Andrews – The game was closer than the scoreboard indicated.
Andrews head coach James Phillips is weary of moral-victory statements of that sort, but he knows his Wildcats had a chance to beat a strong team Friday night.
Instead, three big plays turned the momentum against Andrews, resulting in a 39-14 win for Rabun Gap, Ga.
The first was a missed pass to a wide-open Gage Gillespie on the first play of the game that would have been an easy touchdown.
Second, Tucker Holloway appeared to be down on a quarterback keeper in the second half, but a fumble was called and the Eagles returned it for an easy touchdown to pad what was a recently-regained advantage.
Third, with the Wildcats on a 14-play drive to try and make it a one-score game again in the third quarter, they were stopped on short yardage for the first time all night on fourth down at the Eagles’ 5.
“It was a competitive game,” Phillips said. “I felt like we could have done a little more offensively, but they are a good football team. They have some big, athletic kids who can play. If you want to beat a good football team, you have to out-execute them, and we had two turnovers.
“Turnovers and big plays are a tell-tale sign against a good team, and the fourth quarter got away from us a little.”
Rabun Gap went on a long drive in the first quarter, and the Eagles tried three times to pass the ball into the end zone, only to see them all broken up by Andrews defenders. The visitors settled for field goal tries on that drive and their next two, largely due to strong work by the Wildcats’ secondary.
Defensive back Cade Vaughn, who changed his number to 80 in the Wildcats’ black jerseys to honor a friend who passed away last week, was one of the standouts among that back line.
“Our coach Matt Maennle gave us a card on what to work on, and we took that to heart and really been working hard on those points all week and it really showed,” Vaughn said. “Our guys played with a lot of spirit, and we owe that to our work in practice and our coaches.”
Andrews got its offense going late in the first half with a 14-play drive ending in a fourth down plunge for a touchdown by Landon White with 5.3 seconds left in the half. Holloway kicked the extra point to give Andrews a one-point edge at the half.
The Eagles capitalized on a strong punt return to quickly retake the lead in the third-quarter on a great catch falling backward in the end zone by Patrick Pedall. Holloway’s purported fumble came two plays later, and the Eagles added six more to their advantage and stole the momentum.
“I was looking at my next play, and then I didn’t hear a whistle, and at that point, I knew we weren’t going to talk them out of it,” Phillips said of the fumble.
White added an electrifying 73-yard touchdown run for the Wildcats’ other score of the night, but the Eagles went to the run game in the second half and used it to pad their lead further.
“We’ve been pretty solid tacklers to this point, and then we start leg diving, and you can’t tackle athletes like that,” Phillips said. “We played good pass defense in the first half, but we couldn’t replicate that in the second half. They stressed the run in the second half and pounded it on us once they got the lead.”
Trailing just 25-14, Andrews drove to the Eagles’ 5 yard line only to fall short on fourth down this time. White and Gavin Wilson gained at least a yard on every carry all night except that one.
“The kids played hard the whole game,” Phillips said. “They don’t have quit in them.”
“We had a couple small mistakes that we will see on film and hopefully we will do better,” Vaughn said.
Murphy looms
Andrews (2-2) hosts in-county foil Murphy at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Hugh Hamilton Stadium. The teams are opening the Smoky Mountain Conference against each other for the first time in 19 years.