By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City. Tenn.–Houston County was a late arrival to Union City’s homecoming party. But it did not keep the Tornadoes from celebrating in a big way.
Unaffected by a 40-minute delay to start the game, UC dominated the Fighting Irish in all facets to win its 17th straight homecoming game, 48-0, Friday night at War Memorial Stadium. The Houston County team bus was involved in a minor accident en route to the game.
Kolby Craig ran for two touchdowns, Jacob Arnold had a scoring run and caught a long pass from Keaten Brown for another TD, and the Purple and Gold defense limited HC to just 123 total yards to win its Region 7-2A opener and improve to 2-1 overall.
Senior Annie Wade was crowned queen in halftime ceremonies with the Twisters firmly in control 35-0 at that juncture. Emma Ross and Gabby Jones were Senior Princesses. Reagan Durkee was the Junior Princess, Shelby Bondurant the Sophomore Princess, and Aalyah Abbott the Freshman Princess.
Head coach Nick Markle had praise for his team’s focus and effort in the contest that saw Houston County arrive late due to a minor traffic accident that pushed back the start time to 7:40 p.m.
“Our guys didn’t worry about anything that we couldn’t control,” Markle insisted. “We stayed the course and focused on ourselves. When the game finally did begin, we were ready.
“We’d talked all week about cleaning up some things, like the penalties from last week. We took a step in the right direction with that, and I thought we played well in all three facets of the game. “
Shuffling his backfield to spread carries, the Tornadoes had great success attacking the edges with sweeps and option pitches. Those big gainers were most obvious during a second-quarter span that saw Union City score on three consecutive one-play drives to blow open the contest.
Craig had a 42-yard TD sprint and freshman Tayehari Jones dashed 58 yards to paydirt before the aforementioned 79-yard scoring pass play from Brown to Arnold that capped a 28-point period.
In all, the Tornadoes rushed for 389 yards on just 30 carries, an average of 12.9 yards-per-snap. UC scored on each of its seven possessions and did not punt in the contest.
“Having Carter Bondurant back at center really helped solidify things with our offensive line,” Markle said after his starting center returned from missing the first two weeks with a knee injury. “That allowed us to move Hayden Kennedy back to guard and made us stronger at both of those spots. We feel like we can run behind those two any time we want to.”
The UC defense held up its end of the deal with seven tackles for lost yards and three takeaways.
Linebacker Gage Smith had another big game in the middle with a dozen stops that included three behind the line. Smith also recorded a quarterback sack and had a fumble recovery.
Kelan Roberson, a freshman, had eight tackles in an impressive performance, while both Arnold and Tucker Davis came up with fumble recoveries.
“I was proud of all our guys, and especially our jayvee guys who played well and allowed us to complete the shutout when they got the bulk of the playing time in the second half,” Markle continued. “We now have some film on them and can evaluate them and correct some things.
“Our backs all ran the ball hard. We moved some folks around a little, trying to spell some guys and keep ourselves fresh on both sides of the ball.”
With a running clock in the second half, Kyrell Littleton capped a 10-play, 76-yard sequence with a six-yard scoring run. Arnold and Jones had 20-yard gainers to highlight the third-period march.
Arnold finished the scoring with a 36-yard endzone gallop with just over five minutes to play that followed a 38-yard run by Cohen Simpson.
Smith’s two-yard dive to paydirt accounted for Union City’s first score, 7 ½ minutes into the game.
The Tornadoes are scheduled to play in Jackson vs. Trinity Christian Academy (TCA) next week. The Lions were forced to cancel their game with Fayette Academy Friday due to COVID protocols.
UNION CITY 48, HOUSTON CO. 0
Houston Co. 0 0 0 0 — 0
Union City 7 28 7 6 — 48
SCORING
UC — Gage Smith 2 run (Miguel Sanchez kick) 4:26, 1st
UC — Kolby Craig 16 run (Sanchez kick) 9:16, 2nd
UC — Craig 42 run (Sanchez kick) 8:02, 2nd
UC — Tayehari Jones 58 run (Sanchez kick) 4:07, 2nd
UC — Jacob Arnold 79 pass from Keaten Brown (Sanchez kick) 1:07, 2nd
UC — Kyrell Littleton 6 run (Sanchez kick) 4:40, 3rd
UC — Arnold 36 run (kick failed) 5:15, 4th
HC UC
Total Offense 123 468
Rush Att.-Yards 34-115 30-389
Comp.-Att.-Int 1-5-0 1-1-0
Passing Yards 5 79
First Downs 9 13
Punts-Avg. 3-36.6 —
Fumbles-Lost 4-3 1-0
Penalties-Yds. 0-0 4-35
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Houston Co. — Andrew Meadow 15-90, Bryant Lemons 5-21, Malaki Cary 8-7, Thaden Bryant 6-(-3). Union City — Tayehari Jones 3-95, Kyrell Littleton 12-80, Kolby Craig 4-75, Jacob Arnold 3-61, Cohen Simpson 1-38, Gage Smith 5-24, Keaten Brown 2-16.
PASSING: Houston Co. — Andrew Meadow 1-5-0 – 5. Union City — Keaten Brown 1-1-0 — 79.
RECEIVING: Houston Co. — Tate Finley 1-5. Union City — Jacob Arnold 1-79.
RECORDS: Union City 2-1 (1-0); Houston Co. 0-3 (0-1)
NEXT GAME: UC plays at Trinity Christian Academy (TCA) Friday night in Jackson at 7.