CLINTON, Tenn. — After a first half of sluggish football that saw Walker Valley down by two touchdowns in the first quarter, the Mustangs began to come alive early in the second quarter and took command late to reach the state 5A semifinals with a 24-20 win over Clinton on the road Friday.
The victory pits the Mustangs (10-2) in their first-ever semifinals appearance against tdefending state champion Knoxville West (11-1) Friday at 7 p.m.
“Resilience. What a resilient game. It started out 14-0. It was a bad start, an adverse start,” said a happy and relieved Mustangs hed coach Drew Akins. “Coming on the road I think we were a little sleepy getting used to the environment and trying to figure out where we were and getting our bearings. But, we really quickly found our bearings and our defense kept us in it. It gave us a chance offensively to make some noise in the second half.
Playing on familiar turf, the Dragons took full advantage of home field advantage to put eight quick points on the board with a 12-play opening drive for the score and 2-point conversion.
Clinton opened the gap tp 14-0 on their second touch as Jawan Goins raced through the Walker Valley defense for a 60-yard score to make it 14-0.
“I felt like we started sleepy and that's a great (Clinton) offense. There's a lot of good offensive players on that team. They've been playing great. They've been playing with a lot of energy,” said Akins. “They beat an Oak Ridge team a lot of people had playing in the finals. I'm really proud of our defense allowing us to stay in the game and then pretty quickly our offense started coming around.”
The Mustangs showed signs of life early in the second quarter as quarterback Evan Schwarzl and Roman Eulo closed out a 70-yard quick march with a 45-yard touchdown pass. Eli Wilson closed the margin 14-7 with the extra point.
The Walker Valley defense stood strong on Clinton's next possession holding the Dragons on a fourth-and-six. With time being kept on the field after a clock malfunction, the Mustangs moved to the Clinton 1-yard line, but could not cross the goal line before time ran out in the half and trailed by seven at the break.
“I'm really, really disappointed with those two drives in the first half not getting points,” Akins said of a missed first quarter field goal and the stop just before the half. “If we get those we're really comfortable here at the end. I told them going in find a way to win by one and we found a way to win by four. I'm really proud of this team.”
Walker Valley drew even closer late in the third quarter as Wilson booted a 19-yard field goal through the uprights to make it a 14-10 game as the quarter came to a close.
Once again, the Mustangs defense stood tall holding the Dragons on a fourth-and-7 to take over at their own 17-yard line.
Four play later, Schwarzl found an open Hudson Makuch for 52 yards and a touchdown to give the Mustangs their first lead of the night at 17-14.
Walker Valley upped the lead with a six play short march after recovering a Clinton fumble at the Dragon's 20-yard line. Schwarzl put the cap on the drive with a 11-yard pass to Spencer Makuch. Wilson's kick made it 24-14 with just under four minutes left in the game.
“I knew early we could move the ball. We were moving the ball really well. We just had two drives where we didn't finish,” said Akins. “But, adversity over and over and over and for us to be just so resilient is unbelievable. It is the resilient Mustangs, man. They showed a level of resiliency nobody has ever seen here. I'm s proud of them and so proud to be in this moment with them.”
But, the Dragons still had fire in their breath and pushed Walker Valley for 75 yards before closing the lead to 24-20 with 1:00 showing on the clock.
Clinton came right back to recover the ensuing onside kick at the Mustangs' 49-yard line with idea of ending Walker Valley's season. Instead, it was Schwarzl who took matters into his own hands with a leaping interception at the WalkerValley 1-yard line with 24 seconds left in the game. From there the Dragons gave the Mustangs the victory with double 15-yard unsportsman-like penalties that allowed Schwarzl to take a knee to run out the clock for the win.
The Mustangs will enjoy the win this weekend and get right back to work during the Thanksgiving holiday in preparation for Knox West.
“Cool, man. We're practicing on Thanksgiving. It's so cool,” said a happy Akins. “We'll go wherever. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be a great football team we'll be playing. But, the only teams left are great football teams. We'll go wherever we need to go ad ply wherever we need to play. I'm just excited for our kids and our community to be in this moment and be able to play in the semifinals.”
SUMMARY
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WALKER VALLEY
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0
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7
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3
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14
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-- 24
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CLINTON
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14
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0
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0
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6
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-- 20
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First Quarter
CL — Joshuah Keith 3 run (D'Mon Marable conversion), 6:21
CL — Jawan Goins 60 run (conversion failed), 1:14
Second Quarter
WV — Roman Eulo 4 pass from Evan Schwarzl (Eli Wilson kick), 10:45
Third Quarter
WV — Wilson 19 field goal, 1:11
Fourth Quarter
WV — Spencer Makuch 52 pass from Schwarzl (Wilson kick), 8:57
WV — Hudson Makuch 11 pass from Schwarzl (Wilson kick), 3:47
CL — Keith 9 run (Conversion failed), 1:00
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STATS
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WV
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CL
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First Downs
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15
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16
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Rushes-Yards
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26-76
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31-225
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Passing Yards
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254
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102
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Total yards
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330
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327
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Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
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18-23-0
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16-23-3
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Penalties-Yards
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7-36
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10-106
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Punts-Average
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1-51.0
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1-35.0
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Fumbles-Lost
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0-0
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1-1
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HIGHLIGHTS
Rushing: Schwarzl 21-70, (WV); Chauncey Felts 6-39, D'mon Marable 4-27, Keith 7-30 TD, Goins 10-84 TD (CL).
Passing: Schwarzl 8-23, 254 3TD (WV); Keith 16-26, 102 (CL).
Receiving: Spencer Makuch 6-100 TD, Eulo 3-64 TD, Zeke Garrison 1-27, Hudson Makuch 1-19 TD, Tanner Whittenbarger 2-15, Brady Stack 2-14, Malachi Martin 1-12, Tate Rountree 1-3 (WV); Bryson Maddox 6-58 (CL).
Records: Walker Valley 10-2; Clinton 5-7.
Next Up: Walker Valley will travel to Knox West (12-1) for a DI Class 5A semifinal next Friday.
(Contact Richard Roberts at richardvol55@yahoo.com)