The 2016 prep football season didn’t end the way the Hixson Wildcats wanted, but it was 100 percent better than what they went through a year ago.
The Giles County Bobcats were simply too much for the never-say-die Wildcats as the visitors from Pulaski scored three touchdowns in each half and headed back home with a 42-14 victory in a hard-fought first-round playoff game at Hixson’s Anthony S. Martino field.
The Bobcats, now 8-3 and winners of three straight games, came into Friday’s game averaging 38 points per game, so their performance was right on par with what they’ve been doing all fall.
Hixson finishes its season at 6-5 after enduring a painful 2-8 campaign a year ago.
“That was a great win for us tonight,” Giles County coach David O’Connor said to his team at midfield shortly after the game ended.
“The offense put up some good points and our defense was outstanding, but this is the playoffs and it’s all about surviving and advancing,” he continued.
“I think that may have been our best game on defense as they saved it for the right time, but a lot of breaks went our way. Now we need to get ready for a rematch with Marshall County,” he concluded.
Hixson coach Dan Duff never likes losing, but he was extremely proud of his team for their turnaround season and another great effort in Friday’s final game of the season.
“We just got beat by a really good football team. Yeah, we made some mistakes that hurt, but we did the very best we could and they poured their hearts out on the field, “ Duff nodded.
“We wanted to end our season on a positive note and I think we did as we never gave up tonight. Our senior leadership has been really good this year and it’s so much better than what we went through last year,” he said.
The Bobcats got stopped on downs following the opening kickoff, but scored touchdowns on three of their next four possessions for a 21-7 lead at intermission.
Scoring on their first three possessions of the second half, the Wildcats simply couldn’t stop them and the difference in the game slowly got more lopsided.
A 26-yard pass from quarterback John Bachus to K.J. Zigler on the next-to-last play of the third quarter extended the Giles lead to 35-7, but Hixson wasn’t ready to surrender just yet.
The Wildcats had their best drive on the game as they marched 73 yards in eight plays with an eight-yard pass across the middle from quarterback LaDaquis Word to Greyson Caldwell trimming the gap to 35-14.
The big play in that drive was a 48-yard pass from Word to Tre Warthon that set up the Hixson scoring pass six plays later.
D’Angelo McReynolds then recovered an onside kick for the Wildcats, but that momentum was quickly shifted the other way when a long pass from Word was intercepted by Brandon Rowan, who returned it from near the goal line to the Hixson 31.
Bachus then hooked up with Zigler again on the next play for the final margin of victory with 8:05 to play.
The Bobcats finished the game with 470 total yards, including 255 through the air and another 215 on the ground.
Bachus completed 13 of 20 passes for those 255 yards and finished with four touchdown passes.
Zigler was the leading receiver with four catches for 91 yards and three TDs covering 26, 26 and 31 yards.
Tanner Holley followed with 81 yards on six receptions and he scored twice, the first on a two-yard run in the first quarter and the second on a 31-yard catch late in the second quarter.
R’Kell Reed only scored one touchdown on an eight-yard run, but he was the man with 196 rushing yards on 18 carries while adding 73 yards on two pass receptions.
Hixson countered with 272 total yards, including 185 on the ground and 87 through the air.
Myles Ratliff had 99 yards on 22 carries while Word followed with 67 yards on 14 attempts.
Latrell Sanderfer had three catches for 21 yards while Caldwell had two for nine yards. Warthon’s only catch was good for 48.
The Bobcats finished with 20 first downs while Hixson ended the game with 15.
GILES COUNTY 14 7 14 7 -- 42
HIXSON 7 0 0 7 -- 14
GC – K.J. Zigler 26 pass from John Bachus (Jedidah Jenkins kick), 6:20 left in first;
Hix – LaDaquis Word 2 run (Austin Slifko kick), 4:24 left in first;
GC – Tanner Holley 2 run (Jenkins kick), 2:07 left in first;
GC – Holley 31 pass from Bachus (Jenkins kick), 3:43 left in second;
GC – R’Kell Reed 8 run (Jenkins kick), 3:38 left in third;
GC – Zigler 26 pass from Bachus (Jenkins kick), 0:33.4 left in third;
Hix – Greyson Caldwell 8 pass from Word (Slifko kick), 8:39 left in fourth;
GC – Zigler 31 pass from Bachus (Jenkins kick), 8:05 left in fourth.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)