Hawks senior night win, major playoff implications
The football game had the proverbial “everything”: big-strike plays on offense, costly mistakes, momentum swings, critical stops on D.
And if that weren’t enough, the game had major playoff implications for both teams.
In the end, Hardin Valley Academy prevailed at home on Senior Night over Cleveland High School, 42-27. The score is a bit misleading: the Hawks’ win wasn’t assured until late in the fourth quarter.
“Very back and forth game,” HVA coach Tyler Wynn said. “Proud of our kids; they fought their tail off to get the win there at the end. I told ‘em I’m really proud of em.”
The first half couldn’t have been more back-and-forth, as it ended tied at 21. The Hawks led 7-0 with 5:41 left in the first when Chance Sharp finished a nine-play, 46-yard drive with a six-yard scoring run.
The Blue Raiders tied it late in the quarter with a touchdown pass, but HVA again took the lead, 14-7, when Sharp scored on a one-yard run with 6:32 left in the half. The drive had been stopped, but Becks Allen recovered a fumbled Raiders’ punt to give the Hawks new life.
CHS tied it at 14 on its next drive, and then took a 21-14 lead with 2:31 left in the half when Kyree Scott returned a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown.
But the Hawks struck back with 1:11 left, tying the game at 21 when quarterback Riley Metz hit Brody Lamb with a 47-yard score. The drive covered 80 yards and needed but four plays.
For the game, Metz was only five of 11 but threw for two scores and 149 yards.
“I told Riley ‘I need you to be accurate on the big ones,’” Wynn said. “And he did a tremendous job of leading our offense and coming through in some clutch passes.”
Metz’s second TD pass was also big: 53 yards to Lamb to lead 28-21 with 3:48 left in the third. It was the first play after Lamb recovered a
Raiders’ fumble at the HVA 47.
Cleveland scored on a 98-yard drive on its next possession, but the kick was no good, leaving the Hawks with a one-point lead, 28-27.
When senior running back Samuel Mann scored on a five-yard run with 2:55 left, the Hawks led by eight. There was still time for CHS to score and tie it.
HVA’s defense had other ideas. Four straight incompletions by CHS’s Kason
Mcgowan gave the ball back
to Hardin Valley on the Raiders’ 20. Mann closed out the scoring with a 13-yard run with 1:27 left.
“We were up by one and we needed a touchdown to seal the game,” Mann said. “And the ball’s in my hands so I needed to get in the endzone so that’s what I did.”
A slew of Hawks’ running backs ran for 166 yards on 39 carries.
“We have a lot of guys who can make a lot of plays,” Wynn said. One of our goals is to get many guys in. We’re big on group success.”
The loss eliminated Cleveland from the Region 2-6A playoff race. HVA, at 2-4 (4-5 overall) stayed alive and needs Cleveland to beat Farragut Friday night.
The Hawks conclude the regular season on the road Friday night against Ooltewah.
