Hillgrove dug itself out of an early 15-0 hole and outscored visiting McEachern 38-14 over the final two-and-a-half quarters for a 38-29 victory Friday night at Cobb Energy Hillgrove Stadium.
The win was the sixth for Hillgrove (1-1) in 11 all-time meetings with archrival McEachern (1-3), which is located about 3 miles away in west Cobb County. It also was the first head coaching victory for Hillgrove’s Byron Slack, who was hired to replace Phil Ironside after spending the past three seasons as an assistant at Lowndes, which knows a thing or two about big rivalries.
“I told the kids, this is the only one that mattered to me,” Slack said. “I’ve had some great opportunities to play in some big games, but I told the kids this is the biggest one in the state as far as I’m concerned. It was a great one. [McEachern coach Franklin] Stephens is one of the best coaches around, one of the best that I’ve ever been around at any level. It’s a great opportunity to go against a guy like that, and it’s just great to come out of here with a win.”
Hillgrove had just 30 yards of total offense and two first downs in the first quarter and trailed 15-0 after a 6-yard touchdown run by Dai’Shaun Thomas on the third play of the second quarter, but the Hawks scored on five on their six possessions, and one of McEachern’s, to seize control.
The key play came late in the second quarter, after Hillgrove had cut the lead to 15-10 on a 39-yard field goal by Jonathan Grote and a 12-yard touchdown run by T.J. Thomas.
Facing a second-and-20 from his 24-yard line, McEachern quarterback Bryce Archie rolled to his right under pressure and tried to get off a pass, but Hillgrove’s Zack Parker intercepted it and took it 24 yards for a touchdown that gave Hillgrove the lead for good at 18-15 with 2:12 remaining in the half.
“We studied some film, and we got ourselves in the right situation,” Slack said. “They’ve just got a lot of good football players over there, and they did some things even when we were right. But we got an opportunity to get our hands on the ball. We talked all week long about getting the opportunities, picks and things like that. Of course we snatched one out of the air and took it to the house, and that really got us going.”
The Hawks scored the first three times they had the ball in the second half. Theo Tatum threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to Cayden Lee and 61 yards to Jalen Royals and ran 4 yards for a touchdown to complete Hillgrove’s scoring.
McEachern got a 4-yard touchdown run by Makari Bodiford and a 6-yard scoring run by Victor Okafor and trailed just 31-29 with 9:16 remaining. However, the Indians got the ball back just once more, trailing 38-29 with less than four minutes left, and were forced to punt.
Despite the slow start offensively, Hillgrove finished with a 391-252 advantage in total offense. Tatum was 18-of-26 passing for 235 yards and rushed for 44 yards on 18 carries. Thomas ran for 107 yards on 16 carries, and Royals had 101 yards on four receptions.
Mekhi Crawley led McEachern’s offense with 133 yards rushing on 11 carries and scored the Indians' first touchdown on a 28-yard run with 3:02 to play in the first quarter. Bodiford ran for 56 yards on 20 carries. Archie was 9-of-17 passing for 58 yards.
McEachern - 8-7-7-7 - 29
Hillgrove - 0-18-6-14 - 38
First quarter
M - Mekhi Crawley 28 run (Victor Okafor run), 3:02
Second quarter
M - Dai-Shaun Thomas 6 run (Kyle Hill kick), 11:03
H - Jonathan Grote 39 field goal, 7:07
H - T.J. Thomas 12 run (Grote kick), 3:46
H - Zack Parker 24 interception return (Tatum run), 2:12
Third quarter
H - Cayden Lee 12 pass from Tatum (kick failed), 7:08
M - Makari Bodiford 4 run (Hill kick), 1:29
Fourth quarter
H - Jalen Royals 61 pass from Tatum (Grote kick), 11:50
M - Victor Okafor 6 run (Hill kick), 9:16
H - Tatum 4 run (Grote kick), 3:45
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