When you are one of the final eight teams in the state to still be playing football in late November, it's hard to consider the season anything but successful. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to see what is on the other side of the quarterfinal wall that once again proved too high for the East Hamilton program to climb.
For the fifth time in school history, the Hurricanes' season came to an end in the quarterfinal round, falling Friday night to a stingy Oak Ridge club 30-6 in the TSSAA 5A playoffs one step short of a historic semifinal round. The Wildcats thoroughly dominated a good East Hamilton team with a game plan that ran to perfection as Oak Ridge won in just about every aspect of the game.
Oak Ridge (9-4) will host unbeaten Sevier County (13-0), a double overtime winner over Knox West last night for a chance to make the return trip down I-75 for the BlueCross Bowl at Finley Stadium in two weeks.
"A lot of people doubted us, but we believed. And guess who's still here," said Oak Ridge coach Derek Rang who will direct the program into its 15th semifinal battle and first since 2020 when the Wildcats lost in the state title game.
"We expected to be here, and we did what a good team does: we came down here and took care of business," Rang added.
And by taking care of business, he meant running 63 offensive plays to East Hamilton's 26, holding the vaunted Cane rushing attack to 14 total yards, and outgaining the hosts 440 yards to 143 on a night when the East Hamilton offense spent just slightly less time on the sidelines than the cheerleaders. At one point, Oak Ridge led 16-0 in the second half and had ran 41 plays to the Hurricanes' 12 while holding a time of possession lead of 21:38 to 4:48.
"We had to change our style of offense as the year went on because we had so many injuries. We went from fast paced to slow and deliberate to chew up clock, but we really executed it well tonight. We kept the ball out of their hands, and it's hard to do the kind of damage they can do when they aren't on the field," Rang said.
It was to East Hamilton's credit that it wasn't worse in a first half that saw Oak Ridge settle for three Elijah Pearson field goals to take a 9-0 lead into the locker room. The Canes' defense bent but didn't break and twice the Wildcats' had touchdowns called back by penalty in the half. Oak Ridge drove the opening possession all the way to the East Hamilton 2 before a TD was erased by the yellow flag and Pearson had to boot a 24-yard field goal.
After a 3-and-out by East Hamilton, the Wildcats made it 6-0 after a short 30-yard drive yielded a 37-yard kick by Pearson. Another 3-and-out gave Oak Ridge the ball again, and a holding call erased a 71-yard score by sophomore Damillyan Porter and East Hamilton held on downs. But after getting their maiden first down, the Canes were forced to punt and the Wildcats got a 46-yard pass completion from Blaine Stansberry to set up Pearson's 28-yard kick with two seconds left.
"I thought the kids played hard and they kept showing up, but No. 6 (Porter) is tough with a lot of size and he was hard to get down. We couldn't get them off the field. I thought he single-handedly beat McMinn last week so we knew he was a load, but he may be the best we've seen this year," said East Hamilton boss Aaron Nance, who said goodbye to 17 seniors afterwards. "I'm just really proud of the them and they will be tough to replace."
Porter only got stronger as the game wore on and the East Hamilton defense wore out. He ran 17 times in the second half for three scores and 133 yards to finish with 182 on 29 carries. He added four catches for 43 more yards and would have outgained East Hamilton 225 to 143 on seven more touches than the entire Hurricane offense had.
East Hamilton's Jayden Haywood who came in with just under 1700 rushing yards on the season, didn't have a single official carry longer than five yards, although he did have a 22-yard TD called back in a bizarre sequence in which East Hamilton was flagged four straight plays for holding penalties.
"They did some things we hadn't seen on film, and played with six guys on the line a lot tonight, and we just couldn't get him going outside. Their quarterback (Stansberry) did some things we hadn't seen with his legs tonight too that hurt us," admitted Nance afterwards.
Standberry rushed for 60 yards on 11 carries and threw for 184 yards on 12 completions. But it was Porter who did the most damage. After East Hamilton fumbled on its first play in the second half, Porter carried it four straight times to cover the 31 yards and make it 16-0. A roughing the kicker call kept alive Oak Ridge's next drive and Porter got all 66 yards on four straight runs, his final one landing him in the end zone from 14 yards away and a 23-0 lead.
After an interception on the very next play, Stansberry completed a big third down toss and Porter scored from the 6 to close it out. Oak Ridge converted seven of 12 third downs on the night while East Hamilton was 0-for-4.
Haywood did haul in four of Wyatt Miller's seven completions for 84 yards as the Canes finished with 129 passing yards.
GAME SUMMARY
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OAK RIDGE
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3
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6
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7
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14
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--30
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EAST HAMILTON
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0
|
0
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0
|
6
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-- 6
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Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
OR 4:53 1Q: Elijah Pearson 24 yard field goal 3-0
2nd Quarter
OR 10:023 2Q: Elijah Pearson 37 yard field goal 6-0
OR 0:02 2Q: Elijah Pearson 28 yard field goal 9-0
3rd Quarter
OR 9:34 3Q: Damillyan Porter 7 yard run: Elijah Pearson (PAT) 16-0
4th Quarter
OR 10:16 4Q: Damillyan Porter 14 yard run: Elijah Pearson (PAT) 23-0
OR 4:39 4Q: Damillyan Porter 6 yard run: Elijah Pearson (PAT) 30-0
0:00 4Q: Wyatt Miller 6 yard run: (No PAT) 30-6
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TEAM STATS
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Oak Ridge
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East Hamilton
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|
First Downs
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22
|
5
|
|
Rushes-Yards
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41-256
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12-14
|
|
Passing Yards
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184
|
129
|
|
Total yards
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440
|
143
|
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Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
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12-21-0
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7-14-1
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|
Fumbles-Lost
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2-0
|
2-1
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|
Penalties-Yards
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9-70
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6-63
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|
3rd Down Conversions
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7-12
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0-4
|
|
Punts
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0-0.00
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4-30.0
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Individual Stats
RUSHING: Damillyan Porter 29-182, Blaine Stansberry 11-60, Dedrick Douglas 1-9 (OR); Jayden Haywood 5-8, Jermaine Heathington 1-7, Grayson Maddox 1-5, Wyatt Miller 5-(-6) (EH).
PASSING: Blaine Stansberry 12-20-0 184 yards, Parker Free 0-1-1 0 yards (OR); Wyatt Miller 7-14-1 129 yards (EH).
RECEIVING: Adam Washington 4-53, Damillyan Porter 5-42, William Pressley 1-46, Zayden Williams 1-19, Tyree Porter 1-14 (OR): Jayden Haywood 4-83, Benjamin Spangler 1-21, Baylor Anderson 1-12 (EH).
RECORDS: Oak Ridge (9-4), East Hamilton (9-4).
UP NEXT: Oak Ridge will host Sevier County (13-0) in the 5A Semifinals.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)