By Dave Morrison
HINTON – Summers County packed every bit of offense it needed against Midland Trail neatly into the first half of the first quarter and then turned it over to the defense in a 16-6 victory against the Patriots Friday at Garten Stadium.
The Bobcats scored a pair of touchdowns in the space of 1:05 of the first quarter and that was enough to do the trick as the Summers County defense used three turnovers in the second half to slam the door on Midland Trail
Summers County had not beaten the Patriots since a 6-0 playoff win at Hico in 2017 and this one was just about as much a defensive struggle.
“Coach (defensive coordinator Jonathan) Shockey and those guys have come together this past week especially,” Summers County coach Josh Evans said. “We gave up several points at Shady (Spring, in a 31-28 loss) that we thought we shouldn’t have, and they took it personal. And thank God, because offensively we couldn’t get anything rolling tonight.”
It probably just seemed that way because the scoring that occurred came early.
Midland Trail gambled first, going for it on fourth-and-one near midfield on its first possession. The Bobcats’ Evan McGuire and Ethan Rodes were able to cut down Trail running back Will McGraw in the backfield and Summers County took over in Patriots’ territory.
“If we can’t get a third-and 1 or fourth and 1 we don’t deserve to win anyway,” Midland Trail coach Jeremy Moore said of the decision to go early. “Fact of the matter. We hang our hats on running the ball and we didn’t do a very good job and that’s on me as the coach.”
Summers County, facing its own fourth down moments later, made the gamble pay off when Bobcats’ quarterback Brandon Isaac found a seam and broke free down the visitor’s sideline for a 28-yard score at the 7:25 mark of the first quarter.
On the kickoff the Bobcats used a pooch kick that acted almost like an onside kick and recovered the ball. Moments later Ryan Oliveros scored on a 29-yard run with 6:24 remaining in the opening quarter.
“That was not something we designed. We knew that we wanted to pooch it down there and see if we could get on it and fortunately, we were able to,” Evans said.
“Hats off to them,” Moore said. “They capitalized on the opportunities they had, and we didn’t. We muffed that kickoff and it’s 16-0 before our buses turned their engines off. Great job by them. They game-planned great. Those first to series were spot on. They did everything they were supposed to do. ”
Summers County’s Drake Cole and Tyson Adkins had two-point conversions after the touchdowns to make it 16-0.
McGraw , from the wildcat formation, scored on a 5-yard run to make it 16-6 with 1:36 remaining in the first quarter.
Neither team would score again.
Midland Trail was still reeling from the loss of sophomore Damon Mooney in a car wreck 10 days ago.
Coach Jeremy Moore admitted it has been a tough time for he and his staff and Patriots players. But he tried to keep them engaged.
“It’s an excuse if you want it to be an excuse,” Moore said. “Life is tough man. You can’t just crawl in a hole and expect people to feel sorry for you. That’s extenuating circumstances. And I don’t know how many coaches through what have gone through. There’s no handbook on how to approach those things. I expect our guys to go full speed and focus on little things and we just did not do that.”
“I talked to coach Moore some last week and I can’t imagine what they are going through,” Evans said. “Me and coach Shockey know those people. We’re part of that community (both, like Moore, are from nearby Fayetteville). It is home for us. We talked to our kids about it. You never know when it will be your last football game or last whatever you do. I hate the thought of that happening. I don’t know how I would handle myself.”
In the end it was the defense that rose to the occasion and helped Summers win the game.
Freshman Colton Taylor and Ryan Oliveros, who also recovered a fumble, each had interceptions in the last two possessions of the game.
“They (the coaching staff) wrote on the board (in the lockerroom) ‘Win at all costs’ and that’s what we had to do tonight,” Isaac said. “This was basically a playoff game for us. We had to come out and win this game in our opinion, so we came out here and got it done. It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done.”
For Summers (3-2) will be at Class A No. 1 James Monroe Friday night while Midland Trail (3-2) hosts Nicholas County.
Summers County 16, Midland Trail 6
Midland Trail 6 0 0 0 – 6
Summers 16 0 0 0 – 16
First quarter
SC – Brandon Isaac 28 run (Drake Cole run), 7:29
SC – Ryan Oliveros 29 run (Tyson Adkins run), 6:24
MT – Will McGraw 5 run (run failed), 1:36
Rushing – MT: Will McGraw 14-32-1, Jayden Roop 13-53, Preston Compton 3-6. SC: Ryan Oliveros 9-42-1, Drake Cole 16-63, Damien Fullen 1-11, Brandon Isaac 10-47-1, Tyson Adkins 4-10.
Passing – MT: Jaden Gladwell 9-17-2-91-0, Preston Compton 1-1-0-25-0. SC: Brandon Isaac 8-17-1-99-0.
Receiving – MT: Jaden Gladwell 1-25, Preston Compton 4-52, Xaylen Johns 1-4, Landon Syner 1-17, Ian Harper 1-8, Jaden Roop 2-10. SC: Oliveros 4-70, Fullen 2-9, Drake Cole 2-20.
