Signal Mountain likes to play up-tempo on both sides of the ball and loves to force the issue. But the unbeaten Eagles were forced to learn patience Friday night against clock-eating Sequoyah.
The visiting Chiefs often waited until the back judge began counting down toward a delay-of-game penalty before snapping the ball in a severe ball-control offense. The idea was to limit Signal’s possessions, and it worked to a point.
Signal didn’t get the first running clock until the 9:21 mark in the fourth quarter of a 49-14 victory. The homecoming win marked the seventh time in eight games Signal has forced the mercy rule.
“I think we got impatient,” said Eagles safety Seth Ware, who had eight tackles, a game-ending interception and a lost-yardage hit.
“We didn’t play our greatest game tonight and we didn’t look really good,” coach Bill Price said. “Their game plan was to show it down, and we might as well get used to it, because we’re going to see more of it. We have got to learn to be patient.”
Bottom line, he said, was the team winning its eighth straight game and its starters getting to play four quarters.
Some team members felt the Eagles might have been overconfident.
“We had a crazy good week of practice, and I think we thought we’d stop them on every play,” Ware said. “We need to come out and play with our full intensity every game.”
“We’ll get better next week,” said Price, who told the team they’d be going in half-pads for Monday’s practice.
The Eagles took a 28-0 lead into halftime on a 4-yard run by Zach Bowman, a 1-yard pass from Hogan Whitmire to Jon Patton and touchdown runs of 3 and 15 yards by Donnie Garner.
Brandon Bell slipped a tackle by the last defender and turned a 15-yard pass from Trey Dyer into an 80-yard score for Sequoyah’s first score. Signal retaliated just 34 seconds later on the first of back-to-back TDs from Andrew Price. The first score covered 42 yards and the second 19.
The game’s final TD belonged to Signal’s Bowman on a 5-yard run.