Gary Ayers
ayers5315@bellsouth.net
Swain County High School Maroon Devils varsity football team battled their own first-game, first-half jitters, the dilemma of a new offensive backfield and poor field position to fall behind 15-3 at half-time on the way to a 21-11 loss at Charlotte Country Day school.
Charlotte Country Day (CCD) also was a more improved team than Swain saw last year at Boyce Deitz Field. This year, on John Cook Field at Charlotte, both teams struggled with early season nerves that produced only 3 first-quarter points for CCD as speedy running back Braylon Clark burst through the Maroon Devil defense for a 32-yard gain that set up a third and goal at the Swain 20-yard line for a 31-yard field goal by Reid Kuester that gave CCD a 3-0 after the first quarter.
The Maroon Devils got the split-back veer rolling late in the first quarter into the second led by a fumble recovery by Trent Jones followed by a Druw Cody run for a first-down to the 38-yard line of CCD. But the drive stalled on an incomplete third down pass leading to a 35-yard field goal attempt by Brendon Lanning that was short. On the ensuing drive, Clark found some daylight via the CCD spread offense that employed a lot of empty-backfield formations as CCD QB Khalel Wright hit Sam Jacobsen on a 20-yard TD pass for 9-0 lead as the 2-point PAT coversion attempt failed.
CCD stopped the Swain rushing attack again, getting the ball back and on a 3rd-down and-13 at Swain’s 48-yard line, Clark again showed his quickness for a 14-yard gain and big first down to the SCHS 34-yard-line. Following a QB trap to the 11-yard line, Sam Jacobsen went in untouched for the touchdown and a 15-0 lead as Swain’s Zeke Glaspie blocked the PAT kick with 1:50 left to play in the first half.
Despite the clock running down, Swain showed grit as QB Cody fired from the shotgun to James Arch for a 25-yard catch that set up a Lanning 27-yard field goal that was good with 06.7 seconds left for a CCD lead at half-time of 15-3.
Swain wasted no time in the third quarter getting on the scoreboard to make it a tight 15-11 game as Zeke Glaspie sprinted 33-yards for the score followed by a Mason Cochran 2-point conversion score for Swain’s best score of the night.
Following some good defense by both teams, CCD wrapped up the scoring as Wright hit the speedy Clark for a 33-yard TD with the PAT failing for the final 21-11 score.
Swain put up 232 rushing yards on 43 attempts as CCD ran 26 times for 174 yards. But a key edge for CCD was the passing game as the Buccaneers passed 7-13-1 for 158 yards while the Maroon Devils could only muster 1-8-1 for 25 yards through the air. First downs were dead even at 14 each.
A couple of defensive highlights for the Maroon Machine saw Corey Stillwell stop a CCD drive with an interception at the 1-yard line and Nse Uffort and and Drew Skaggs with 2 sacks each. The CCD kicking gam was also instrumental in giving SCHS poor field position much of the night. CCD had an edge playing its’ second game of the season to improve to 2-0 after squeezing by Savannah Country Day school 22-21.
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, it’s very difficult to replace a veteran backfield like Swain fielded last year of Josh Collins, Reese Winchester and Josiah Glaspie who produced over 3,000 yards total offense.
Next up Swain hosts rival Smoky Mountain this Friday. The Mustangs beat Cherokee last Friday 34-21 by running the football. Mustang Ayden Johnson rushed for 283 yards and 4 TD’s while backfield mate Jarek Jones put up 137 yards.
The Mustangs are coached by first year head coach J.T. Postell, who coached at Tuscola with Swain head coach Sherman Holt.
If the Postell name rings a bell for you folks who have followed and played football in WNC for a while, there is good reason.
J.T.’s father is the legendary Terry Postell who was an outstanding player at Andrews as the Wildcats played for regional championships in 1963, 1964 and 1967 winning them all. Terry became an assistant coach at Sylva-Webster(now Smoky Mountain) in 1964. Terry also went to great success as a head coach at Andrews and Murphy. Terry ended Sylva-Webster’s winning streak in 1974 at 36 games while head coach at Murphy and also was on the sideline when Willie Brown rushed for 457 yards and 7 TD’s vs. Swain in 1974.