STAYING THE COURSE
Heritage football now 2-0 after win over Ringgold
After their passing game was somewhat stymied in a 17-16 victory at LFO a week earlier, the Heritage Generals were able to get their air attack going on Friday night – at least for a half — back at home against Ringgold.
Quarterback Nick Hanson was 8-of-10 in the air for 129 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, while receiver Sam Randolph also enjoyed a breakout game in the Generals’ 27-14 victory over its Catoosa County rival.
It marked just the second win for Heritage in the history of the series and the second time in a row that the Generals have claimed victory over the Tigers on their own home field. Heritage defeated Ringgold, 13-11, in 2017.
“I’m just feeling overwhelming joy for the kids,” said Coach Jeremy New, who served as the Generals’ acting head coach all week long as head coach E.K. Slaughter served his school-imposed one-week suspension. “After everything they’ve been through this week, they just stayed the course. They kept working and I couldn’t prouder of them.”
Nearly all the scoring for the night came in a wild opening quarter.
Heritage went 70 yards on the game’s initial possession. The final play came on a fourth-down call as Hanson faked an inside give to running back Maddox Rose before finding Logan Lowe on a slant pass. Lowe converted it into a 39yard touchdown and the first of three Anderson Britton extra points would give Heritage the early 7-0 lead.
Less than three minutes later, Jacob Lozano pounced on an errant pitch by the Tigers and it took Heritage just one play to add to the lead. Hanson lofted a ball to Randolph, who outjumped a Ringgold defender at the pylon to make it 13-0. The extra point was blocked.
Needing a spark to stem the Generals’ momentum, Ringgold went 73 yards in eight plays. Quarterback Kyle White hit receiver Dylan Wright for a couple of key pick-ups to move the ball down the field. Then, from the Heritage 22, White faked a handoff and kept it on a keeper, making a nice cut-back before scampering into the end zone. Logan Eaker’s extra point would pull the Tigers within six points of the lead.
Then, after holding Heritage to a threeand-out, White launched a deep post pass for senior receiver Brayden Broome. Broome hauled in the pass, avoided a tackle and raced all the way for a 68-yard
scoring strike. Eaker’s PAT put Ringgold up 14-13 with 40 seconds to play in the opening stanza.
However, the Tigers’ lead would be extremely shortlived.
On the ensuing kickoff, Randolph took the ball near his own goal line, broke a tackle, split the defense and raced to paydirt on a 99-yard touchdown that put the Generals back up by six points.
Heritage would add to their lead in the waning seconds of the half. After driving 70 yards in seven plays. Hanson, who went 4-of-5 in the air for 60 yards on the march, found Randolph streaking past the Ringgold defense for a 38yard TD pass with just six seconds left in the first half. Britton’s kick extended the lead to 27-14 at halftime.
Ringgold was forced to make a change at halftime as Wright went under center to replace White, who was injured late in the first half and did not play for the rest of the game. Wright made several nice individual runs, but a tackle-for-loss by Zach Brown and a pass breakup by Randolph would put a
damper on what had been a promising early thirdquarter drive.
Neither team could generate much in the way of offense for the remainder of period and the Tigers would get the ball back with 1:17 left in the third. Ringgold’s ground game would pick up a few sizable chunks of yardage on runs by Wright, Price Pennington and Dakota Banker, while a 15yard penalty on Heritage would move the ball inside the Generals’ 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
However, the Tigers were immediately hit for a 10-yard penalty of their own and they would end up turning the ball over on downs at the Heritage 30 with 8:33 to go in the game.
They would not get it back. Heritage closed it out with a methodical, clock-chewing, 14-play drive, all but five yards of which came on the ground. They converted four consecutive third downs, moving from their own 30-yard line down to the Ringgold 7 before the clock finally ran out.
Hanson finished 9-of14 in the air for 136 yards, though he only attempted four passes in the second half as the Generals stuck with the ground-and-pound approach. Randolph had four catches for 73 yards, while Lowe had three grabs for 42 yards. Maddox Rose and Gabe Ogle gave workmanlike performances in the backfield. Rose carried 15 times for 68 yards and Ogle had 10 carries for 47 yards.
“I’m used to being up in the booth where I can see everything, so it took me a while to adjust (to being on the field),” New added. “But I got into the swing of it and we got back on track. The coaching staff did everything. We just tried to keep it all as regular as we could. This was all the kids. They play their hearts out week in and week out and I can’t say enough about them.”
White was 7-of-10 in the air for 125 yards and added 33 more on the ground, but did not play in the second half. Kori Dumas rushed nine times for 50 yards, while Pennington had 40 yards on 12 carries. Wright ran eight times for 44 yards, but did not complete any of his three pass attempts. He also caught four passes in the first half for 31 yards, while Broome had 78 yards on just two receptions.
Ringgold head coach Robert Akins said the first two games had taken its toll on the Tigers, especially on defense as multiple players are currently out of action due to injury.
“We’re just decimated right now,” he lamented. “We’ve got (the start of) region play coming up, so we’ll have to minimize things in practice and hopefully we can get better, but we’ll probably have to change up our defense (because of the injuries). We’ve talked to our kids about adversity. That’s part of coaching, that’s part of playing and that’s part of life. Somehow, we have to recover from this and move on. We’ll get a week’s break to let kids rest and hopefully we come back and get in the flow of it.”
Heritage (2-0) will entertain the Chattooga Indians this Friday night, while Ringgold (0-2) will begin preparation for the 6-AAA opener at North Murray on Sept. 13.