Swain Survives Thriller In Clay County vs Jackets

Photos from Joanna McMahan

Written by Rowan Ellis

Swain Continues Undefeated Season In Thriller Against Hayesville

 

With not ideal weather for football on a rainy night, the Swain County Maroon Devils travel out to Hayesville to battle it out with the YellowJackets. As Both teams struggle to find their offense early, Hayesville relies on the running game with Tre Graves marching the Jackets downfield to soon have Senior back Taylor Mcclure find the endzone on a 19 yard rush to give Hayesville the early 7-0 lead. Halftime comes quickly as the Devils look to have a hard time getting the offense going with having 4 turnovers in the first half of the game

As the Devils receive the ball coming out the half, a big return by Zeke Glaspie gets Swain at mid field but another fumble by the Devil offense gives Hayesville the ball once again. Soon enough towards the end of the 3rd quarter Swain does what they do best and get the ball downfield from rushes by Josiah Glaspie and Joshua Collins, to result in a touchdown pass from Winchester to tight end Cole Wikle. Instead of attempting to tie the game with an extra point the Devils go for 2, but come up just short with the run on a very debatable call. 

The Hayesville offense responds quickly with a 69 yard touchdown pass from QB Tate Roberts to Isaac Chandler to add to the YellowJacket lead, 13-6. Continuing with the running game with shared handoffs to Collins and Glaspie, Swain is soon faced with a 4th and 3 on the Hayesville 10 yard line. With a give to Glaspie, he gets the Devils in the endzone and punches in the 2 point conversion also on the ground to give Swain the lead 14-13. 

 

Faced with multiple penalties the Jackets came up short on a 4th and long attempt to give Swain the ball back with 5 minutes left on the clock. A big rush by Glaspie gets the Devils inside the redzone to get run in by Joshua Collins for a 18 yard rushing touchdown to give the Swain the 21-13 lead. With less than 3 minutes left, Hayesville Quarterback Roberts gets his offense downfield but when it matters most on 4th and 10, a breakup in the endzone by Andruw Cody creates a turnover on downs to give Swain the ball with 55 seconds left. With a kneel to end the game, Swain comes out with a very hard fought win 21-13. 

 

Look Ahead: Swain County will have a home game for their next matchup against the Murphy Bulldogs while the Hayesville squad will stay at home and face off against the traveling Cherokee Braves.