Final thoughts on the Newton game

Michael Shook finds room to run

We'll never know what might have happened Friday night if Hickory's kickoff team hadn't allowed former Red Tornado Shea Corpening to return the opening kick 97 yards for a touchdown. If he had been stopped around the 20 and Hickory's defense had forced a 3-and-out on the Red Devil offense...who knows? Maybe the Red Tornadoes get on the board first and builds the necessary momentem to keep them in the game.

But that's not how it worked out.

Corpening rocketed down the far sideline and gave the Red Devils a lead they never really came close to relinquishing. By the end of the first quarter the Red Tornadoes were in a 21-0 hole. That lead was quickly increased to 28-0 when Joseph Bryant intercepted a Kevin Shelton pass and took it to the house from 34 yards out.

Down by four touchdowns the Tornadoes started the overwhelming task of digging out of the hole. They got halfway, cutting the lead to 28-14 in the third quarter on a pair of Rakim Barrett touchdown runs. At that point there was still time to battle all the way back for a win.

But that's not how it worked out.

Newton-Conover piled on another 21 points in the third quarter, including another "pick-6" when linebacker Paul Forney read Shelton all the way, stepped in front of his pass and went untouched into the end zone for a 44-yard touchdown. The kick made it 49-14. A lot of dogged running by a determined Rakim Barrett got Hickory down the field one more time late in the game and Barrett finished the drive on a one-yard touchdown run. Patrick Smith's PAT made the final score 49-21.

The statistics do not support a 28-point margin. Newton outrushed Hickory by only 25 yards. Hickory, meanwhile, passed for twice as many yards as Newton. But Hickory had to go the distance for its three touchdowns. Newton, not so much. And with all due respect to the speed and skill of the Red Devils, the three touchdown returns should not have happened.

It's been five years since Hickory gave up a touchdown on the opening kickoff. That was the second-round playoff loss to Crest in 2003. The entire week of that game had been spent prepping mentally to face a team that we have never beaten in the regular season. All that mental preparation went out the window when Jermaine Strong returned Ryan Succop's kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. That sparked a 19-0 win for the eventual 3AA state champs. The irony of it was that Succop's kicks almost always went into the end zone for touchbacks. I remember thinking at the time that the gunners had forgotten what to do because they hardly ever had to tackle anybody.

The point is that if you take away the three touchdown returns, which happen very rarely and don't need to happen at all, then the final score would have looked a little better. The players and coaches (and fans) might have kept up the fight more effectively instead of suffering from the creeping numbness that comes with a feeling of helplessness.

Another of Newton's touchdowns came immediately after they recovered a Hickory fumble. Special teams breakdowns, errors in the passing game and poor play-calling, penalties, missed assignments, lazy blocking, etc. will get you beat every time. That's what turns a game that should have at least been competitive into a route.

If a team can make costly mistakes then it should be able to eliminate those mistakes as well. There has not been a game all season when the Red Tornadoes haven't done something positive. Maybe it's a good night for Shelton, Parks and the passing game. Maybe it's a good night for Barrett running the ball. Maybe the defense hangs tough and takes away the other team's best offensive weapon. But there has yet to be a game this season when Hickory hit on all cylinders and played a complete, four-quarter game.

The question is why.

A lot of opinions are being offered up on the Tornado Central message board. We are officially in a bad place right now. It's a shame because in their frustration fans are overlooking some interesting developments. The one I find most fascinating is the installation of the direct snap to Trevin Parks. Ole Miss calls it the Wild Rebel formation. Tennessee calls it the G Gun. Oldtimers still call it the single wing. But it has been working pretty well. Rakim Barrett is turning in workmanlike performances every week. Kevin Shelton is rising in the ranks of Hickory's all-time best passing quarterbacks. A lot of underclassmen are getting valuable playing time.

The bottom line, however, is that Hickory is languishing below .500 this late in the season for the first time since 1994. That was also the last time Hickory finished a season with a losing record. Things are not quite that bad - yet. But the season is hanging in the balance right now. Buckle your seatbelts, brothers and sisters, it's going to be a bumpy ride.