However, the Indians showed no signs of looking past the Mustangs in rolling to a 63-14 victory at Walter Cantrell Stadium.
McEachern will open the Class AAAAA playoffs at home on Friday against Benedictine (5-5) from Savannah.
“Every team that advances to the playoffs is there for a reason,” McEachern coach Kyle Hockman said. “We know that they (Benedictine) are a well-coached football team, so we will have to be ready in every phase of the game.”
While the Indians had a season high point total, the defense also had a big night.
McEachern (9-1) held the Mustangs (0-10) to 128 total yards in the game. The total team effort didn’t go unnoticed by Hockman, either.
“Our approach to this game was to focus on the little things and to get better in all aspects of the game,” Hockman explained. Both Trent (Thompson) and Ty (Clemons) played a good game and we did a good job of moving the ball.”
The Indians wasted little time showing that they were not going to let this become a trap game. With a little more than 2 minutes gone in the game, Thompson connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass with Tray Fletcher.
Less than a minute later after Da’Quavious Lewis intercepted a Kennesaw Mountain pass and set up McEachern’s second scoring opportunity.
Thompson found Amba Etta-Tawo from 30-yards out for his second scoring pass and a 14-0 Indians’ lead.
McEachern continued to pour it on the Mustangs by scoring again less than 2 minutes later on a 5-yard run by Clemons to give the Indians a 21-0 advantage with 7:01 left in the opening quarter.
After holding the Mustangs on three plays, McEachern scored on its fourth-straight possession. Thompson once again connected with Etta-Tawo on a 20-yard touchdown pass to go up 28-0 at the 1:35 mark of the first quarter.
Clemons then gave the home fans some of his own excitement. He tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter to Daryus Thompson to give McEachern a five-touchdown lead.
The lead was 49-0 before Kennesaw Mountain scored with 16 seconds remaining in the first half on a 40-yard pass from Dalin Finley to Maurice Phillips.
In the third quarter, Clemons exploded 82 yards for a touchdown to extend McEachern’s advantage to 56-7. Clemons closed out the scoring for the Indians midway through the fourth quarter on a 15-yard pass to Chris Okeh.
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Yes some crazy stuff has happened the lack of talent is unfortunate as well. It's just a mystery how programs like Hillgrove and Allatoona are so much more successful.
Agreed, but I think with better coaching and some excitement around the program better things would have happened. Like you said, only 57 came out and the reason is the student body was not excited about football and the Coach.
A new Coach with some experience and knowledge would do wonders here.
The fact of the matter is, this is a culture. Over the years, it has always seemed like every element of high school football, internally and externally, is conspiring against the well being of this program, from a bad play at a critical moment in many games, to the worst officiating I have ever seen. Even you could attest to that, formerkmhsplayer. Even Cobb County seems like they are against their well being; you can thank them for building Allatoona and robbing the talent pool (and look at the most recent mdj article).
Now a season like this has happened. Coach McGehee has not done a good job, and he rightly bears the blame for much of the team's struggles. But even before there was a coaching change, I saw this no win season coming. It's inevitable when one school is built and robs another of all it's future good players. Even worse, only 57 or so players were on KMHS's roster this year. 57! There were also more kids with football experience who could have been a great help, but they didn't come out. And that's because, (I'm not naming anyone in particular, and this is just pure speculation) they didn't want to endure a long losing season. I applaud those 57 for sticking it out and fighting hard this year. They deserved better for that. If the reports are true that a coaching change is imminant, though, the team is going to need as much help as possible, no matter who the new head man may be.
If football is going to succeed at KMHS, they need more than just a good coach. They need players. They need size. They need character, something I have seldom noticed over the years. They need luck. And a miracle.