By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
In need of a good tune-up heading into the playoffs, Union City came out of its regular season finale hitting on all cylinders.
The Golden Tornadoes dominated outmanned Halls from whistle to whistle and in all phases of a 56-0 romp Friday night at War Memorial Stadium.
The win sends the Purple and Gold into the postseason with a 6-4 record and off back-to-back impressive victories vs. the Tigers and Class 4A playoff entry Ripley. After a first-round bye due to Memphis city schools not fielding teams this year because of COVID-19, UC will get a second crack at two-time reigning state champion and top ranked Peabody in Round 2, Nov. 13 in Trenton.
The Tide won the first meeting between the two teams this season, 49-7, in a contest that saw the Twisters fail to score three times inside the Trenton 15 when the outcome was still undecided.
Peabody will come into the contest with a 33-game winning streak that spans three seasons.
Union City – which will enter the postseason as the No. 3 seed from Region 7-2A — will surely come into the playoffs with some momentum after manhandling a Halls program that has now not scored a touchdown in the teams’ last seven meetings, dating back to 2011.
The latest margin of victory was the Tornadoes’ largest of the season and forced the mercy rule into effect in the second half when the final two quarters were shortened to 10 minutes each and mostly reserves seeing action.
UC scored three touchdowns during a 34-second span late in the second quarter and got three TDs from quarterback Wes Tilghman and two more from fullback Travon Westbrook to win basically unchallenged.
The Twisters converted three Halls turnovers into scores, and likewise dominated on special teams, where Jonathan Stone recovered a rare kickoff that ended up in the endzone for a touchdown. Both Tilghman and Westbrook had fumble recoveries after big hits on kickoffs, too.
A swarming Union City defense allowed Halls just one first down and 24 total yards on 26 snaps, with Neil Brown topping the tackle chart with five stops and Gage Smith and Alexander Cox credited with four apiece.
First-year head coach Nick Markle was understandably pleased with what he saw from his troops.
“At the end of the night, it was effort,” the Tornado skipper said. “I’ve been waiting all year for us to give our best effort on every play and tonight in the first half, I thought we did that.
“To be honest, I’m most pleased with our special teams. That’s an area that we, as a coaching staff, have preached since Day 1. We haven’t had the ball bounce our way in a lot of cases, but tonight we made some plays and they gave us some. And I think you can trace every bit of it to just hustle and effort.
“I’ve been saying since Day 1 that we want to be peaking in Weeks 9, 10 and 11, and I think we are. We’ve given ourselves another shot at the champs (Peabody) and now we just have to have a good two weeks of preparation and play our best game to hopefully do something really special.”
UC scored on its first three possessions against Halls, with Westbrook finding paydirt twice on runs of nine and six yards, and Tilghman darting to the endzone on a 40-yard sprint.
Freshman Jacob Arnold continued his emergence and took off on a 52-yard scoring sprint at the midway point of the second stanza to make it 28-0 after the fourth of Miguel Sanchez’s eight PATs.
The wild sequence that signaled a true blowout started with 3:21 left before halftime when Tilghman – who recorded his eighth 100-yard rushing game with 130 yards on just six carries – scored on back-to-back keepers covering four and 26 yards.
The second of those two TDs came after Westbrook pounced on a fumbled kickoff, one of three straight giveaways by the visiting Tigers.
Stone was at the bottom of the pile following the next UC kickoff, having scooted into the endzone while recovering a fumble just outside the goal line that stretched the difference to 49-0 at the intermission.
“Offensively, we did everything we wanted to except complete a pass,” Markle continued. “We were good in all facets. We ran the ball hard with our running backs and our quarterback, we made good pitches, and, again, I just can’t say enough about our special teams.
“We knew coming in what things looked like on paper with them not having a lot to play for and maybe it being easy for us to look past things. But I’d told our guys all day that this was the biggest game of their life – mainly because it was the next one – and they gave us great hustle and tremendous effort. We swarmed the ball on defense and had a lot of hats around the ball. It certainly gives us great hope heading into the playoffs.”
Markle insisted the first meeting with Peabody was truly a learning experience for his squad.
“I think our guys, after watching film, realize we had our chances to make it a lot closer game that first time around,” he said. “Trenton is obviously an exceptional football team that is solid in all areas. They’re well-coached, seasoned and dynamic in many areas.
“But they have flaws, just like we all do. We’re privileged to have another shot at them. The old adage is ‘to be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man,’ and we’re just going to give it our very best effort and see what happens.”
Union City 56, Halls 0
Halls 0 0 0 0 — 0
Union City 21 28 7 0 — 56
SCORING
UC — Travon Westbrook 9 run (Miguel Sanchez kick) 8:27, 1st
UC — Wes Tilghman 40 run (Sanchez kick) 4:58, 1st
UC — Westbrook 6 run Sanchez kick) 1:50, 1st
UC — Jacob Arnold 52 run (Sanchez kick) 5:50, 2nd
UC — Tilghman 4 run (Sanchez kick) 3:21, 2nd
UC — Tilghman 26 run (Sanchez kick) 3:00, 2nd
UC — Jonathan Stone fumble recovery in endzone (Sanchez kick) 2:47, 2nd
UC — Durrell Littleton 9 run (Sanchez kick) 0:14, 3rd
H UC
Total Offense 24 285
Rush Att.-Yards 18-27 36-285
Comp.-Att.-Int 2-8-0 0-1-0
Passing Yards (-3) 0
First Downs 1 14
Punts-Avg. 5-27.4 1-42
Fumbles-Lost 5-3 3-0
Penalties-Yds. 5-25 1-5
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Halls — Taylor Long 1-14, Logan Rogers 4-12, Josh Yebuah 3-10, Devin King 1-6, Will Caraway 2-5, Clydrell Foster 5-0, Dalton England 1-(-7), Team 1-(13). Union City — Wes Tilghman 6-130, Travon Westbrook 11-84, Jacob Arnold 4-73, Kyrell Littleton 8-17, Durrell Littleton 1-9, Jonathan Stone 1-5, Keaton Brown 2-(-5), Team 3-(-28).
PASSING: Halls — Logan Rogers 2-6-0 – (-3), Devin King 0-2-0 — 0. Union City — Wes Tilghman 0-1-0 — 0.
RECEIVING: Halls — Clydrell Foster 1-(-1), Taylor Long 1-(-2). Union City — None.
RECORDS: Halls 2-7 (0-5); Union City 6-4 (3-2).
NEXT GAME: After a bye week in the first round of the postseason on Nov. 6, UC will play at Peabody, Nov. 13, in Round 2 of the Class 2A state playoffs.