The wait is over. Signal Mountain High School can now start focusing on South Pittsburg — officially and without fret of bulletin-board fodder or offending an upcoming foe.
Friday night’s final hurdle was a bit more difficult, but Signal Mountain mercy-ruled its fourth consecutive opponent with a 42-7 win over visiting Sequatchie County.
The Eagles are 4-0 and ranked No. 2 in Class 2A, and next Friday’s trip to South Pittsburg will almost certainly decide the district championship.
“I don’t think we were looking forward,” Signal coach Bill Price said after his team expanded a closely fought 14-0 halftime lead with an offensive outburt led by quarterback Hogan Whitmire in a decisive third quarter. “I mean we scored 42 points and played pretty good defense against a pretty good football team. That’s not too bad.”
The Indians dropped to 1-2.
“I thought we were going to come in here and win this ballgame,” Sequatchie coach Chad Barger said. “Everybody was saying we can’t do this, we can’t do that. We had our chances early and we needed to make one more play early, and I think it’s a different ballgame.”
Barger’s team controlled the ball and kept the high-powered Eagles off the field for most of the first half.
“We made a couple of mistakes,” Barger said, “and you can’t really afford that against a team as good as they are.”
Signal running back Donnie Garner made the most of one of the few Sequatchie miscues, turning the corner to turn a simple counter play into a 56-yard touchdown.
Late in second quarter the Indians forced a Mitchell Hall fumble inside the Sequatchie 10. Eight plays later, Hall evened his personal ledger by blocking a punt that eventually led to Hall’s 2-yard scoring run.
“They made a good play and put their hat right on the ball,” said Hall, who finished with five carries for 55 yards and two touchdowns. “I knew I had to redeem myself.”
Signal made a goal-line stand late in the first half, finally turning back the Indians when Hunter Lewis’ fourth-down pass to Justis Stewart was ruled incomplete. That call, plus penalties that negated a touchdown, and another long gainer left the Indians scoreless through three quarters and Barger shaking his head.
“That one in the first half was a homer call,” Barger said. “Then we had another touchdown called back because of a chop block, behind the line of scrimmage ... in the box. Whatever.
“I’ll tell you this, that crew will never call a game at Sequatchie County, and you can quote me on that.”
After the sluggish first half, Whitmire left nothing to chance in the third quarter, and the one-and-done Eagles offense hit high gear. Last week, Signal scored seven touchdowns on its first 13 snaps. In an eight-snap stretch in the third quarter Friday, the Eagles scored four times and Whitmire was the catalyst.
He bought some time and rolled right before finding Alex McGhee for a 79-yard game-sealing touchdown that made it 21-0. Hall’s 16-yard score in Signal’s next snap preceded two Whitmire completions that included a 15-yard touchdown throw to Jon Patton on a tight end screen.
Lewis put the Indians on the board with a quarterback sneak in the final quarter. Signal’s Caden Thomas answered with a 5-yard run to stretch the lead back to 35 and turn all attention to next week.
“We’re going to get ready for South Pitt,” Price said. “It’s going to be a big-time atmosphere and a big-time challenge.”
Jay was named the Sports Editor of the Times Free Press in 2003 and started with the newspaper in May 2002 as the Deputy Sports Editor. He was born and raised in Smyrna, Ga., and graduated from Auburn University before starting his newspaper career in 1997 with the Newnan (Ga.) Times Herald. Stops in Clayton and Henry counties in Georgia and two years as the Sports Editor of the Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal preceded Jay’s ...
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