BENTON, Tenn. – It may not be Oz, but Derrick Davis knows that when the state playoffs begin, there’s no place like home.
Polk County’s veteran football coach was all smiles Friday night after his team gutted out a hard-fought 21-6 win over Marion County that secured second place in Region 3-2A and home-field advantage for the first round of state.
“The biggest thing is we don’t have to load up on a bus just yet,” said Davis, whose team will host a playoff game for the first time since 2013. “We’ll just have to walk about 25 feet from our field house onto our field here at Larry G. Davis Stadium, and that’s a big deal.”
Despite averaging fewer than 4 yards per carry and being outgained in total yards, the Wildcats (6-4, 2-2) never trailed and wore down the visiting Warriors (4-5, 2-2) in the second half.
Senior running back Hunter Morgan led the way with 83 yards on 22 carries and scored all three Polk touchdowns.
The first came just one play after Marion fumbled a punt at its 6-yard line early in the first quarter.
After the two teams traded punts, Marion – which was playing without starting quarterback Isaiah Sampson, who was suspended for one game – put together a 16-play, 83-yard drive capped by a 5-yard scoring run by Jax Rollins. But a bad snap on the extra-point attempt led to a failed conversion run, and the Warriors trailed by one at the half.
On the Wildcats’ first possession of the second half, they put together a methodical 13-play, 71-yard drive, converting three third downs before Morgan scored on a 5-yard run.
“This means a lot, especially (for) us seniors, because our goal at the start of the season was to get to play at home in the playoffs,” Morgan said. “We just kept running it at them in the second half, trying to wear them down.”
Morgan’s third touchdown came early in the fourth quarter and essentially put the game away. Marion finished with 223 total yards, with 183 of that coming on the ground, while all of Polk’s 173 yards were on the ground.
“We didn’t really make any big halftime adjustments,” Davis added. “I told the kids in the locker room to come out and just play a little bit harder in the second half and we could make some things happen. I’m really proud of the way the kids responded.
“We had several guys who ran hard, and I know they were limited in what they could do on offense without Sampson, but I thought our defense stepped up after their first drive and really played tough and got some big stops for us.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.