Breaking News
Local Sports

Ball control: Calhoun defeats Wirt, 26-7, for 3-0 start

By Jay W. Bennett 8 min read

ELIZABETH -- Calhoun County signal-caller Trevor Mayle executed the single wing to perfection here Friday night at Wilson-Eismon Field while teammate Nic Butler recovered two fumbles and intercepted a pass in the Red Devils' 26-7 win at Wirt County.

The story of the affair was ball control offense for the Red Devils of head coach Jeff Goodrich, whose squad improved to 3-0 for the first time since 2015 with a road trip to Van up next week.

"Offensive line, they've been great all season. They controlled the game from start to finish. We knew it was going to be a battle in there," said Goodrich, who watched his squad rush 65 times for 244 yards with Mayle (39-171) leading the charge and finding the end zone thrice. "I mean we didn't have any big plays.

"We were able to control the clock, move the ball and able to get out of here with a win tonight, so it means the world. The boys, we do it all week, so it makes Friday night feel a little more comfortable running what you want to do. It's all up to them. They played their butts off and I couldn't ask for a better night for them."

Wirt County, which lost a pair of fumbles and threw two interceptions, won the toss and opted to take the ball as the hosts marched down the field.

Adryon Hartford, who toted 11 times for 82 yards, ran for 10 stripes on the first snap and the Tigers had it at the CCHS 33 after Luke Hickman hooked up with Andrew Lemley and Dylan Hutchinson for gains of 10 and 15 yards, respectively.

However, Hartford had the ball poked out of his grasp by Kristian Frederick as Butler pounced on it.

After picking up a pair of first downs, the Red Devils went to the air and Mayle was picked off by Lemley, who managed to break the initial tackle attempt of Chase Schoolcraft at the 37.

Lemley proceeded to cross midfield, made a cutback at the 20 and managed to elude the tackle attempt of Mayle at the 15, but Schoolcraft never gave up and was able to strip the ball at the 5 where Butler ended up falling on it at the 4.

That's when the CCHS offensive line started taking over.

"He's one of my primary pull guys and he worked his tail off tonight and that's two weeks in a row," Goodrich said of Butler.

"He did well for us against Gilmer, but he's been a force up there in the trenches and he's been taking everything in stride and doing his job. That's for sure."

Calhoun County took the lead for good when Mayle capped the 15-play, 96-yard drive that consumed 6:37 of the clock via a 9-yard TD run on the first snap of the second quarter. Mayle, who converted two of his four extra points, had a 4-yard gain to keep the drive alive when it was fourth-and-3 at the Tiger 37.

"We go into every game the same," Mayle said. "We just take it as, like, 'it's just another game' and it doesn't matter the team or the players. We are a team. We always play the same. I just play the game for fun.

"That's all I do and I just want to get better. I want my team to get better. I couldn't do it without my team. My line is just amazing. I mean they make holes for me, and you see it. I get 4 yards a play because they are making holes."

After running five plays on their opening drive, the Tigers went three-and-out as Lemley's 39-yard punt put the visitors at their own 26.

The Red Devils proceeded to put together a 17-play, 74-yard scoring march that took 8:40 off the clock and resulted in a Schoolcraft 4-yard scoring burst after he picked up a fumble in the backfield.

The Wirt County defense watched the Red Devils convert a pair of fourth-and-2s. The first was at the orange and black 49 and the second at the 37. Facing fourth-and-1 at the 14, the hosts were called for being offside as the halftime score of 14-0 was set.

"Hey, look, they deserved to win. They didn't make many mistakes," said WCHS head coach Jason Hickman. "They weren't penalized until the third quarter, so there's that. I know there were a couple of times we had them way behind the sticks and they ran that dive play that got them a first down, and then they went trips one time and we didn't even bump to it, and that's execution.

"They executed and we did not. We're snapping balls over people's heads. We got guys going the wrong way. We're putting the ball on the ground. I mean you're not going to beat a good team when you do those things and they deserved to win tonight."

The Tigers got the ball back one more time and looked like they would dent the scoreboard before intermission.

A 16-yard pass from Hickman to Lemley got the Tigers across midfield and the hosts were in the red zone after a 44-yard completion to Dylan Hutchinson, who had game-highs of five catches for 79 yards.

On first-and-goal from the 10, Hickman was sacked by Frederick for a loss of 9 yards. An incomplete pass on second down was followed by another on third as Rome Riddel brought the pressure.

With just a half second left on the scoreboard and facing fourth down, Hickman tried to hit Lemley in the back corner of the end zone, but Lance Grogg picked it off.

Reese Schoolcraft's 18-yard kickoff return opened the second half and the Red Devils converted a third-and-18 from the Wirt County 38 via a Mayle to Riddel 21-yard completion.

Facing a third-and-goal at the 3, Mayle was stopped after a gain of 2 by Parker Myers, but he scored from the 1 on the next play to make it 20-0 with 5:15 remaining in the third.

The Tigers, who slipped to 1-2 and welcome in Gilmer County next week for the Hall of Fame game, scored on the ensuing drive, which was aided by a personal foul. Hartford's 6-yard run and Asher Kerns' PAT cut it to 20-7 less than 2 minutes later.

The momentum appeared as if it might switch after Hartford recovered a CCHS fumble and the Tigers were in business near midfield. However, a bad snap resulted in a loss of 18 yards and forced a punt after the Tigers were at the Red Devil 42.

Mayle added the final touchdown from 3 yards out with 2:17 remaining in the contest.

Butler ended the Tigers' final drive with an interception as Mayle took a pair of victory formation snaps.

"We've got to turn the page," stressed coach Hickman, whose team had won five straight versus his alma mater. "That's all we can do right now is turn the page and get ready to go next week, and try to fix us. I don't think that they stopped us tonight as much as we just kept shooting our own selves in the foot time and time again. (Single wing) Obviously you don't see it, but hats off to their staff for what they run.

"I think it's a good scheme for them. They do a good job executing it. They really do, and we felt like we had a good plan to stop it and we were there at the point of attack, but they were still getting 3 or 4 yards after contact. I don't know what time of possession is, but I guarantee you they tripled it on us tonight. We didn't have the ball very much and when we did we made mistakes with it."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Calhoun County 26, Wirt County 7

CCHS (3-0) 0 14 6 6 – 26

WCHS (1-2) 0 0 7 0 – 7

CC: Trevor Mayle 9 run (Mayle kick) 11:55, 2nd

CC: Chase Schoolcraft 4 run (Mayle kick) 1:22, 2nd

CC: Mayle 1 run (kick failed) 5:15, 3rd

WC: Adryon Hartford 6 run (Asher Kerns kick) 3:35, 3rd

CC: Mayle 3 run (kick blocked) 2:17, 4th

Team stats

CCHS: First downs: 22; Rushes-yards: 65-244; Passing yards: 63; Total yards: 307; Passing: 6-7-1; Punts-average: 0-0; Fumbles-lost: 6-1; Penalties-yards: 4-40

WCHS: First downs: 12; Rushes-yards: 14-52; Passing yards: 125; Total yards: 177; Passing: 11-17-2; Punts-average: 2-30.0; Fumbles-lost: 3-2; Penalties-yards: 5-35

Individual stats

CCHS: Rushing: Team 4-(-18), Trevor Mayle 39-171, Chase Schoolcraft 6-6, Ezra Anderson 4-41, Rome Riddel 12-44; Passing: Schoolcraft 1-1-0, 5 yards; Mayle 6-7-1, 58 yards; Receiving: Schoolcraft 3-27, Gavin Hicks 1-10, Anderson 1-0, Lance Grogg 1-5

WCHS: Rushing: Team 1-(-18), Adryon Hartford 11-82, Luke Hickman 2-(-12); Passing: Team 0-1-0, 0 yards; Hickman 11-17-2, 125 yards; Receiving: Peyton Dye 1-14, Andrew Lemley 5-32, Dylan Hutchinson 5-79

Next games: Calhoun County at Van, 7:30 p.m. Friday; Gilmer County at Wirt County, 7 p.m. Friday (Hall of Fame game).

Starting at /week.