Still the talk of the town… Cyclones defeat of Greeneville has been center of weekend attention
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 22, 2019
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Elizabethton players await to receive the Champion of the Game trophy after defeating Greeneville.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The 'Betsy Band performed at halftime of Friday night's game to the delight of the Cyclone fans in attendance.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The stands on both sides as well as standing room was pretty much filled and running over as close to 5,000 fans came out for the big game..
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Team Chaplain Preacher Mike and the Elizabethton Cyclone cheerleaders come out of the helmet on their way to the Cyclone sideline.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton Cyclone cheerleaders along with Tuffy are all smiles after coming onto the field from the Cyclone helmet before the start of the game.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Cyclone Black Jr. Pee-Wee team is ready to support EHS on Friday night.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Cyclone Orange Jr. Pee-Wee team was on hand to help cheer the EHS Cyclones on to a big win.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
The Elizabethton Cyclones make their way to the field to warm up during the pre-game Cyclone Walk.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Large lines were forming by 4:15 pm to get into the gates in preparation for Friday's game against Greeneville.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
Tailgaters who enjoyed food and fellowship before the game and also took time to offer a prayer up to cover the team and coaches as they played.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
To say that sleep came hard for many Elizabethton Cyclone coaching staff and players after Friday’s big win over Greeneville would probably hit the nail on the head as the Cyclones provided one of the biggest wins in the program’s most recent history.
The game was talked about for weeks, even before many of the other games had even been played and to sweeten the pot, both teams came into the game as the state’s top two teams in Class 4-A with all eyes statewide watching the score of the contest.
With a roughly estimated crowd of nearly 5,000 based off of ticket sales and team passes, it was one of the best atmospheres for high school football that this writer can remember in recent memory and brought to mind stories of how high school football is in Texas where thousands gather every Friday night to take in games.
Trailing 21-7 at one point, the Cyclones mounted a comeback that saw the score tied with around five minutes left to play and then the heroics of placekicker Jaxton Holly blasting the game-winning field goal to set off a huge celebration.
With the outcome of the game, the Cyclones should now, without doubt, be the top-ranked team in Class 4-A when the new poll is released. Thanks to former Star Sports Editor Jamie Combs, clarification was made in regard to being No. 1 in the poll.
According to Combs, Elizabethton was ranked No. 1 for three weeks in 1999 and two weeks in 1951. The only perfect regular season in program history came in ’51 (10-0) under the legendary John Treadway.
The 1938 state champs went 9-0-1 with many 9-1 seasons in the record books.
With two more wins, the Cyclones will accomplish a perfect regular season to join that 1951 team and assuredly keep the top ranking heading into the postseason.
Meanwhile, the Cyclones ended the Greene Devils run of 12 seasons without a conference defeat.
Jaxton Holly on his game-winning field goal
“I thought that I needed to go kick some in the net to just stay warm and get the motion. I knew it would come down to it. I didn’t even think twice about making it, I just kind of knew that I would make it,” Holly said.
“When we were down here kicking Sunday, dad was like this is to beat Greeneville, this is to beat Greeneville just like messing around and here we are.
“I’ve kicked that same kick about a 100 times and I knew the motion and everything was going to be the same. It’s the same motion as kicking an extra point. It’s just muscle memory mostly. I thought that I might have pulled it but it straightened out in the end.”
Cade Maupin talks getting big first down and staying focused
“When I moved here, everybody believes and we believe in everybody. We kept saying what does this game mean to you. This game means the world to everybody on this team,” stated Maupin.
“We fought with everything we had in us. It was definitely a downer to trail 21-7 but we just had to stay focused and keep on doing what we had been doing.
“Bryson (Rollins) came up to me and said, “Dude I’m cramping,” he told me to get at quarterback and run it and I was able to get the first down.
“I wasn’t going to lose – that’s my mindset. I am a winner and I am going to keep winning. I think we definitely think that we made a statement but there are some good teams out there and we may have to play them again so we have to stay focused.”
Head coach Shawn Witten’s take on the final drive and winning field goal
“We had to use the clock and the thought process was not to score too quickly and let them have the ball back. They kept sneaking out there on the pass. We came out in the second half trying to get the football down the field and they kept sneaking out there,” Witten said.
“A lot of those guys play both ways and with Maupin being fresh and having a chance too. The previous drive we ran Bryson quite a bit and kept it on the ground so we tried to come back with Maupin’s burst.
“We were looking at maybe trying to take a shot and if they bailed out of there we were going to try and get it to Cade,” Witten continued. “We needed 10 more yards to get a good field goal. We had a 44-yard field goal and was able to throw the ball to Cade and make it a 34-yard field goal.
“We practice that situation all the time. If the ball is on the left hash, we try to move it to the middle and take a knee. We probably should have run the clock down to three seconds and then kicked the field goal that way the game would have been over.
“We were just so antsy in that situation. Just proud of our guys the way they executed at the end. That was a long drive to really put together and that was the story tonight as we had to put long drives together. They made it hard on us.”
A look at the stats
Taking a look at the stats from the game, Rollins was 9-of-16 in the contest passing for 164 yards with two scoring passes. Rollins also toted the pigskin 17 times covering 69 yards.
Maupin was the workhorse on the ground rushing 21 times for 144 yards. From a receiving standpoint, Zach C. Hartley was targeted twice for 92 yards and a score while Parker Hughes caught four passes for 51 yards and a score.
Maupin tallied three catches covering 21 yards.
The Cyclones had 15 first downs to Greeneville’s 13. Elizabethton was penalized six times for 40 yards while the Greene Devils drew the yellow hanky five times for 45 yards.
Elizabethton had 355 yards of total offense in the game. Carson Streseman recorded a sack while Braden Holly added an interception defensively.
