Andrews suffers 1st conference loss
Cherokee – Andrews hit the road for its second Smoky Mountain Conference matchup Friday night, falling 27-0 in a game where they couldn’t seem to get the offense going.
The Braves (4-3) got their first touchdown in the first quarter after working their way down the field, then putting the ball in the hands of their quarterback, who ran it in for the score. The Wildcats (4-2) blocked the extra-point attempt to only trail by six.
Andrews punted to start the second quarter. The Braves got the ball in good field position and were able to capitalize with a 25-yard passing touchdown. The Braves succeeded with a two-point conversion to take a 14-0 lead.
With two minutes remaining in the first half, the Braves got the ball back, worked their way down field and scored on a big throw to take a 20-0 lead. The Wildcats’ special teams then blocked another extra-point attempt.
Andrews got the ball back and was moving downfield, but couldn’t come up with any points to trail by 20 at halftime. About halfway through the third quarter, the Braves got another touchdown and made the extra point to extend the lead to 27-0.
In the fourth quarter, the Braves began to take their time on plays to drain the clock. Andrews got the ball late and made a final push, but time expired before the Wildcats could put any points on the board.
Quarterback Everett Tatham sat out the game with an injury, so sophomore Brady McLelland started at quarterback. McLelland was 6/11 for 33 yards under center. McLelland also had five carries for 20 yards on the ground.
Senior Eli Aguilar had 12 carries for 32 yards, as well as two receptions for seven yards before suffering an injury. Kelby Waldroup led the team in rushing yards with 39 yards on two carries, and also had four receptions for 25 yards.
LaDannien Rattler had three carries for five yards and Holden Todd had three carries for one yard.
On defense, McLelland and Jerry Cable both had five solo tackles. Will Roberts had three solo tackles and 10 tackle assists, while Cable also had eight tackle assists. Senior Landon Greene had five quarterback hurries.
After Friday night’s game in the Qualla Boundary, Wildcats head coach James Phillips said the team did not play well.
“I’m the head coach, so that’s a reflection on me, like I told them after the game. I knew we didn’t play great last Friday, but we played tough and gritty and found a way to win. From the get-go it seemed like part of that wasn’t here tonight,” Phillips said.
“There’s nights like that, but ultimately that’s about leadership, and that’s my responsibility. … I’ll evaluate it and watch the heck out of film this weekend, like I always do, and just try to dig harder and deeper and find ways to get better.”
Philips added, “I told them from the get-go, multiple times during timeouts in the first half, ripping them at halftime, that we’re a program that’s built pride in how we play and our toughness and being disciplined and our execution, and come out and have hardly any penalties tonight, but we can’t block anybody.
“That was the biggest issue. I felt like, once again this week offensively, we just didn’t block very well and, ultimately, I’m the offensive line coach and the head coach, so that lies at my feet. I think the leadership of the team has been great, and it will continue to be great. I’m confident in that, but we’re wounded right now and you take a good but whipping like that and the competitive prideful part of you has to come back and fight harder and dig deeper, which we talked about coming into this game with Everett [Tatham] out. We all had to dig a little deeper, and I just don’t feel like collectively across the board that everybody did that tonight.”
This week, Andrews will host Robbinsville (2-5) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.