BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. — When the Wolves needed points when it mattered most, they turned into ‘bears’.
West Ridge answered a Morristown East tying touchdown with one of their own, defeating the winless Hurricanes 21-14 on Friday night in the regular season finale to earn a berth in the Region 1-6A playoffs next week.
That stopped a three-game losing skid that coincided with the loss of quarterback Trey Frazier for the season with a wrist injury. Up next is a visit to undefeated Bradley Central (10-0), which is led by University of Tennessee commit Boo Carter.
“You have got to get in and see what happens,” said West Ridge head coach Justin Hilton, who won road playoff games against higher-seeded teams while at Sullivan South and picked up a win in the Wolves’ first playoff appearance two years ago. “He can move. If you look at his highlights he is a player.”
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Morristown East (0-10, 0-5) tied the score on a 67-yard run by Jason West and a two-point conversion pass from Trevor Foulks to Zander Southerland to make it 14-14 with 26 seconds left in the third period.
West Ridge (5-4, 2-3) went to its patented “bear” formation on the next drive, a tight set that allows the Wolves to run the ball between the tackles, while making it difficult for the defense to find the ball. Just ask Morristown East head coach Dallas Kuykendall.
“They do a really job with it. You can tell they really worked it. Their offensive line is really good,” Kuykendall said. “They are big and physical...and the back does a great job of seeing the cutbacks on it. That is a tough formation to defend, especially when they get rolling downhill because they are going to chunk out 3, 4, 3 yards and it is a first down.
“We couldn’t be good enough on first or second down to kind of get them out it. Credit to them, but I thought our defense played about as well as they could in it.”
West Ridge moved the ball in that formation 80 yards on nine plays, keyed by Chase Gill, who had runs of 12 and 16 yards on the drive, finishing off the possession with a 7-yard scoring run with 9:23 to play. Fullback Dylan Joyner also had a key 22-yard run to help set up the Wolves at the Morristown East 12-yard line.
“We just put the football in there and we just see who wants to hit and who wants to play. Our guys believe in it,” Hilton said. “It is not the prettiest thing, it is probably not the most popular offense in town, but I have always been in the business of getting wins. When they hired me that is what they hired me for, to build character and get wins and we are going to do it however we have got to do it.”
A nifty 29-yard return on the ensuing kick by Austin Brannan put the Hurricanes inside West Ridge territory, but the ‘Canes turned the ball over on downs at the 26. When the Wolves couldn’t move the ball, Dylan Fore did his part, booting a punt 52 yards that was downed at the 8 with 5:24 to play.
“Our punter tears his ACL at the beginning of the year. Dylan has never punted a day in his life and he has worked on it. I am really proud of him,” Hilton said. “It was huge. He got in the huddle and said I am just going to kick it as far as I can.”
Morristown East was forced to punt, but never got the ball back. West Ridge moved the ball to the 1 in the final seconds, but ran out the clock rather than trying to score again.
West Ridge took advantage of two first quarter fumbles recovered by Ryan Stidham and Sam Perry to take a 14-0 lead on a 4-yard run by Gill and a 2-yarder by Sawyer Tate. The Hurricanes pulled within 14-6 going into the break on a 13-yard scoring pass from Foulks to Brannan, which followed an interception by Southerland.
“We really were fortunate to come away with a win,” Hilton said. “We told the guys all week it was going to come down to blocking and tackling, that is what every game comes down to. We made some big tackles in space where we have struggled with at times this year. We blocked their butts there at the end, we were knocking them off the ball.”
The West Ridge defense limited the Hurricanes to 212 offensive yards, including just 85 on the ground. The Wolves spent much of the evening in the backfield, led by Carson Abbott, who entered with 17 1/2 tackles for the loss on the season and added a few more in this one.
“I think I got two or three, trying to get 20,” Abbott said. “This defense is very fun. I haven’t had a year quite like this. Our coaches, they are great guys, I really look up to them.”
That includes defensive gurus Jay Conkin and Ryan Collier, who Abbott said prepared the Wolves for the ‘Canes.
“[They] have been teaching us fundamentals the whole week just trying to stop this run,” Abbott said. “It has really been paying off. Our backers, Sam Perry, Kaz Click, Dylan Joyner, they have been doing a great job the whole year. We couldn’t ask for anything better on defense.”
Gill led West Ridge with 93 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, while Tate had 78 yards, Horne added 51 and Joyner finished with 49 behind an offensive line that included freshman Cal Tatum at left guard as the Wolves have had to be creative on offense since the loss of Frazier.
“We did struggle a bit with these injuries, but just us running the ball. Chase Gill and Ethan Amyx and Dylan Joyner, they are just great running the ball,” Abbott said. “Our O-Line with Cal Tatum stepping up, we couldn’t ask for anything more. Our offensive line has done really good this year. Just really grateful for those guys.”
Up next is a visit to Bradley Central, which won’t be an easy task, but don’t count out the Wolves.
“We just got stumped on offense a little bit, but next week we are going to be fully ready,” Abbott said. “I think we can definitely overcome this.”
Morristown East 0 6 8 0 — 14
West Ridge 14 0 0 7 — 21
Scoring Summary
WR-Gill 4 run (Whisnant kick)
WR-Tate 2 run (Whisnant kick)
ME-Brannan 13 pass from Foulks (kick failed)
ME-West 67 run (Southerland pass from Foulks)
WR-Gill 7 run (Whisnant kick)
Team Stats
First downs: ME 10; WR 14. Rush-yards: ME 22-85; WR 40-273. Pass yards: ME 127; WR 26. Comp-Att-Int: ME 12-20-0; WR 4-8-1. Fumbles-lost: ME 3-2; WR 0-0. Penalty-yards: ME 9-75; WR 6-60. Punts-Avg: ME 3-29.0; WR 2-42.5.