UPDATED: Winning ugly, Watauga survives late Alexander Central rally, 41-34

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — It was a high school football game that all but defined the concept of “winning ugly.” After leading by 27 points at the end of the third quarter, Watauga let Alexander Central score three unanswered touchdowns in the final stanza, still slipping by the Cougars, 41-34.

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Even while playing a sloppy first half, the Pioneers seemed to be in control of the game, dominating in spite of lackluster execution. B-back Everett Gryder finished the game with 17 carries for 158 net yards rushing and quarterback Maddox Greene also surpassed the century mark rushing, carrying the ball 11 times for 113 net yards. Each player reached the end zone one time for a TD.

Greene did even more damage through the air, completing six of 11 passes for 109 yards and three TDs — to three different receivers: Jackson Pryor, Evan Burroughs, and Trathan Gragg.

After the game, Watauga head coach Ryan Habich was understandably none too happy about letting Alexander Central back in the game and threatening.

“We did not play well. We did not practice well (this week),” said Habich after a lengthy post-game locker room meeting with the players. “We are a young football team that thinks we are better than we are. We are listening to the noise. If we are serious about being a good football team, winning a conference championship, and having a good future in the playoffs, our players need to focus. They have to stop listening to people telling them how good they are and start executing. And it starts at practice.”

Asked to elaborate, Habich said, “If we played a really good football team and it came down to (what happened), I would be fine with it. But we aren’t doing the little things right even at practice. We have higher standards here at Watauga.”

Habich said the entire week of practice leading up to Friday night’s game was really unacceptable.

“I challenged the guys and said if we play (like we are practicing), then we ae going to lose. And we almost lost tonight to a team that I thought we were much better than them,” Habich said.

He repeated that the team’s focus, or lack of focus was the culprit in explaining poor performance.

“We aren’t blocking, we aren’t tackling, we aren’t doing the things we are supposed to do. We have been very successful the last 10 years, so we have high standards. You cannot control the outcomes, but you can control the process. I have been preaching that all along. If people are looking at outcomes and not talking about process, then we are not going to be a very good football team. We want to be a good football team here, but we have to start doing the right things at practice. Our younger kids, our older kids, too, we collectively have to do a better job if we want to be a championship team.”

Asked about his confidence that this would be a necessary wakeup call, Habich said, “It should be a wakeup call. It was a bad week of practice. There were a lot of things (contributing) to that. We had some coaches out. We had some injuries here and there. But those are not excuses. We simply did not play and execute. Tonight should have been a game where we won by a lot so we could get a lot of players in. We couldn’t do that. We had to play the starters the whole game because we were not executing. I am disappointed in how we as a team executed, but I don’t think we prepared well throughout the week.”

The Pioneers (7-0 overall, 2-0 in Northwestern Conference) will try to regain that focus in the coming week as they prepare to face 3A power Hibriten. The Panthers, a perennial 3A power, defeated another NWC and 3A power program, Freedom, on Sept. 29, 35-33, led by running back D K Mitchell.

Now 3-4 overall, 1-1 in Northwestern Conference play, Alexander Central will look to rebound on Oct. 13, at home vs. South Caldwell.

SCORING SUMMARY

SELECTED TEAM STATS

• Total Offense: AC 323, WAT 411
• Net Yards Rushing: AC 178, WAT 302
• Net Yards Passing: AC 145, WAT 109
• Turnovers
  • Fumbles Lost: AC 0, WAT 1
  • Interceptons: AC 1, WAT 0
• Penalties (Yards): AC 5 (45), WAT 8 (60)
• Time of Possession: AC 26:04, WAT 21:56
• 3rd Down Conversions: AC 6-of-14, WAT 6-of-10
• 4th Down Conversions: AC 3-of-6, WAT 1-of-2

SELECTED INDIVIDUAL STATS

Passing

• • AC – Tanner Moore: 8-20-145, 1 INT, 2 TDs, 0 sacks
  • WAT – Maddox Greene: 6-11-109, 3 TDs, 1 sack

Rushing

• • WAT – Everett Gryder: 17 carries, 158 yards, 1 TD
  • WAT – Maddox Greene: 11 carries, 113 yards, 1 TD
  • AC – Tanner Moore: 15 carries, 92 yards, 2 TDs
  • AC – Braydon Rowe: 11 carries, 63 yards, 1 TD
  • AC – Sawyer Chapman-Mays: 15 carries, 59 yards
  • WAT – Evan Burroughs: 3 carries, 13 yards, 1 TD
  • WAT – Morgan Henry: 2 carries, 15 yards

Receiving

• • AC – Jaheim Redmond: 3 catches, 78 yards, 1 TD
  • WAT – Evan Burroughs: 1 catch, 40 yards, 1 TD
  • WAT – Morgan Henry: 2 catcjes. 37 yards
  • AC – Jeremiah Whitaker: 2 catches, 26 yards
  • WAT – Jackson Pryor: 2 catches, 18 yards, 1 TD
  • WAT – Trathan Gragg: 1 catch, 14 yards, 1 TD
  • AC – Garison Millsaps: 2 catches, 14 yards, 1 TD
  • AC – Wade Queen, 1 catch, 27 yards

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