Murphy – The Bulldogs took a commanding lead in the Smoky Mountain Conference race when they defeated Swain County 31-14 on Friday night.
Murphy sits atop the conference standings with a 3-0 conference record. Murphy is also ranked fourth in the 1A classification in North Carolina, according to MaxPreps.
A stingy Murphy (7-1) defense held Swain (0-7) to only 131 yards of total offense, while racking up 294 yards of offense of their own.
Murphy’s mistakes did keep Swain in the game in the first quarter. The Dogs received the opening kickoff, but on the second play of the game Swain’s Zeke Glaspie picked off a Brady Grant pass and returned it to the Swain 32 yard line.
The Maroon Devils returned the favor, however, fumbling on their second play from scrimmage, Murphy’s Will Shore covered the ball for the Dogs at the Swain 25 yard line.
Murphy was faced with a fourth-and-five on the ensuing possession, when Ryan Payne took the end-around play and broke three tackles en route to a seven-yard gain to keep the Dogs’ drive alive. Murphy had received a five-yard motion penalty at the beginning of the drive, the first yellow flag of many on the night.
Two plays later, Grant would set the Dogs up with a first-and-goal from the 1. Grant would finish the drive on the next play with a plunge to give Murphy a 6-0 lead at the 7:23 mark of the first quarter. Jerry Bui added the extra point to make it 7-0.
Murphy held Swain on their next drive, when the Dogs stopped the Devils on a fourth-down play to take over possession at the Murphy 30 yard line. On the ensuing third-down play, Swain’s Keyanthae Graham picked off a Grant pass and returned it 34 yards for a Devils touchdown.
Glaspie added a two-point conversion to give Swain an 8-7 lead. That would be the last time Swain held a lead in the game.
Murphy took the ensuing drive and faced with a second-and-14 after a holding penalty. Grant rolled out and found Shore all alone near the Swain 45.
Shore advanced the pass down to the 14 before the Maroon Devils could bring him down. Cameron Clem covered 14 yards on two carries to put the Dogs ahead 13-8. Jerry Bui added an extra point, and Murphy led 14-8 with 11:54 left in the half.
They would not trail again the rest of the night.
Swain coughed up the ball again on the second play of the Devils next possession, and Murphy was back in business at the Swain 38. Kadence Leatherwood ripped off a 14-yard run, and Clem followed that with 20-yard scamper to set the Dogs up with a first-and-goal from the 4. Laundry flew again on the next play as a holding call moved Murphy back to the 14.
Murphy was unable to put it in the end zone, but Bui entered the game and booted a 32-yard field goal to give the Dogs a 17-8 lead with 9:14 left in the first half. That’s where the score stayed until the second half.
Swain and Murphy exchanged possessions to start the third quarter. On Swain’s next possession, the Devils gained almost half of their total yards on one play.
On a third-and-10, Swain quarterback Owen Medlin found Corey Stillwell for a 60-yard pass down to the Murphy 5. Four plays later, Medlin punched it in from 1 yard out to close the score to 17-14. The two-point attempt failed, and the score stayed the same with 3:22 left to play in the third.
After a holding call on the following kickoff, Murphy started the next drive on their own 20. On the first play from scrimmage, Shore took the handoff and raced 80 yards for a Bulldogs touchdown. Bui added the point after, and Murphy extended their lead to 24-14 with 3:01 left in the third quarter.
From that point on, the officials had more yardage than both teams put together, as a flag fest ensued for the remainder of the game. Murphy had every penalty imaginable called against them in the fourth quarter, usually ending a potential scoring drive. There was an offensive pass interference on the 3 yard line, an errant off-sides on a fourth-down play near the goal line and a block in the back on call on a pick-six play by the defense.
Murphy had 292 yards of total offense and another 168 yards in penalties. On Murphy’s last scoring drive, which was set up by the penalized pick-six, Murphy started the drive on the Swain 35. During that drive, the Dogs were penalized 35 yards.
After being moved as far back to their own 47 yard line, Shore ripped off a 23-yard run to the Swain 30. Two plays later, Payne moved the ball to the 23. Grant found Kenyon Nichols for Murphy’s last touchdown with 2:27 left in the game, with Bui added an extra point to net the final score of 31-14.
Shore led all rushers in the game with six carries for 112 yards and one touchdown. Clem had 12 carries for 58 yards and a touchdown, while Leatherwood had 49 yards on nine carries. Grant went eight-for-16 for 138 yards through the air, with one touchdown and two interceptions.
Bulldogs Head coach Joseph Watson said afterward that he was proud of his team’s effort.
“Swain threw everything they had at us, and we knew better than to judge them by their record. This is a tough, hard-playing team with big, physical linemen,” Watson said.
“Our defense stayed disciplined and held strong, which was key to the win. We’ve got to clean up some penalties, but I really like how our guys are playing right now.”
Watson said of this week’s game against Andrews, ”We have to keep working and continue to get better this week. We are going to have another challenge.”
Murphy will host the Andrews Wildcats (4-3) at 7:30 p.m. this Friday at Bob Hendrix Memorial Stadium on David Gentry Field in the annual battle of Cherokee County.