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Maroon Devil Gavin Lanning kicks a good point after a Devils touchdown in the 31-14 away loss to Robbinsville on Tuesday night. The team will host Cherokee on Friday.
Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountain.com
It was the rivalry of the year, of every year really, Swain vs. the Murphy Bulldogs and although the Devils were the first scorer of the night and remained neck and neck in the first half, the Bulldogs pulled off a seven-point win by the end of the game.
With seven minutes left in the first quarter, Carson Taylor carried a hand-off touchdown followed by a point after kick by Gavin Lanning, starting the game off with 7-0.
Murphy quickly tied the score with a touchdown and point after kick with only four seconds left in the first quarter.
About halfway through the second quarter, the Bulldogs scored another touchdown and point after bringing the score to 14-7.
The Devils fought back with Gabe Lillard completing a pass to Cooper Hyatt for a touchdown and another point after kick by Gavin Lanning tying the game with 14-14 as the fans went wild.
With less than a minute left in the second quarter, Murphy scored yet again ending the first half with 21-14.
The third quarter offered no scores for either team as they battled it out back and forth but in the final quarter Murphy scored again with a devastating blow of 28-14.
Swain didn’t give up as Lillard passed to Gaige Jones for a complete touchdown followed by a point after kick by Gavin Lanning ending the game with a Murphy win of 28-21.
Rare Tuesday game, loss
Swain and Robbinsville played on Tuesday night, a game that was rescheduled from earlier in the season because of Covid. The Devils had little recovery time with only 4 days between last Friday’s game against Murphy.
Robbinsville scored in the first quarter and again in the 2nd quarter bringing the score to 14-0.
With one minute left in the second quarter, Swain’s Gabe Lillard ran the ball in for the Devil’s first score of the night, followed by a good point after kick by Gavin Lanning, bringing the score to 14-7.
With only 29 seconds remaining in the first half, Cooper Hyatt broke free from the Black Knights defenders and made a break for the end zone. Inside the five-yard line quarterback Gabe Lillard handed the ball to Carson Taylor who ran it up the middle into the end zone for another touchdown for the Devils.
In the second half, Robbinsville kicked a field goal bringing the score to 24-14 and in the final quarter the Black Knights got another touchdown, followed by a point after making the final score 31-14.
On Friday, the Devils will host another neighboring rival the Cherokee Braves for Parent Night. Kick-off is at 7:30 p.m.
Both the Devils and the Braves are going into this game ranked 4-4, Cherokee is third in conference followed by Swain in fourth, which means it should stack up to be an interesting game. Swain is at a disadvantage playing three games in just a week’s time, against the top one and two schools in the conference but the team is working hard in practice to prepare for this game.