Shelton picks up a key 1st downJust win, baby! When you're a team that is struggling you take the wins whenever you can get them. Going into the season nobody would have predicted that the Patton Panthers would give Hickory any trouble. But they came into Frank Barger Stadium and pushed the Red Tornadoes to the limit.
In the end, though, Hickory's junior kicking specialist Patrick Smith came through in the clutch. He calmly nailed a 35-yard field goal with three seconds left in the game to secure a 17-14 victory. Guess what? We'll take it!
Patrick Smith
Smith's kick reminded me of another junior placekicker for Hickory who also won a game with his leg. That was San San Te in 2005 who beat East Burke with 28-yard field goal in overtime. San San is now the starting placekicker at Rutgers. I see no reason why Smith can't become Hickory third consecutive Division I kicker. He has improved by leaps and bounds since taking over the kicking responsibilities at the beginning of last season.
Smith's heroics capped an excellent final drive by the Red Tornadoes, sparked by quarterback Kevin Shelton and wide receiver Trevin Parks. The drive was set up by a crucial defensive stand that forced the Panthers to turn the ball over on downs at the Patton 40 with 36 seconds left in the game. Three plays was all it took for the Tornadoes to get into Smith's range.
Shelton connected Parks for an 18-yard pass completion. Shelton looked to pass again, couldn't find a receiver, tucked the ball and ran hard, heading for the first-down marker. He went out of bounds after a 13-yard gain. On the next play Shelton hooked up with Parks again, this time for 11 yards to the 18. Enter Patrick Smith.
The win becomes a little more impressive when you consider that 70% of Hickory's rushing offense this season was standing on the sideline in street clothes. Senior running back Rakim Barrett, whose 858 yards represents 70% of Hickory's total rushing yards this season, was held out of action for disciplinary reasons after violataing team rules.
Hickory wound up being outrushed by Patton. The Red Tornadoes rushed for a total of 133 yards, 74 yards below their average. The passing game, by comparison, was not affected at all by the rainy conditions. Shelton completed 70% of his passes for 121 yards. That's slightly better than his per-game average. The big play of the night for the passing game was Shelton's pass completion to Trevin Parks who took it 55 yards for a touchdown.
I was pleased to see Hickory fight back not once but twice after falling behind by a touchdown. And it was good to see how they did it, too - mixing up the pass and runs effectively. I would love to see Shelton get a chance to run the ball a little more. He's no track star but he looked good hustling for that crucial first down on the winning drive. He's capable of getting some valuable yards like that from time to time.
There was a steady downpour throughout the first half and it did affect the quality of play. Nevertheless, Hickory did a poor job of protecting the football. Both teams played in the same nasty conditions but Hickory coughed up the ball five times and Patton recovered four of those fumbles. The Panthers only fumbled three times and Hickory only recovered one of those. The other turnover in the game was an interception thrown by Patton's Trevor Buchanan. Obviously it's possible to get away with this kind of sloppiness against a team like Patton. Unnecessary goofs like this cannot be allowed to happen this week against Hibriten.
On a related note, the Red Tornadoes struggled to stop Patton's 212-pound freshman running back Winfield Johnson. The defense must get more physical in stopping the run. They will be facing an experienced senior back in Hibriten's Quin Smith. He is as physical a back as Hickory will have faced all season. Stopping him must be priority number one this Friday.
Besides the game-winning drive, the thing that pleased me the most was seeing several underclassmen stepping up and taking control of the situation. This will have major implications for next season's success. The season is definitely not over. The Red Tornadoes are still working towards the playoffs and actually have a chance to play the spoiler this week. But most importantly of all is the fact that what happens from now on will lay the groundwork for the 2009 season.
Buddy Withers for the defense
No comments:
Post a Comment