The East Hamilton Hurricanes got off to a great start in their first-round playoff game with DeKalb County, but a dismal performance in the second half was the straw that broke the camel’s back as the Tigers advanced with the come-from-behind 35-21 victory at East Hamilton’s Larry Henry Stadium Friday night.
The Hurricane offense was clicking in the opening half as they built a 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter and looked like a team playing well enough to advance, but the Tigers scored 28 unanswered points and won going away.
East Hamilton’s season ends at 7-3 while DeKalb will play at Upperman next Friday after improving to 7-4 with Friday’s win.
“We’re like the walking wounded as the last few weeks haven’t been kind to us as far as injuries are concerned. We made some mistakes in the first half, but were able to clean it up a little and we made some magic happen in the second half,” said DeKalb coach Steve Trapp.
“We had a little talk at halftime and we got our hearts right. We seem to be a pretty good football team when we’re playing for the right reason, but we get to play Upperman again next week and we’re excited about that,” Trapp added with a smile.
East Hamilton coach Grant Reynolds felt like turnovers were the biggest problem his team had to deal with.
“We just got beat by a team we should have won, but we just turned it over too many times and that killed us,” he said after the game ended.
“They made some adjustments at the half that were effective, but we just didn’t play very well tonight. Their defense caused us some problems, but they just got better results than we did,” he added.
The Hurricanes took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in eight plays and scored the game’s first touchdown when Juan Bullard zipped into the end zone from the 11, taking a 7-0 lead following Ethan Hixson’s point-after kick with just over three minutes elapsed.
The Tigers responded in a hurry as they moved 65 yards in eight plays to knot the score with 4:34 left in the opening stanza after sophomore quarterback Briz Trapp scored on a keeper from the 11. Axel Aranda’s kick knotted the score at 7-7.
After an exchange of punts, the Hurricanes took the lead when Jeremiah Flemmons plowed into the end zone from the 1 and it was 14-7 following Hixson’s second kick.
Bullard had a 37-yard run that gave East Hamilton first-and-goal from the 2 and Flemmons scored on the second play.
A 47-yard punt return by Kyreese Willis put the Hurricanes back in business with a first down at the 18. Flemmons extended the lead to 21-7 with a six-yard pass reception from quarterback Lake Clark on a beautiful one-handed grab on a crossing pattern in the back of the end zone.
Little did anyone know that the Hurricanes would not score again.
The Tigers cut the lead to 21-14 when Isaac Knowles scored on a keeper from the 8 with 2:35 left before intermission. Knowles had the big play in the drive when he made a diving catch of a pass from Trapp that covered 33 yards.
DeKalb County took the opening kickoff and used seven running plays to move 75 yards for the tying touchdown when Colby Barnes raced up the middle for 28 yards with 8:04 left in the third quarter.
The visitors from Smithville got a big defensive boost when freshman Ty Webb recovered a fumble following a pass completion to Maddox Bohannon.
Barnes raced 44 yards for another TD on the first play with 7:04 left in the third and all of a sudden, the Hurricanes were on the short end of the score.
The difference remained at seven points until Nolan Gottlied intercepted a Clark pass and returned it 39 yards for the final TD with 4:48 left in the game.
East Hamilton had one final shot, but Clark was intercepted again by Brady Hale inside the final three minutes and the Tigers were able to run out the clock after picking up two critical first downs at the end.
Barnes was the leading rusher for DeKalb County as he finished the game with 154 yards on 17 carries. Knowles added another 62 yards on 11 attempts as the Tigers finished with 278 yards rushing and 32 yards passing for 310 total yards.
Knowles had all of the receiving yards on two catches.
The Hurricanes finished with 188 total yards that included 107 on the ground and another 81 through the air, but were limited to just 44 yards and three first downs in the second half.
Bullard was the leading rusher with 107 yards on a dozen trips while Flemmons was the leading receiver with 45 yards on six catches.
DEKALB CO. 7 7 14 7 -- 35
EAST HAMILTON 7 14 0 0 -- 21
EH – Juan Bullard 11 run (Ethan Hixson kick), 8:58 left in first;
DC – Briz Trapp 11 run (Axel Aranda kick), 4:34 left in first;
EH – Jeremiah Flemmons 1 run (Hixson kick), 11:25 left in second;
EH – Flemmons 16 pass from Lake Clark (Hixson kick), 7:01 left in second;
DC – Isaac Knowles 8 run (Aranda kick), 2:35 left in second;
DC – Colby Barnes 28 run (run failed), 8:04 left in third;
DC – Barnes 44 run (Knowles run), 7:04 left in third;
DC – Nolan Gottlieb 39 interception return (Aranda kick), 4:48 left in fourth.
TEAM STATS: DEKALB CO. EAST HAMILTON
First Downs 16 9
Rushes-Yards 46-278 17-107
Passing Yards 32 81
Total Yards 310 188
Passes (Comp-Att-Int) 2-6-0 14-36-3
Penalties-Yards 2-15 4-40
Punts-Avg. 7-31.6 6-37.0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 5-1
INDIVIDUAL STATS :
DEKALB CO. RUSHING: Colby Barnes 17 for 154 yards and two TDs; Isaac Knowles 11 for 62 with one TD; Briz Trapp 10 for 45.
EAST HAMILTON RUSHING: Juan Bullard 12 for 107 yards and one TD; Jeremiah Flemmons 4 for 9 with one TD.
DEKALB CO. RECEIVING: Isaac Knowles 2 for 32 yards.
EAST HAMILTON RECEIVING: Jeremiah Flemmons 6 for 45 yards and one TD; Kaunyae Burgans 4 for 26.
DEKALB CO. PASSING: Briz Trapp 2 of 6 for 32 yards and no interceptions.
EAST HAMILTON PASSING: Lake Clark 14 of 36 for 81 yards with one TD and three interceptions.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)