by Rusty Ellis
The Smith County Owls were rolling early and often on Friday night, as they dominated Fayetteville 45-12 to advance to the Class 2A State Quarterfinals.
Riley Martin got the scoring started on the Owls’ first drive of the game, as he found Jermaine Cason on a three-yard touchdown on fourth down to give Smith County a 6-0 lead. After SCHS recovered the ensuing kickoff, Martin hit Riley Lollar for the first of his two touchdowns to run the lead to 12-0 after a failed two-point conversion.
Fayetteville gave away another possession on the following kickoff, giving Smith County their third possession of the game before the visitors had their first. It ended just like the first two did, as Peyton Hix scored on a direct-snap sneak to push the lead to 18-0.
This is where the score stood to begin the second quarter, and Martin wasted little time in adding onto the advantage with a 24-yard touchdown strike to Lollar, making the score 25-0 in favor of the Owls.
After Jay Phillips picked off a Sam Willoughby pass to set SCHS up with good field position, Martin threw his final touchdown of the night on a 34-yard bomb to Wyatt Claywell to push the lead to 32-0.
Ethan Madewell and Jaeden Evans added rushing touchdowns of their own for the final two scores for the Owls, and though FHS began to find some offensive success in the second half, it was too little too late. When the clock hit all zeroes, it was Smith County who advanced to the quarterfinals with a dominant 45-12 victory.
Head coach Matt Dyer’s postgame message was relatively simple for his team: he wanted them to come out and make a statement, and that’s exactly what they did.
“We might not get a lot of fanfare or media hype, we don’t have any three-star, four-star athletes,” Dyer said. “But we’ve got a bunch of blue-collar savages…I’m proud of the effort that they bring, I’ve told these dudes all week that it’s their turn to dominate. No superstars, but 11 warriors.”
Of course, this extended to Martin, who’s performance could make any spectator forget that he was a freshman that had zero starts at the high school level coming into the season.
“I’m just proud of this cat,” Dyer said of Martin. “He’s a freaking freshman that’s taken over our offense and getting the ball to our playmakers…I couldn’t be prouder of a group of guys.”
Naturally, Dyer’s quick to point out that while it’s a win they’ll enjoy, they’ll get another test next week in the form of a rematch with region foe East Robertson.
The clock starts immediately on Dyer’s 24-hour rule regarding big wins.
“You get to enjoy this win for 24 hours,” Dyer said. “We went 1-0, which has been our goal the whole season. If you go 1-0 each week, you get from the next play to the next game, and after 24 hours, the numbers reset…we’re a part of the elite eight, and if we go 1-0, we get to be in front of the top-four. That’s our goal and that’s our plan.”
