Football Playoffs: Marshall's Osteen Crosses Paths Again With 'Canes

East Hamilton Battled Coach At Giles In 2012 4A Quarterfinals

  • Wednesday, November 18, 2015
  • Larry Fleming

East Hamilton football coach Ted Gatewood, who guided the Hurricanes to a bounce-back 2015 season after winning only two of eight games the year before, fondly recalls the 2012 playoff game against sixth-ranked Marshall County.

“It was a big win,” said Gatewood, referring to a 38-0 blowout victory over the Tigers in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

Gatewood had a different response when asked about the Hurricanes’ quarterfinal loss to Giles County two weeks after belting Marshall County.

“That brings bad memories,” he said.

Giles County ended East Hamilton’s season with a narrow 22-16 victory.

What’s the common denominator in the two teams East Hamilton faced in those two games.

Thomas Osteen was the offensive coordinator at Giles County three years ago and he will arrive at  East Hamilton's Larry Henry Stadium on Friday for a Class 4A quarterfinal matchup at 7 p.m. as the Tigers’ head coach.

The Hurricanes (8-4), the No. 3 seed from Region 3 that went 2-8 in 2014, is coming off a revenge upset of previously unbeaten, third-ranked Stone Memorial and have won four of their last five games.

The Tigers, the Region 4 regular-season champion, whose only loss was a 42-41 setback against Memphis Overton in Week 2, have reeled off 10 straight wins while averaging 43.5 points behind the sterling play of quarterback Ashton Posey, a Mr. Football finalist.

For 12 games, Marshall County averages 44.7 points, seventh-best total in Tennessee regardless of classification.

“I’ve watched that 2012 game and I’m evaluating this year’s team,” Osteen said of the Hurricanes. “The coaching staff is the same and it’s very similar to the 2012 team. They’ve got a bunch of good players. They want to run downhill with (David Whiteside) and they’ll also spread you out and throw to (Jeffrey Coleman). The have a lot of good options.”

So do the Tigers.

Offensively, it starts with Posey.

The 6-foot, 210-pound gunslinger has thrown for 2,707 yards and 27 touchdowns with only six interceptions in 262 attempts. Posey has also rushed for 431 yards and 11 scores.

Post threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns against Overton and had two other 300-yard performances (358, 304) in back-to-back games against Spring Hill and Maplewood. 

Junior wide receiver Tre Crutcher, 5-8 and 143, has been Posey’s favorite target, hauling in 53 passes for 1,015 yards, a 19.2-yard average per catch. He’s scored 11 touchdowns, almost half of Posey’s total. Jay Howard (junior, 5-11, 175) has 63 receptions for 846 yards and nine touchdowns.

“We’re really efficient now with Posey at the controls of our offense,” said Osteen, who spent six years at Giles County before taking over at Marshall County. “He’s like the point guard of our team and we’re fortunate to have a bunch of different people he can get the ball to.”

If Posey chooses not to throw, he has two solid running backs in senior Josh Franklin and sophomore Kamron Liggett. Franklin has gained 925 yards and scored 10 touchdowns and Liggett has 851 yards and 12 touchdowns. Liggett and Franklin average 8.9 and 8.8 yards per carry.

Howard, Liggett and Crutcher have combined for 3,413 all-purpose yards and they are three reasons why Marshall County averages 473.7 yards of offense per game.

Franklin (senior, 6-1, 167) went off for a season-best 176 yards – he averaged 29.3 yards per carry – in last week’s 49-13 second-round rout of Livingston Academy. Liggett’s season-best was a 145-yard effort against Page in the regular-season finale.

“We ran for over 300 yards in both playoff games,” Osteen said, “because our senior laden offensive line is winning the line of scrimmage.”

The Tigers’ defense, which has yielded only 20 points in the playoffs, posted one shutout and held three other teams to eight or fewer points.

“We have a very good defensive lineman in Payton Hood and two guys – corner back J.Q. Haislip and safety Curtis Keiler – that cover really well,” Osteen said. “We can rotate seven defensive linemen to keep people fresh and we’ve got a lot of speed in the secondary. Our most inexperienced group is the linebackers, but they’ve gotten better.”

Gatewood said he sees a lot of what Osteen did at Giles County in the Marshall County squad.

“At Marshall, he has a good staff and is a whole new dynamic,” the veteran coach said. “He’s a good football coach, so it offers us some familiarity in what Marshall is doing. He did a heck of a job at Giles and he’s doing the same thing with Marshall.”

Gatewood, 40-39 as the Hurricanes’’ only coach – take away 1-9 and 2-8 marks in the programs’ first two years, he’s 37-22 – and been to four playoffs in the last five years, said Marshall County is a “very impressive, talented football team” on tape.

“Basically, what they do is what every good football team does – they put the ball in their best athletes’ hands,” Gatewood said. “We try to do that as well. Their quarterback does a good job running the offense and defensively, they have 11 guys that play hard on every down.”

East Hamilton’s win over Stone Memorial, which won the regular season meeting, 14-7, served as an additional boost in confidence after opening the playoffs with a 32-7 win against Page.

Against Page, the Hurricanes’ defense came up with four turnovers – three interceptions and a fumble – and allowed just one touchdown in the second quarter. The special teams jumped into the scoring act when Frankie Campo recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown.

Whiteside broke loose for a 57-yard touchdown run and Coleman and Hunter Gregg caught scoring touchdowns from Nick Woods covering 48 and 24 yards, respectively.

Whiteside finished with 124 yards on 21 carries.

Woods had a throwing and running touchdown in the big win against Stone Memorial. He ran 1 yard and tossed 54-yard TD pass to Jordan Gorman. Whiteside rushed for 150 yards and scored on a 47-yard gallop.

The Hurricanes ran 47 offensive plays against Stone Memorial, 38 were runs.

Following two playoff road games, the Hurricanes are happy to play at home against the Tigers, but that’s no guarantee for a third-straight victory.

“We have to execute offensively and play within the chains, not behind the chains,” Gatewood said. “We need to do better in all aspects of football.

“The Stone Memorial win boosted our kids’ confidence, but in the playoffs you’ve got to have a short memory. You can’t let that game be your bowl game or Super Bowl. Nobody will talk about your last game unless you’re not successful in the next one. What makes high school football so great, at least to me, you don’t worry about the polls or voters, every time you get another opportunity to write another chapter in your book.”

TSSAA Football Playoff Schedule

Third Round, Friday

Chattanooga Area Schools

All Games Start at 7 p.m. Local Time

Class 1A

Columbia Academy (11-1) at South Pittsburg (9-3)

Class 2A

Tyner (9-3) at Marion County (11-1)

Class 3A

Notre Dame (9-3) vs. East Ridge (12-0), Finley Stadium

Class 4A

Marshall County (11-1) at East Hamilton (8-4)

Class 5A

Rhea County (9-3) at Ooltewah (10-2)

Division II-AA

Baylor (9-2) at Brentwood Academy (10-1)

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

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