East Hamilton's football team can feel the momentum building, with Friday night's complete performance sending the Hurricanes into the home stretch of the regular season speeding in the right direction.
After going on the road to shut out Soddy-Daisy 42-0, the Hurricanes are 5-2 overall, 4-0 in Region 3-4A and in great position as they play their final three games at home in search of a region title. That includes a showdown with Division II-A's state-ranked No. 1 Friendship Christian, followed by region battles against fourth-ranked Red Bank and Hixson.
"This is a really good win for our team, program and school," East Hamilton coach Grant Reynolds said in the postgame huddle. "We put ourselves in a really good position. Let's keep this thing rolling and build off this momentum."
Junior defensive back Kireese Willis delivered quite the spark for the Hurricanes to pull away for good.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area high school football games)
With a lightning bolt on his left sock, Willis showed off his speed with a 68-yard touchdown on a punt return to build a 28-0 lead with 10:34 left in the third quarter. Just 41 seconds later, Willis made a one-handed interception on a deep pass down the middle for one of his team's three picks in the second half.
"We are really motivated right now," Willis said. "We all pitched in and played a great game. It was really nice to break a big one on special teams and to get our secondary fired up in the second half."
While senior linebacker Dakota Clayton was flying all over the field with eight first-half tackles and a sack, Soddy-Daisy (1-6, 1-3) could not prevent David Cole from leaving his mark.
East Hamilton's 6-foot-4 senior receiver starred on the game's opening drive, making a handful of defenders miss with shiftiness and speed on his 26-yard catch of a screen pass on third-and-19 from the Hurricanes' 9-yard line. Cole finished the touchdown drive on the ground, running 26 yards on a reverse.
Cole also grabbed a 26-yard touchdown pass from Juan Bullard as he leapt over a defender in the right corner of the end zone to build an 18-0 lead with four minutes left before halftime.
"David and Juan are extremely high-character kids who have very unique God-given abilities," Reynolds said. "David made some really great plays that first half, and Juan was throwing the ball great and in control of our offense."
In the first half alone, Bullard threw for 114 yards and rushed for 66. The senior, who entered the week leading the Chattanooga area in rushing touchdowns, picked up his 22nd of the season when he took a keeper in from 8 yards out to start a running clock up 35-0 with 6:27 left in the third quarter.
Ethan Hixson kicked field goals from 35 and 31 yards, and all of his kickoffs sailed through the end zone for touchbacks. East Hamilton senior Jake Ralls also stood out with 80 receiving yards.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.