Highlanders Weather the Storm, Roll Past Pigeon Forge 38-13
The Pigeon Forge Tigers hosted the county-rival Gatlinburg-Pittman Highlanders Friday evening in the latest installment of "The Battle of the Tunnel," and the Highlanders came away with a 38-13 victory after waiting out a lengthy weather delay.
The Highlanders would draw first blood after a series of runs and passes featuring their playmaker Jackson Savarese, as well as running back Marshall Gay, before settling with a 32-yard field goal from Jonathan Garcia to give Gatlinburg Pittman the early 3-0 lead midway through the opening quarter.
The Tigers would start their 2nd drive of the game on their own 43 yard line following the nice return from Tate Brackins.
Pigeon Forge worked their way down the field using passes to Dakari Lawson, Andy Cable, and K.O. Travis for a pair of first downs before a false start and a pair of incomplete passes defended by the Highlanders' defense halted the drive.
With Pigeon Forge in punting formation, it appeared the drive would continue on a roughing the punter call; however, the call was running into the punter, giving the Tigers 5 yards before punting the ball again for a touchback that rolled into the end zone.
Gay gained 7 yards on the first play of the Highlanders' second drive, and then the team allowed the clock to expire, ending the first quarter.
Before the second quarter could start, the game entered a prolonged weather delay lasting more than two hours due to a line of severe weather passing through the area.
"I was worried if they were gonna use up all of our energy, they're in there singing, laughing, yelling and hooping and hollering, I was like guys we may be in here for a while just relax." coach Tyler Willimas said of the weather delay.
Following the delay, the Tigers had all the momentum after a huge 4th down stop in GP territory to set them up with excellent field position for their opening drive of the quarter.
The Tigers capped the drive with a 9-yard Bryson Stockwell touchdown run, and the PAT from Arturo Mendez was true, giving the Tigers a 7-3 lead.
Gay rushed for 4 yards on 1st down, before the Tigers jumped offsides on 2nd down to give the Highlanders a short field to gain for the first down. However, on third down, Matt Vela brought down GP quarterback Ben Seavy behind the line of scrimmage for a huge 5-yard sack, leaving the Highlanders with a 3rd and 5.
On the 3rd down play, Savarese executed a jet sweep for 61 yards, seemingly scoring a GP touchdown. However, the play was negated due to a holding penalty and a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Highlanders' sideline, resulting in another 3rd down play with 20 yards needed for a first down.
Seavy handed the ball off to Gay, who did the rest of the work with a 65-yard rush down to the Tigers' 15-yard line, resulting in a huge shift of momentum.
Seavy then found Savarese, who took the swing pass 15 yards for the Highlanders' touchdown. The PAT was once again true, and with 4:14 remaining in the opening half, Gatlinburg Pittman led 10-7.
"I'm proud of Ben Seavy every day. He's the hardest worker, he works so hard every day. That's a tough job, a sophomore qb is a rough job. Everyone's going to crowd the box and say let's let that sophomore qb beat us and we got some of that tonight. He put the ball where it needed to be at the times he needed to." Williams stated of QB Ben Seavy.
The Tigers and Highlanders exchanged a pair of quick drives to end the half and heading into the halftime break, Gatlinburg Pittman led Pigeon Forge 10-7.
GP took the opening drive of the second half with Gay rushing for 12 yards on first down, immediately followed by a 15-yard jet sweep from Savarese.
The Highlanders were pushed back due to a holding call, but Seavy connected with Savarese to recover most of the lost yardage. A roughing the passer penalty was subsequently added, granting GP another first down.
Gay and Preston McCarter finished the drive on the ground before Gay capped the Highlanders' opening drive with a 1-yard touchdown rush, stretching the GP lead to 17-7 with 7:31 remaining in the third quarter.
The Highlanders would kickoff, which was fielded by Tate Brackins for the Tigers, who lost the ball while trying to cut back on the Highlanders defense on their own 8 yard line.
Gatlinburg-Pittman's Jack Cottongim recovered the fumble to set the Highlanders up in excellent field position, looking to add on more against the rival Tigers.
On the drive's first play, Seavy hit Hayden Shultz with a quick slant pass, and Shultz ran it in for a 9-yard touchdown, extending GP's lead to 24-7 just 12 seconds after their last score.
The Tigers secured two first downs with runs by Donterrius Russell and quarterback Andrew Lewis, but the drive was halted when Highlanders defensive lineman Colin Garrett sacked the quarterback, leading the Tigers to punt the ball back to Gatlinburg Pittman.
Savarese took the bubble screen 9 yards on first down, followed by a pair of runs by Gay to give the Highlanders another first down on the Tigers' 38-yard line.
The following play Gay took the handoff 38 yards for the apparent GP touchdown, before another holding penalty would bring back the touchdown.
Seavy found Savarese for another 18-yard completion down to the 23-yard line on the following play before Seavy and Shultz connected for another touchdown, this time for 22 yards, to make the score 31-7 Gatlinburg Pittman with 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
KO Travis gained 6 yards on the first play of the Tigers' next possession, with Stockwell gaining the first down with a 7-yard rush to put the ball right outside of Highlanders' territory as the third quarter ended with the score 31-7 Highlanders.
A heavy dose of Stockwell set the Tigers up with the ball on the GP 26 yard line, where Lewis scampered 15 yards down to the 11 yard line to set up a long 1st and 10 for the Tigers.
Lewis scrambled down to the 1-yard line for the Pigeon Forge first down, before Stockwell capped the drive with the 1-yard rushing touchdown. The 2-point conversion failed, and the score was 31-13 with 7:50 remaining in the game.
The Tigers' onside kick deflected off a Highlanders defender, allowing Brayden King to recover it and position the Tigers with possession at the 50-yard line.
Stockwell rushed for 5 on the opening play, before Lewis looked for Travis down the left sideline. The pass fell incomplete, but a pass interference penalty gave the Tigers another first down on the 30-yard line.
Lewis looked for Andy Cable down the left sideline once again, however Jonathan Garcia came away with the interception on the 10 yard line with 6:14 remaining in the game.
Gay would take the 2nd down handoff 76 yards down to the Tigers 10 yard line before being slung out of bounds by Russell for Pigeon Forge.
McCarter would cap the drive on the 7 yard touchdown rush for the Highlanders, pushing the lead out to 38-13 Gatlinburg Pittman with 4:05 remaining.
The Highlanders would get one final highlight on the evening as sophomore defensive lineman Lyle Proffitt intercepted the first down pass from Lewis to secure the Highlanders victory.
Gatlinburg Pittman moves to 2-3 on the season and will visit Claiborne County (0-4) , while Pigeon Forge drops to 0-4 on the season and will visit first place Unicoi County (4-1) for a district clash on Friday the 25th.
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