By David Rogers. MORGANTON, N.C. — Call it a barnburner. Call it a first class, old-fashioned shootout. Call it a contrast in styles, if you will. But make sure you call Watauga’s 54-48 win over Northwestern Conference rival, Freedom, a championship performance.
With the win, Watauga’s Pioneers clinched a sixth consecutive Northwestern Conference championship, with one regular season NWC game remaining on Oct. 27, at home vs. Ashe County and the Huskies’ high octane offense. All contenders, including Ashe County, no fewer than four Northwestern Conference foes are tied for second place in the league standings at 2-2. The others are Alexander Central, Hibriten and Freedom.
In each of the previous five seasons, Watauga sported an unblemished conference record. Through the latest win over Freedom, the Pioneers are 29-0 against NWC opponents.
What is different in the 2023 season: the Pioneers have an unbeaten non-conference record, too, against some tough opponents, including A C Reynolds, Maiden, T C Roberson and North Davidson.
Against Freedom, it was not an easy win. Watauga head coach Ryan Habich warned all week that the Patriots were a young, deep and very athletic opponent. With shallow roster depth, especially at the skill positions, Watauga is forced to play a number of key athletes all ways: offense, defense and special teams. As a games wears on, the “tired” factor increases.
An obvious Watauga tactic was to keep Freedom’s high-powered, dangerous offense off the field with long, grinding, clock-consuming drives focused on running the football. In the first quarter, they used that rushing focus to great effect, taking a 14-0 lead while limiting Freedom to a turnover on downs in their only offensive possession of the opening stanza.
Of the Pioneers’ two offensive drives, the first was a 7-play, 78-yard drubbing that culminated with a 31-yard TD scamper around the right side by sophomore wingback Evan Burroughs. The second drive was also 7-plays, but covered 91 yards. A highlight? Quarterback Maddox Greene got the drive jumpstarted with a 44-yard keeper on an early 1st-and-10. From that point in the drive, no Watauga play covered more than 10 yards as the Pioneers returned to their patented, ball possession style, ending with a one-yard plunge up the middle by sophomore workhorse running back Everett Gryder.
As the first quarter turned into a second period, the Pioneers limited the Patriots to a three-and-out, forcing their hosts to punt.
As they have done in so many other games during the 2023 campaign, the Pioneers looked like they were in control. When Watauga scored a third touchdown in as many drives, highlighted by a 30-yard pass completion to tight end Morgan Henry to setup another punch-in TD by Gryder, the Freedom football stadium was all but silenced. Placekicker Jack Wilson rarely misses on a PAT attempt, but he did so on this occasion, leaving Watauga with a commanding, 20-0 lead.
But football games are not comprised of just a quarter and a half. It is why they play the full 48 minutes. Players get tired, increasing the chances for mistakes. Coaching staffs make strategic adjustments, modifying blocking schemes, pass coverage assignments, tweaking offensive plays.
On this night, Watauga had to play almost error-free on offense. Toward that end, the Greene, Gryder, Burroughs, Pryor, Henry & Co scored a TD on every offensive possession except one late in the third quarter when Gryder fumbled and the ball was recovered by Freedom. Remarkably, that turned out to be the only turnover by either team on this night.
Leading 20-0 early in the second quarter, it did seem like Watauga’s ballgame to lose.
Freedom took advantage of a facemask penalty against the Pioneers on another short Watauga kickoff, taking possession with good field position at the visitors’ 45-yard line.
And the Patriots made short work of the opportunity to get on the scoreboard. A 25-yard ramble by senior Jaylen Barnett and a 15-yard pass from sophomore QB Kaden Davis to junior wide receiver Kayden Lytle got the ball to the 5-yard line, from where Barnett took it the rest of the way for the Patriots’ first TD of the night.
Although Watauga countered with another grinding, 11-play drive that ended with Burroughs’ second rushing TD, getting the Pioneers back to a 20-point lead they would hold at halftime, 27-7, both teams had plenty more offense to showcase on this night.
In the second half, they basically took turns scoring touchdowns, Freedom explosive, Watauga mostly grinding. Just like the Pioneers got first possession to open the game in the first half, Freedom went first in the second half and quickly closed the gap to 27-14. The teams went back and forth trading touchdowns until the Patriots again closed the deficit to just 13 points, at 47-34.
But when Gryder fumbled and Freedom recovered, the Patriots took advantage of an opportunity to close within six points at 47-41 early in the final period, and the Pioneer faithful began to worry.
No need, as it turned out, because Greene, Gryder and Burroughs collaborated on a 12-play, 57-yard TD drive that only ended Gryder’s fourth rushing TD of the game but kept Freedom’s offense off the field as time ticked off the clock.
Freedom would score again to close the deficit to its final six points, 54-48, but there simply was insufficient time on the clock to get the ball back again.
Although the final outcome was similar to the Alexander Central game a couple of weeks earlier, Watauga head coach Ryan Habich saw something different.
“Our guys lost their focus against Alexander Central and tonight they didn’t,” said Habich. “They fought hard tonight. I have said before that Freedom is a challenge for us because they don’t just have one or two guys, but four or five guys that we just cannot tackle in space. We didn’t do a good job on defense, but give Freedom a lot of credit for how athletic they were… I thoujht we were in control of the game, but then we turn the ball over. We are still a young team, but we are turning the ball over more than we should be.”
Next up for the Pioneers is the final regular season home game of the year, hosting Ashe County (6-3 overall, 2-2 NWC). With a strong second half effort, the Huskies defeated South Caldwell on Oct. 19, 13-6.
SELECTED INDIVIDUAL STATS
- WAT – Maddox Greene: 17 carries, 194 yards, 2 TDs
- WAT – Everett Gryder: 32 carries, 207 yards, 4 TDs
- WAT – Evan Burroughs: 8 carries, 88 yards, 2 TDs
- FRE – Kaden Davis: 15-of-27 passing, 212 yards, 4 TDs
- FRE – Jaylen Barrett: 20 carries, 160 yards, 2 TDs
