Some early trickery helped get Sullivan South out of its comfort zone, but it was mainly just solid play on both sides of the ball that helped East Hamilton roll to an impressive 56-20 home win in the first round of the TSSAA Class 4A playoffs on Friday night.
The Hurricanes used up nearly the entire first-quarter clock on their opening possession, which resulted in a touchdown. After Sullivan South (8-3) answered to tie the game, the Hurricanes *8-3) regained the lead, then recovered a surprise onside kick that allowed them to drive down for another score that staked them to a 21-7 lead.
The Rebels, who rely on their ground game, were then forced to go to a spread offense and throw the ball, and the East Hamilton defense was there to shut them down and help pull away to a commanding 33-13 halftime lead and earn the first playoff win for the program since 2013.
“Recovering that onside kick really seemed to take some wind out of their sails,” said second-year Hurricanes coach Grant Reynolds, whose team recovered two of four onside kick attempts in the game. “We weren’t going to let them keep the ball away from us all night and run the clock, so the plan was to onside kick it as many times as we thought we needed to. Once we got that first one, that really kind of helped us get going.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night’s Chattanooga-area high school football games)