Yellow Jackets defeat TCS 27 to 7

Yellow Jackets defeat TCS 27 to 7

For Hayesville, it was a running game

By Frank Bradley

Sentinel writer

In some ways, it was a payback for a Hayesville loss to the Towns County Indians last year. In other ways, it was a hard fought slugfest with the Jackets grinding it out on the ground, oftentimes right up the middle, scoring, taking advantages of their opponent’s fumbles and slip-ups.

The First Quarter ended without a score from either side. Towns punted to the Jackets late in the First Quarter. The Jackets fumbled and the Towns Indians recovered, but stalled out against the Jackets strong defense. The Jackets took the ball over on its own 25 yard line and drove down field with a series of drives that extended into the Second Quarter by Da Kota Lyvers, Blake Dockery and Cody Gibson, who carried the ball down to the Towns 5 yard line. A short time later, the quarterback took the ball in on a keeper to put the Jackets ahead 6 to 0.

Shortly after the Kickoff to Towns County, Johnny Garrett picked off a Towns County pass for good field position, but were set back with a 10 yard penalty and later stalled out having to punt the ball away. The Indians took the ball on their own 10 yard line, but then fumbled in the backfield allowing the Jackets to score a touchback for 2 more points with two minutes left in the first half. The Jackets then took the Towns kickoff and returned it to the Towns County 27 yard line. Seconds later, they were in for another score, but once again, the PAT was no good, so the Jackets were up 14 to 0. Once again, the Towns Indians fumbled, which was recovered by the Jackets with less than a minute in the first half, but not enough time to turn it into another score.

Hayesville received the kickoff in the second half and drove to mid-field, but then failed to make a pick up a 1st down on a 4th down attempt. Towns County took over on their own 38 yard line, and in a  series of plays drove the ball downfield for a score and extra point, making the score 14 to 7.

The Jackets came back for another score late in the 3rd Quarter, increasing the lead to 20 to 7. Then in the 4th Quarter, the Jackets drove the ball up field with a series of runs up the middle with Dockery going in for a touchdown off the left side. After that touchdown, the PAT was good giving the Yellow Jackets a 27 to 7 lead, which turned out to be the final score.

While the Jackets do not have a lot of size, they showed plenty of hustle and scrappiness taking advantage of their opponents mistakes. On this night, they didn’t demonstrate a strong passing game, but managed to grind it out time after time on the ground. Also, the Jacket defense performed well, holding their across-the-line rival to only one score.