Playoff Football: 'Canes Happy With Return To Postseason

East Hamilton’s football team was in an upbeat mood at practice earlier this week.

And, why not?

After missing the 2014 TSSAA state playoffs, the Hurricanes are back in the postseason where they’ve spent a lot of time in their short gridiron history. This marks the team’s fourth trip to the playoffs in the last five years.

“It was a bummer to miss the playoffs, but the thing about it is our kids came back this season hungry for the chance to get back,” Hurricanes coach Ted Gatewood said.

“We’re back, it’s a brand new, fresh start and now it’s survive and advance.”

To advance, East Hamilton (6-4), the No. 3 seed from Region 3-4A, must defeat Page (7-3), No. 2 out of Region 4-4A, on the Patriots’ home field in Franklin on Friday night.

Both first-round opponents are coming off losses in key region showdowns. The Hurricanes dropped a tough 14-7 decision to undefeated Stone Memorial while the Patriots were thumped, 42-24, by Marshall County.

Stone Memorial and Marshall County are No. 1 seeds.

(NOTE: Nine games involving area teams have been moved to Thursday night, including three of the four Class 5A contests. See schedule below.)

The Hurricanes appear to be mentally strong heading into the playoffs despite the setback at Stone Memorial.

“I think the loss to Stone Memorial motivated our kids because they knew they played a very good football team close,” Gatewood said. “Stone beat us, but we didn’t take advantage of some opportunities when we had chances.

“We’re driving and get down there close and make a couple of mistakes going into score. Things didn’t fall our way in that situation, but our kids learned from it and that helped us this week in practice to understand what we’ve got to do and our responsibilities on the field.”

Certainly, one thing the Hurricanes learned is they can depend on speedy senior tailback David Whiteside to carry the running load. Whiteside, a 200-meter sprinter, rushed for a game-high 173 yards on 29 carries.

East Hamilton finished with 189 yards on 40 carries.

“Mentally, I was prepared for that because one of our best offensive players, Jeffrey Coleman, was out (slight concussion) for the game,” said Whiteside, who leads the Hurricanes with 962 yards rushing and seven touchdowns. “I knew I had to step up and the coaches gave me words of wisdom to do that. And that’s what I did.”

Whiteside, who has 1,209 all-purpose yards, called the effort against Stone Memorial his best career game.

“He’s such an electric runner and is always just a step away from breaking one and going the distance,” Gatewood said. “He touched the ball a lot and we were going to ride him and keep going. That’s the way the game developed. You go into a game with a set plan and all of a sudden you say, ‘Well, I don’t like that,’ so you change gears.

“I want to run the ball. I like throwing just as much as everybody else, but I like running the football. I think you have to run to open up the passing game. Fortunately, we try to be as multiple as we can to give us some options.”

Coleman, the team’s leading receiver, return specialist and key member of the Hurricanes’ secondary with seven passes broken up and one interception, is expected to play in Friday’s playoff game.

Whiteside, who has two touchdowns among his 24 pass receptions, and Coleman share the team scoring lead with 54 points. Coleman leads the Hurricanes with 299 receiving yards and five touchdowns. He’s also scored twice on punt returns, once on a kickoff and returned one of his two interceptions for a score.

Quarterback Nick Woods has thrown for 1,327 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. Coleman, Jordan Gorman, Hunter Gregg and Whiteside each have 200-plus receiving yards and a combined nine scores.

Whiteside, a 5-foot-7-inch, 165-pound bundle of dynamite, will be prepared if Gatewood starts calling his number a lot against the Patriots.

“I’m ready because I want to win,” Whiteside said. “It’s playoff time and I’ll do anything to help my team win. We’re ready to leave it all on the field. I think we did that in our last game.”

Page and East Hamilton have met in the playoffs once before.

In 2012, the Hurricanes whipped the Patriots, 35-14, in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals where they lost to Giles County, 22-16.

So, Gatewood has an idea of what to expect this time around.

“They’re well-coached,” he said. “They have some athletes and play in a good region over there. They’ve played some good football teams throughout the season and we pride ourselves on playing a good schedule, too. I think it’s going to be an exciting ballgame.”

The Patriots’ offense is more than capable of putting points on the scoreboard. They’re averaging 31.7 points per game while the defense allows 17.7. That wasn’t enough last week as Marshall County rolled up 511 yards of offense – 368 came on the ground – in an 18-point victory that was Page’s lone region loss.

Free safety Daniel Wallace, 5-9 and 170, said one thing East Hamilton’s defense took from the Stone Memorial game is to assert itself from the get-go against Page, which has made eight straight playoff appearances. Stone Memorial scored twice in the first half, but didn’t find the end zone after halftime.

“We have to come in and hit Page hard right away,” said Wallace, fourth on the team with 36.5 tackles. “We can’t give up anything. As a senior, this could be our last Friday night playing high school football. For me, I’m not going off to college so it could be my last time playing football.

“We have to make sure we give our all in this game.”

Wallace turned his only interception of the season into a game-winning, 75-yard touchdown return that proved to be the winning points in a 28-26 win over previously unbeaten Soddy-Daisy in Week 6. Wallace broke up two other passes during the season.

“That’s something I’ll never forget,” Wallace said of the pick-six against the Trojans. “We don’t want Page to catch a lot of passes. We might not get the pick, but we at least want to break up some passes.”

Frankie Campo, the team’s leading tackler with 50 stops, and Ben Rogers each broke up three passes and trailed only Coleman in that defensive category. Four other ‘Canes defenders – Ian Amerall, Davay Hughley, Bradley Boozer and Andrew Sturdivant – all had two pass break-ups.

 2015 TSSAA Football Playoffs

First-Round Matchups, Area Teams

All Games 7 p.m. Local Time

Thursday

Class 6A

Riverdale (5-5) vs. Bradley Central (7-3), Finley Stadium

Class 5A

Clinton (4-6) at Ooltewah (8-2)

Soddy-Daisy (7-3) at Oak Ridge (9-1)

Campbell County (5-5) at Rhea County (7-3)

Class 2A

Eagleville (5-5) at Boyd-Buchanan (10-0)

Bledsoe County (5-5) at Forrest (9-1)

Class 1A

Mt. Pleasant (6-4) at South Pittsburg (7-3)

Grace Baptist (5-5) at Fayetteville (8-2)

Division II-AA

Pope John Paul (2-8) at McCallie (5-5)

Friday

Class 1A

Moore County (6-4) at Whitwell (5-5)

Copper Basin (3-7) at Columbia Academy (9-1)

Class 2A

Tyner (7-3) at Watertown (8-2)

Westmoreland (5-5) at Marion County (9-1)

Class 3A

Chattanooga Christian (7-3) at DeKalb County (7-3)

Sequatchie County (7-3) at Notre Dame (7-3), Finley Stadium

Red Bank (3-7) at Upperman (8-2)

Class 4A

Giles County (3-7) at Stone Memorial (10-0)

East Hamilton (6-4) at Page (7-3)

Class 5A

Cleveland (5-5) at Farragut (9-1)

Division II-AA

Baylor (8-2) bye

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