Anderson County routs second-place Pounders
About the only thing that went wrong for Anderson County on Friday was the obligatory dumping of ice on the head coach after a win. It produced a total whiff.
But unfortunately for Central, the Mavericks defenders weren’t carrying buckets of ice in their pursuit of Purple Pounders with footballs.
Anderson County clinched its third-ever region title — and second in four years — with a 47-0 dismantling of a good Central squad that wasn’t quite ready to grab the brass ring.
Mavericks quarterback Stanton Martin threw for four touchdowns and ran for another for the state’s third-ranked 4A squad, but it was a smothering defense that left their Region 2 challengers in the dust.
“A lot of people see the 50- and 60-point games and it’s only natural to focus on the offense, but our defense has been that fabulous all year. They played lights out tonight,” said a dry Anderson County coach Davey Gillum. “We were hitting on all cylinders tonight. That’s the first game we’ve really had to play more than two quarters all year. Central has a good football team.”
The Mavericks (8-0, 4-0) were brutal defensively, limiting Central (5-3, 4-1) to 111 yards of offense, and 56 of that came in the final drive against subs. Central ran the ball 31 times and got zero or negative yardage on 11 of them and no more than 3 yards on another 12.
“At this time last year we had only won two games, and tonight we played for a region title. The only way you are going to get to where we want to get to is to play teams like that,” said Central coach Cortney Braswell. “Right now they are the standard, and it’s not talent but execution and effort. We didn’t have that tonight.”
Central went three-and-out on seven straight possessions in the first half, while Anderson County built a 33-0 margin. Mason Phillips (17 yards), Martin (28 yards) and Marquis Gallaher (7 yards) all had touchdown runs in the first quarter before Martin went to his aerial show. The Mavs held Central to minus yards in the first half, and seven individual players had more yardage than the Pounders team.
Martin, a junior, continually kept plays alive with his feet and actually threw the ball better on the run. His TD tosses covered 6 yards to Dalton Wilson, 48 to Michael Carroll, 23 to Ryan Moog and 10 to Austin Ellison.
“I know I would hate to gameplan for him. The worst thing to do is get him running out there. He turns sacks into touchdowns. He is an impressive young man,” Gillum said.
Martin completed 18 of 24 passes for 240 yards and rushed for 61 as Anderson County rolled up 458 total yards on offense. Phillips added 89 rushing yards on 12 totes and Carroll hauled in four passes for 104 yards.
For Central, Chance Martin played a whale of game defensively and Marcus Leftwich was active as well. Jay Jones caused a fumble that Gavin Spotts recovered, and Jacobi Witcher also pounced on a fumble for the Pounders, who will settle for runners-up in the region with a win over Hixson next Friday.
Contact James Beach at sports@timesfreepress.com.