East Hamilton head coach Aaron Nance spent Friday night christening the brand new turf field at the Hurricanes' Larry Henry Stadium between fighting an urge and giving into the urge.
That urge, of course, was putting the ball in the hands of No. 11: tailback Jaden Haywood.
"It's really easy to sit there and say 'feed No. 11, feed No. 11,' but I think everybody here tonight on both sides of the field knows what we like to do. We have to make sure other guys step up, and we wanted to get (QB) Wyatt (Miller) going to keep some of that attention off Jaden (Haywood). I thought he threw some nice passes and did some damage with his legs too, especially on that first drive to set the tone," said Nance after watching his Canes improve to 2-0.
In a battle of state quarterfinal teams from a year ago, East Hamilton got plenty of production from Haywood as the 5A Canes held off a never-say-die Meigs County team ranked fifth in class 3A, 35-28, on a perfect evening for football.
Miller, the senior signal caller, led the Canes on an opening six play, 59-yard drive with four pass completions, including an eight-yard toss to Jermaine Heathington for an early 7-0 lead, a stark contrast to last week when East Hamilton fell behind two scores early before rallying past Hixson in their opener.
"We wanted to come out fast, and we wanted to show people we are not just a running team. Plus I think it opened things up for us later when we did run it. I thought we had a good game plan," said Miller, who completed eight passes for 91 yards on the night.
The Tigers might have been caught a little off guard with the early Canes' strategy, but proved to be more than capable of adjusting. In fact, Meigs came into the game in adjustment mode, having to work without starting quarterback Tuff Ricker who was ejected in last week's opener and watched from the sidelines.
Kaiden Brewster stepped into the role seamlessly after a first drive went nowhere and gave the ball back to East Hamilton. It was Brewster who intercepted a pass at the 32 which seemed to ignite him, and the sophomore led Meigs 68 yards for a first quarter score, keeping it himself on a three-yard plunge. The PAT was missed and left it 7-6 heading into the second quarter.
Haywood had just one rush in the first period, although he did take a short pass 42 yards to the house that was nullified by a holding penalty right before the interception, but that second quarter belonged to him. The senior East Tennessee commit scored three times in the quarter, including twice on near identical 38 and 32 sprints in which he slipped through a crease on the outside between closing defenders and out ran everyone to the end zone.
"There's out-game speed and there is in-game speed. Timed 40-yard dashes are different from running with football gear and when I see a little hole there, I know I've got the speed to get through it. We hit 'em first with the passing, and in a one score game like this, that was the difference," said Haywood, who had 89 of his 129 yard total in that second period.
Haywood's 1-yard run to open the period capped a 48-yard drive to make it 14-6 and when Solomon Morris fell on a Meigs County fumble on the next drive it took just three plays to make it 21-6 when Haywood scored from 38 yards.
But the Tigers answered with Brewster completing a fourth-down 42-yard strike to Bowden Combs with 2:02 left before half to let East Hamilton know the 3A powerhouse wasn't going away.
Knowing that, though, East Hamilton didn't sit on the lead before half, running a perfect two minute drill to make it 28-12 at the break. Miller started the drive with a keeper for 17 yards, then found Haywood for an 18-yard gain before Haywood knocked it home from 32 yards for the score.
The Canes got a big stop to open the third period when Nehemiah Diggs made a hit in the backfield on a fourth down play at the 23 with the Tigers knocking on the door. A holding penalty and two incompletions proved to be the only three plays the Canes ran in the quarter. Brewster completed all six of his passes in the period, and got the Tigers to paydirt to open the final period on another fourth-down pass to Briar Roberts from the 2. A conversion pass to Cornelius Morgan brought it to 28-20.
"We did a lot of things that needed to be fixed, but it's a lot easier to fix them at 2-0 with a win. I told the kids all week long, Meigs is used to winning football games and they will not go away. Over the last 10 years, they haven't won less than seven games in any year. We scheduled them for that reason. They're physical and we needed that to get ready for our region," Nance complimented the visitors.
East Hamilton put together a crucial 59-yard scoring drive to push it back to 35-20 with 6:43 remaining as Haywood reeled off runs of 3, 6, 8 and 26 before Miller kept from the one for the score. The Tigers made it interesting in the end, scoring with 23 seconds left and getting the conversion. Brewster lofted a jump ball in the end zone that Brody Gaines won from 25 yards away and Combs ran it in for two to make it 35-28, but Grayson Maddox fielded the onside kick and the Canes kneeled in victory formation.
Brewster wound up with 184 passing yards on 14 of 16 completions and added 74 rushing yards. Morgan added 60 rushing yards as well as Meigs won the yardage battle 401 to 286. Aside from Haywood's 129 rushing and 26 receiving yards, Miller had 65 on the ground and the 91 in the air.
GAME SUMMARY
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MEIGS COUNTY
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6
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6
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0
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16
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--28
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EAST HAMILTON
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7
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21
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0
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7
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-- 35
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SCORING SUMMARY:
1st Quarter
EH 8:30 1Q: Jermaine Heathington 8 yard pass from Wyatt Miller; Wesley Weldon (PAT) 7-0
MC 1:24 1Q: Kaiden Brewster 3 yard run; kick failed 7-6
2nd Quarter
EH 8:03 2Q: Jaden Haywood 1 yard run; Wesley Weldon (PAT) 14-6
EH 5:14 2Q: Jaden Haywood 38 yard run; Wesley Weldon (PAT) 21-6
MC 2:12 2Q: Bowden Combs 42 yard pass from Kaiden Brewster; run failed 21-12
EH 0:58 2Q: Jaden Haywood 32 yard run; Wesley Weldon (PAT) 28-12
4th Quarter
MC 10:33 4Q: Briar Roberts 2 yard pass from Kaiden Brewster; Cornelius Morgan pass from Kaiden Brewster 28-20
EH 6:43 4Q: Wyatt Miller 1 yard run; Wesley Weldon (PAT) 35-20
MC 0:23 4Q: Brody Gaines 25 yard pass from Kaiden Brewster; Bowden Combs run 35-28
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TEAM STATS
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MC
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EH
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First Downs
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19
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13
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Rushes-Yards
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40-200
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24-195
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Passing Yards
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201
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91
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Total yards
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401
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286
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Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
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15-18-0
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8-14-1
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Penalties-Yards
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0-57
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10-77
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Punts-Average
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2-16.5
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2-42.5
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Fumbles-Lost
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1-1
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0-0
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3rd Down Conversions
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1-5
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3-5
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4th Down Conversions
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2-3
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0-0
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Individual Stats
RUSHING: Kaiden Brewster 23-74, Cornelius Morgan 5-60, Ethan Shaver 10-35, Bowden Combs 3-41 (MC); Jayden Haywood 14-129, Wyatt Miller 10-65 (EH).
PASSING: Kaiden Brewster 14-17-0 184 yards, Colt Howard 1-1-0 17 yards (MC); Wyatt Miller 8-14-1 91 yards.
RECEIVING: Brody Gaines 6-80, Bowden Combs 4-77, Eli Hope 2-26, Briar Roberts 2-9, Ethan Shaver 1-9 (MC); Grayson Maddox 2-39, Jayden Haywood 3-26, Isaiah Ivey 2-18, Jermaine Heathington 1-8 (EH).
RECORDS: Meigs County (1-1), East Hamilton (2-0)
UP NEXT: Meigs County at York Institute; East Hamilton at Central.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)