Trojans too much for Hixson Wildcats in 49-13 win

Football
Football

Soddy-Daisy visited Hixson and came away with a 49-13 win Friday night, despite falling behind 7-0 in the early moments of the game.

On the first play from scrimmage, Hixson quarterback Landon Wallace pitched a lateral to wide receiver Latrell Sandefer, who threw the ball deep down the field to Jack Jullian for a 46-yard gain to set up the Wildcats at the Trojans' 25-yard line. Six plays later Lamel Johnson ran the ball in from 2 yards out for the Wildcats' lead, just 2 minutes and 52 seconds into the game.

"On that first drive it was a little excitement. It's a big rivalry game. We didn't do a good job. We had our eyes in the backfield, instead of playing our coverage. That was a little of the problem," Soddy-Daisy coach Justin Barnes said later. "They settled down after that and responded very well.

"The type of offense they run is very tough to defend. You've got to play assignment football. After that first drive, we really did that."

On the ensuing possession, Soddy-Daisy took the ball 55 yards on eight plays to tie the game at 7 with 5:47 remaining in the first quarter. Featured on the drive was running back Ty Boeck, whose five carries accounted for 47 of the 55 yards, including a score from 1 yard out.

From there, it was no looking back for the Trojans (3-1). Punt returner Brandon Davis put on a show, starting with a short punt he took for a 35-yard touchdown to give Soddy-Daisy the lead for good at 14-7 with 4:19 left in the first quarter.

The next time Davis went back, he returned a punt to the Wildcats' 30. Quarterback Gavin Chambers hit wide receiver Hunter Burke for a touchdown pass on the next play to extend the lead to 21-7 with under two minutes remaining in the first quarter.

The Trojans would go on to score touchdowns on each of their final three possessions of the first half to enter the break leading 42-7. Both Chambers and Boeck ended the first half with impressive stat lines; Chambers went 6-for-6 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns and Boeck carried the ball eight times for 54 yards and two scores. Boeck ran the ball once in the second half for 1 yard.

Barnes was pleased with what he saw from Chambers late in the first half.

"It was nice to get in a two-minute drill and to get a little bit of that," the coach said. "You try to practice it; in a game, it's a different story. It was nice to see us be efficient - see it with people flying around him and having to think quick. Did he make good decisions? That is always nice. To be able to put one on right before half to extend it a little bit was nice."

The reserves came in for most of the second half, and Coach Barnes' nephew, Isaac Barnes, completed both of his passes for 36 yards and a touchdown, which gave Soddy-Daisy a 49-7 lead. He also ran the ball six times for 47 yards as the Trojans ran the clock for much of the second half.

Before the clock was run dry, Hixson's Wallace came back on the field and completed a pass downfield to Sandefer, who broke a couple of tackles and raced 83 yards for a score to make the final deficit at 49-13. Wallace finished the game 14-of-16 passing on mostly screen passes for 229 yards and the one touchdown for the Wildcats (0-4).

Contact Thomas Black at sports@timesfreepress.com.

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