East Hamilton 28, Stone Memorial 16
Star: East Hamilton running back David Whiteside rushed for 135 yards and a touchdown.Up next: East Hamilton will play Marshall County next Friday.
CROSSVILLE, Tenn. – The concession stands at East Hamilton High School will be open next Friday night.
In the meantime, somebody will have to break out the grill again and somebody else will have to paint the field, because the Hurricanes will be playing at home.
East Hamilton earned a Class 4A quarterfinals date with Marshall County by toppling previously undefeated Stone Memorial 28-16 Friday night behind a stout defense and an efficient offense.
“We knew them from two weeks ago, but we just ran our game and we couldn’t waste any reps,” said running back David Whiteside, who rushed for 135 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. “Big props to my linemen. They wore (Stone Memorial) down.”
East Hamilton (8-4) quarterback Nick Woods completed only three passes. But they covered 106 yards and a touchdown to Jordan Gorman. The Hurricanes also used their speed advantage on the edge in the second half, including a 48-yard reverse.
“We tried to stretch the field a little bit,” said East Hamilton coach Ted Gatewood, whose team lost 14-7 to the Panthers two weeks ago during the regular season. “Really we did what we do, we just did it better. We really executed with our linemen up front. We beat a really good team.”
The Panthers (11-1) entered the game undefeated. Their season is over.
Stone Memorial racked up 230 rushing yards on 47 carries but had only two runs longer than 11 yards and two plays longer than 20 yards.
“We got Chris Smith back after he missed five weeks, and that helped,” Gatewood said. “I think our guys understood the plan better and made a couple adjustments.”
After establishing Whiteside as a threat out of the backfield on the opening series, the Hurricanes took to the air, where they had a distinct height and speed advantage over the Panthers.
The Hurricanes traveled 96 yards, with Whiteside covering the first 42 and Woods connecting with Gorman for a 54-yard touchdown strike down the right sideline, allowing Gorman to high-step into the end zone and draw a 15-yard penalty.
Woods ended a Panthers drive by intercepting Austin Helton at the 6.
The Hurricanes followed by driving 82 yards – which included a 41-yard pass from Woods to Hunter Gregg – and Woods capped it with a 1-yard sneak.
The Panthers responded by finding their offensive footing and trudging 80 yards on a 15-play drive that consumed nearly 10 minutes of game time. Justin Johnson scored from a yard out, but the point-after attempt missed, leaving East Hamilton ahead 14-6 at halftime.
The Panthers tied the game on a 27-yard keeper by Austin Helton, with Cody Wyllins adding the two-point conversion.
East Hamilton took to the outside again, with Coleman taking a flip from Whiteside and sprinting around the left side for a 48-yard touchdown to conclude the third quarter and take a 21-14 lead.
“I saw a good block, then I hit the crease,” Coleman said. “We really showed some heart in the fourth quarter.”
The Hurricanes went ahead 28-14 with 6:43 to go on Whiteside’s 7-yard scoot up the middle.
Gatewood gave the Panthers two points when he chose to take a safety and time off the clock rather than punt from his own end zone with 2:18 to go.
“We ran our game,” Woods said. “We kept pounding and getting first downs.”
They’ll be doing it at home next Friday.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-7575-6484. Follow him at Twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.