Sweetwater kicked off the 2018 football season on the road Thursday night, but it wasn’t a happy trip for the young Wildcats. Meigs County controlled all phases of the game and shut out Sweetwater for three quarters as the Tigers rolled to a 47-7 victory on Jewell Field.
“You learned that they were not really ready,” Sweetwater coach Ethan Edmiston said. “You have some young kids, and that first time playing under the lights against good competition was kind of eye-opening. We’ve got a lot of areas we’ve got to improve and get better at. We tried to prepare guys on how this is different than a scrimmage and you’ve got to be ready to play. I think it’s a good learning tool, and you’d rather have this the first game where you can build on it and fix things and try to come back the next week and get better.”
Meigs County took the ball first and Caleb Hyde took the kickoff return across midfield to set up the Tigers with excellent starting field position. The first play took another chunk of yards as Aaron Swafford gained 28 on a quarterback keeper. That was a sign of things to come.
Two plays later, Swafford put together a string of three runs that finished with a 10-yard scamper into the end zone.
When Sweetwater got the ball after the ensuing kickoff, the Wildcats went backwards with back-to-back false start penalties.
“We’ve got to be more focused and be better in practice,” Edmiston said. “A lot of those penalties were young guys who were starting for the first time, and I think the offense came out and moved the ball a little bit and those penalties really shot us in the foot.”
Hunter Jenkins got Sweetwater out of the jam with a pass to Kaleb Johnkins and a keeper that gained 10 yards. The Wildcats drove down the field but couldn’t convert a fourth down in Meigs County territory and the Tigers took over.
Gabriel Maldonado got the Tigers started off right once again with a 25-yard carry, and from there Meigs County rolled on to the end zone. Swafford capped the drive with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Maldonado to put the Tigers up 14-0.
Disaster struck for Sweetwater on the kickoff. A fumble near the sideline was picked up by Meigs County at the Sweetwater 35-yard line. Swafford connected with Caleb Hyde for 30 yards to get the ball down near the goal and Swafford finished it off with a 1-yard quarterback sneak. The PAT put the Tigers on top 21-0.
“We preached that you can’t turn the ball over against a good team like this, and we put it on the ground and they made us pay for it,” Edmiston said. “That’s what good teams do. When you turn the ball over against a good team, they’ll put points on the board.”
With Sweetwater desperately needing to put points on the board, disaster struck again on the following Wildcat drive. After three first downs, the Wildcats were moving the ball well, but an untimely fumble was scooped up by Trace Corne who rumbled all the way for a touchdown.
When you would think nothing else could go wrong for the young Wildcats, one of their leaders in Jenkins went out with an injury.
“Hunter’s the leader for this team, and he’s been in this type of game before,” Edmiston said. “So it’s good to have that experience back there. I thought Austin (Long) came in ready to play. Played hard, ran the ball well, so that was good to see.”
The next two drives for Sweetwater ended in punts as the offense tried to adjust to Jenkins’ absence. Meigs took advantage of the opportunity to run up the score even more. Swafford found Jon Jon Beeler streaking down the sideline for a 79-yard touchdown pass, and though Meigs did turn the ball over twice near the end of the half, the Tigers took a 34-0 lead to the halftime break.
Sweetwater took the ball after halftime and mounted a promising drive. Austin Long connected with Matthew Kile for a 32-yard gain and the Wildcats picked up three first downs. However, two critical sacks derailed the drive and Sweetwater turned the ball over on downs.
Meigs County turned back to Maldonado, who ran for 23 on the first play of the drive. Maldonado finished the drive with a touchdown as well, from 31 yards out.
Meigs County added one more touchdown after a long 30-yard run by Logan Carroll before Sweetwater took over for one last drive.
Long completed passes to Bryce Johnson for 22 yards and Matthew Kile for 33 yards as the Wildcats moved into scoring position. One final pass from Long to Kile covered 5 yards and finally put the Wildcats on the scoreboard.
The final effort came too late to salvage the game for Sweetwater, which will try to regroup before heading on another road trip to Rockwood next Friday.
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