South-Doyle and Headrick notch first win
By Steve Williams
Austin-East and South-Doyle went into Week 3 looking not only for a win, but points.
It took almost the entire first half, but the Cherokees hit the jackpot in the final two minutes and went on to defeat the host Roadrunners 20-12 at Sam Anderson Field and George “Dusty” Lennon Stadium Friday night.
Isaiah Mitchell kicked a 32-yard field goal and freshman wide receiver Rondell North pulled down a 32-yard pass from Cade Carr for South-Doyle’s first touchdown of the season with 7.8 seconds to spare.
Carr was making his first start at quarterback due to fellow sophomore Benson Brang suffering a broken leg at Heritage in Game 2.
The Cherokees had scored only two points on a safety in their first two games. The Roadrunners had done a little better with 12 points in their season opener.
Not only was it a night for finally reaching paydirt, but it was Larry (L.A.) Headrick’s first victory in his prep coaching career.
A big smile ran across the coach’s face when asked about it.
“It feels great. It’s kind of surreal right now,” he said. “It’s been a journey really since January and just trying to figure things out. Are you doing things the right way, right? There are things that happen and you think ‘I’ve got this thing figured out,’ but then as it kind of develops, you say, ‘Hey, there’s more to it that you got to learn.’ And that’s the kind of process I’m in right now.
“Our kids are bought in to our program and it showed tonight. You get down 12-0 and it’s tough. But we battled. We talk about handling adversity and throwing body blows and then knocking them out in the fourth quarter and we did that tonight.”
Dimere Ligon scored on a 34-yard run to give Austin-East a 6-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game. On A-E’s second possession, quarterback Juwaan Troutman completed a 41-yard pass to Dikyeis Towns and a 47-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gladney to give the Roadrunners a 12-0 advantage.
“We got some easy opportunities there and we were able to get it in, but our offense still isn’t clicking very well,” said Stanton Stevens, who is back as A-E’s head coach after guiding the Roadrunners to a state title in 2001. “We’ve got some things to work on to put our kids in a better position to be successful. I don’t think we as coaches did a good job tonight.
“We might have just tried to rely on overhype a little too much and not just good solid coaching. We’ve got to do a better job.
“You get them all hyped up at the beginning of the game. They come out and they play hard, but all of a sudden they kind of have a letdown and never get back up to where they were. I think that happened.”
South-Doyle’s momentum continued in the second half. Its defense forced a three-and-out on A-E’s first possession. Freshman Ramilleeyon Crenshaw’s 13-yard run and a great grab by sophomore Kamariyon Rice on a throw from Carr put the Cherokees in field goal range. Mitchell booted through a 34-yarder to put S-D ahead 13-12.
A 28-yard scamper by Ligon sparked an A-E drive, but James Niyonkuru’s run on fourth-and-six was stopped just short at the S-D 31 despite his extra effort.
The Cherokees couldn’t move the chains, but Mitchell’s 63-yard punt put A-E in a hole at the 1.
South-Doyle got the ball back in good field position and Carr hit North on the money for a 35-yard TD – his second of the game. Mitchell’s PAT kick extended the lead to eight points with 9:34 remaining.
A-E was forced to punt and S-D chewed up more time on the ground. Mitchell’s 41-yard punt backed up the Roadrunners again.
With only 25 seconds left, Troutman was picked off by Demorris McKenzie.
Now 1-2, South-Doyle will play at Carter Friday, while A-E travels to Gatlinburg-Pittman.
