Andrews – The end of the school year means football is coming in a few months.
On the east end of Cherokee County, excitement has been building since last season’s heartbreaking second-round playoff loss to Starmount. The Wildcats graduated just three seniors and return impact players all over the field.
Andrews went 7-4 last year, and a 4-3 spring 2021 season meant the Wildcats had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1966-67. The pieces are there for success again this season, and the 2022 schedule features some familiar foes along with the typical Smoky Mountain Conference gauntlet.
The Wildcats will have a scrimmage against Franklin like they did last year on Aug. 12 before opening the season on Aug 19 at the Hickory Hawks, an independent Christian football team. Andrews beat Hickory 36-11 to open 2021.
The Wildcats will host 3A school East Henderson in their home opener on Aug. 26. The Eagles went 1-8 last year and have not had a winning season since 2012. Only once since then have they won three or more games in a season.
After playing East Henderson, the Wildcats will head on the road again to North Buncombe on Sept 2. The Black Hawks went winless last year after three straight winning seasons, including a 44-20 loss to Andrews.
On Sept. 9, the Wildcats will travel to defending 1A West regional champion Mitchell for their toughest non-conference game. Andrews beat the Mountaineers 26-14 last season, and all Mitchell did after that was win 11 straight games before falling to Tarboro in the state championship. The Wildcats will close out the non-conference portion of their schedule on Sept. 16 with a home game against North Georgia, a home-school team based in Canton that Andrews defeated 41-16 last year.
After a week off, Andrews will start conference play on Sept. 30. The conference schedule is the same as last year, except the venues are flipped.
This means home conference games last year are away conference games this year, and vice versa. The Wildcats will travel to Hayesville on Sept. 30, host Swain County on Oct. 7, travel to Cherokee on Oct. 14, host Robbinsville on Oct. 21 and travel to Murphy on Oct. 28.
Andrews went 2-3 in the conference last year with wins over Hayesville and Murphy. The win against the Bulldogs was it first over their county foe since 1981.
The Wildcats’ three conference losses were all by 10 points or less, including a 12-9 loss to Cherokee where they had seven drives move into Braves territory and only scored one touchdown. In the playoffs, Andrews once again came up short in a close game, falling in overtime at Starmount, 27-20.
It’s the little things that could make the difference in the Wildcats being a team no one wants to play to one in position to make a deep playoff run. That journey officially starts in 71 days with the Franklin scrimmage.