the way around on our team,” Phillips said. “I thought it was because we wanted to be playing better and that was a weird environment to play in. But those are all things we’ve got to be better at.
“We’ve got to be better taking care of the football. We won’t win another game the rest of this year if we don’t take care of the football better.”
The “weird environment” was Helen and Leonard Moretz Stadium at Lenoir-Rhyne University. The matchup was originally supposed to be a home game for Andrews, but Hickory Hawks coach Clifton Bennett asked Phillips if they could move the game since it was one of the two weeks Lenoir-Rhyne said they could use the field. While some things about it were a little frustrating to Phillips, like what rooms the team could use, he was glad to give his kids the experience.
“They just did a multimillion-dollar renovation,” Phillips said. “They’ve got some of the nicest (NCAA Division 2) facilities in the nation, and it was really cool for our kids to get to experience that.”
Things started off well, with Dalton Rose capping an 11-play, 56-yard drive with a seven-yard touchdown run. Then after he stripped Hickory Hawks quarterback Latrell Parks and his brother, Colton, recovered, Dalton punctuated the next drive by running through defenders and reaching across the goal line while his jersey was grabbed for a 24-yard touchdown.
An easy blowout win looked to be in store, but Andrews turned it over on its next two offensive plays. After forcing a punt, Holden Todd’s pass was intercepted by Parks.
After a fourth-down stop, Eli Aguilar gave it right back to the Hickory Hawks (1-5). Penalties and a fumble by Dalton Rose stopped a potentially promising drive, but Andrews defense came up with another stop and Dalton Rose ran for a 15-yard touchdown right before halftime.
“Defensively, I thought we played pretty well defending their athletes,” Phillips said.
Aguilar extended the lead to 28-0 on a 25-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter. The Wildcats’ defense forced two more punts and one more stop on fourth down to preserve the shutout.
The Andrews seniors goal was to improve in non-conference play, and it has in some areas. Dalton Rose has slid in seamlessly at running back with more than 700 yards and 11 touchdowns, and turns around to lead a tough and physical defense. Several players who didn’t see a ton of time last year have settled into starting roles.
However, knee injuries to junior quarterback Everett Tatham and senior lineman Tyler West have cast a pall over the encouraging start. Tatham has a partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, while West’s injury does not appear to be serious, with Phillips saying he expects him to be “fine.”
Without Tatham, Andrews’ margin for error on offense becomes extremely thin, needing to stay in front of the chains while the defense keeps things close to have success. Without West, the offensive and defensive lines will give up size to every team in the Smoky Mountain Conference. It makes Friday’s conference opener at Swain County (5-0) even more daunting, with the Maroon Devils off to their best start since 2019.
“That’s a real scramble to try to find kids that can plug in there and make things happen instantly,” Phillips said. “Those things take time, and we’re still in the process of figuring that out.”