Andrews – Head coach James Phillips was as perplexed after a game as he has been in nearly four years at the helm of the Wildcats.
His squad lost 35-7 to Murphy on Friday night, marking the 43rd consecutive loss in the series. But this time, the Wildcats did not make silly turnovers and they did not seem completely overmatched, as in some meetings during that seemingly interminable streak. They did not fumble at all, and they did not give Murphy short fields or free points.
The Bulldogs came right at them and did what they do, but that was enough.
“They didn’t do anything we didn’t prepare for,” Phillips said. “They just pounded on us. Offensively, I can’t really figure it out. I thought we moved the ball, but we couldn’t capitalize on anything.
“It was one of those weird nights where I can’t pinpoint what went wrong.”
The Bulldogs took a three-touchdown lead to the locker room and used their monstrous offensive line to sit on the Wildcats in the second half.
A key stat in the game was Murphy’s third-down conversions, where they were 5-for-7 in the game, with all five conversions coming via the run, even in long yardage. Murphy coach David Gentry, who stayed unbeaten in his long career against Andrews, had confidence in running back Devonte Murray to pick up those crucial first downs to extend long Bulldog drives.
Phillips had his boys ready, but they were unable to stop the slow bleed against the Bulldogs’ patient attack.
“We ran buck sweep 75 times this week, but it has to translate to Friday night,” Phillips said. “Murphy is a good team but I feel like we left some things out here.”
Andrews’ six seniors missed their last shot at ending the streak to Murphy.
“Their line was good, our line was good, we just have to execute better,” said senior Landon White, who punched in the Wildcats’ lone touchdown.
More important than a long in-county losing streak is Andrews’ goal to knock off one of the “Big 3” in the Smoky Mountain Conference – Swain County and Robbinsville along with Murphy – to establish a cornerstone win for the program. Andrews’ last win against one of those three teams is a 22-6 win over Swain in 1998.
“We keep trying to make strides toward the upper echelon teams,” Phillips said. “We had a good week of practice, we played hard, we are healthy … we just couldn’t get our defense off the field.”
Andrews is in the fourth year of Phillips’ five-year plan to turn the program around, and with the freshman class looking strong on the undefeated JV team, 2020 could be the beginning of something big as the Cats’ strong junior class will finally reach full maturity as well.
“I believe in what we’re doing schematically. I believe in our coaches, I believe in our players,” Phillips said. “It’s going to happen, and when it does, our program will never be the same.”
None of the current players will say so, because they know better than to do so. But 2016 Andrews alum Tyler Holloway said on the Cherokee Scout’s pregame show Friday night that Murphy was always circled as the biggest matchup of the year for the Wildcats in his day.
But these Wildcats are not going to let it bother them for long, as they have better matchups ahead and a chance to make 2019 a winning season.
“We just have to bounce back Monday and get back to work, bounce back stronger,” White said.
Swain next
Andrews faces another tough task Friday night when it travels through the gorge to Bryson City to take on unbeaten Swain County.
“They are a typical Swain County team – well coached, compete very hard,” Phillips said. “Their quarterback does a solid job of running their offense.”
Swain County (5-0) has 18 senior starters, including 10 on defense.