The first couple of weeks of the season have been nowhere near perfect for East Hamilton’s football team.
Third-year head coach Aaron Nance’s Hurricanes can still be happy about their 2-0 start.
In a battle of programs that won nine games apiece and made deep runs to the TSSAA state quarterfinals last November, the Class 5A Hurricanes toughed out a 35-28 home victory over Class 3A’s fifth-ranked Meigs County on Friday night.
Senior star Jaden Haywood showed why he is one of Chattanooga’s elite playmakers as he rushed for three scores in the second quarter, and he also had a 42-yard touchdown catch on a swing pass called back in the opening period.
Haywood’s elusiveness and speed were too much for the Tigers to contain as his 32-yard touchdown with 58 seconds left in the first half provided a 28-12 lead for the hosts atop Hurricane Hill.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night’s Chattanooga-area prep football games)
“I will be honest, it doesn’t matter what classification you play in as long as you have the will to come out and compete and win,” said Haywood, who finished with 153 yards on 17 touches. “Meigs County came out and fought with us. But one thing about our team is that we never back down. We play from the start to the end.”
Meigs County (1-1) showed a tremendous amount of fight a week after losing star Tuff Ricker, a senior quarterback and linebacker who was ejected in the first quarter of the season opener and had to sit again Friday.
The Tigers turned to sophomore quarterback Kaiden Brewster, who accounted for all of his team’s scores with three passing touchdowns and a rushing score. One of his highlights included 42-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 to junior Bowen Combs, who finished with 135 yards on eight touches while adding a 2-point conversion run.
While East Hamilton’s defense surrendered 399 total yards, junior linebacker Nehemiah Diggs came through in clutch moments in the second half with a tackle for loss to force a turnover on downs and a big hit on Brewster for a 6-yard loss.
A week after rattling off 43 unanswered points after a 14-0 first-quarter deficit to Hixson in the season opener, East Hamilton sealed the win against the Tigers when Grayson Maddox recovered an onside kick with 23 seconds to go.
The Hurricanes were also led by senior quarterback Wyatt Miller, who totaled 157 yards (92 passing, 65 rushing) and had a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Heathington on the game’s opening drive as well as a 1-yard touchdown run.
“I am really glad we scheduled them,” Nance said of Meigs County. “This was a tough test to get ready for our region. Meigs County has a good program and expects to win and is used to winning. For us to get a lead and handle them pushing back was big.
“We have teachable errors to learn from, and we struggled at times with situational football stuff, but we have time to correct those.”
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.