DECATUR, Tenn. - Quarterback Aaron Swafford accounted for all five of Meigs County's touchdowns Friday night, and the Tigers rolled to a 36-8 high school football victory over visiting Polk County.
The undefeated Tigers marched 65 yards on the game's first possession. Seven runs moved the ball 40 yards, and then Swafford went to the air for a 25-yard touchdown to Jon Jon Beeler.
Swafford threw only nine passes but completed six, to three receivers, for 148 yards and two touchdowns.
"Seven different guys have caught the football this year, so teams that play us can't get locked in on one receiver," Meigs coach Jason Fitzgerald said. "I think we had three or four different guys make catches tonight. We can do it at any time."
But the ground game is Meigs' staple with Swafford leading the way in that area, too. He ran for 117 yards on 17 carries and scored the Tigers' next three TDs. They were on runs of 10, 11 and 11 yards - the first around left end, the second around the right and the third through the middle. Dalton Baker's conversion run after the third one made the score 28-8 with 10:38 to go in the third quarter.
Meigs did trail 8-6 for two minutes early in the second quarter. Polk (4-5) took advantage of an 8-yard punt and drove 45 yards in five plays, scoring on Hunter Morgan's 3-yard run at the 11:08 mark. The key play was Nate Waters' 39-yard pass to Conner Barks.
Fitzgerald said he thought his secondary played better after that play, but the Wildcats did have a drive in the second half in which they moved the ball from their 30 to a first-and-goal at the 10. They ended up turning the ball over on downs at the 11.
"What they run is not really a wing-T, but it sort of is," Fitzgerald said. "Teams like that are just going to try to pound you for 3 or 4 yards at a time. They're going to move the ball at times. There's going to be some holes in there. You've just got to be able to get them stopped."
Meigs (9-0) wrapped up the Region 2-2A championship last week, so the Tigers had nothing to play for this week other than keeping their record unblemished and solidifying their hold on the state's top ranking in the Associated Press poll. The same applies next week when they host Wartburg.
"We won the region last week, so you worry about a letdown, but we came in and took care of business," Fitzgerald said. "I'm proud of those guys for that."
Polk's Wildcats play at Marion County next week in a Region 3 2-A game with a first-round home game in the state playoffs in the balance.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.