There's no way that East Hamilton football coach Ted Gatewood was going to be disappointed after taking his team to Signal Mountain and getting back on the bus with a 34-18 win.
The groans will begin when Gatewood and his staff begin breaking down the video. It will be "1-0 with a whole lot of work to do."
The undermanned Eagles, approximately 30 strong with numerous two-way players, hung in there, down just 14-6 at halftime. New coach Ty Wise's team controlled the line of scrimmage, rushing for 239 yards and rolling up 17 first downs to just 8 for the Hurricanes.
While Wise refused any postgame comment, Gatewood had some nice words to say about the Eagles.
"Signal Mountain is good. We knew they were going to be one of the teams that would have one of the best interior groups we'd play," Gatewood said. "Our guys had to learn and develop. They played hard but we just had mistakes we have to clean up. That's why I'm so glad for the film we're going to have (to review)."
The biggest difference was East Hamilton's approach. Faced with the extreme difficulty they faced in running the ball - behind a big but inexperienced offensive line - Gatewood called on quarterback Nick Woods.
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The junior, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his opening game of 2014, completed 12 of 19 passes for 288 yards with three touchdowns. He also had one called back in what was his second career start.
"He's doing a heck of a job and, yeah, we are planning to throw it," Gatewood said of future games.
All three of Woods' TD tosses went to fleet but diminutive Jayden Smith.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring quickly with Woods and the sophomore Smith connecting on an 80-yard pass play. Signal had a chance to tie midway of the second period, but a botched gadget extra-point play went awry following Corey DeHart's 4-yard run.
It was as close as Signal would get to tying the score or taking the lead.
Woods, who already has committed to Tennessee for baseball, again found Smith, this time on a 10-yard pass, and Carter Carson's second PAT made it 14-6.
After missing a 25-yard field goal, the Hurricanes finally squeezed some breathing room on a 4-yard run by Frankie Campo with just 1:21 left in the third quarter and extended the lead to 27-12 on Jeffrey Coleman's 76-yard punt return as the third period expired.
The Eagles mounted a comeback, quarterback Thomas Vatter finding Leyton Teal for a 37-yard score, but Woods and Smith answered, this time on a short-pass, long-run 62-yard combination.
Signal's final score, coming with just a second left, was Vatter's second TD toss, another to Leyton, this one covering 10 yards.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.