Accumulating 198 yards of total offense in the first half, the Harriman Blue Devils ran off to a 41-0 halftime lead on Friday night at Goddard Field. When the dust settled the Devils (4-0) had taken a 48-8 victory over the Unaka Rangers in a non-conference clash.

Harriman scored on the first two times they touched the ball with tailback T.J. Phipps scoring on a 58 yard run on first down and after forcing a Ranger punt the Devils took possession at the Unaka 46 yard line.

From there Isaiah McClain scored untouched on a 46-yard weaving run to make it 14-0 after Carlos Acosta’s second point after kick. The Devils rushed for 183 yards in the first half on just eight carries.

“We have been on the kids all week that we wanted to start fast,” Blue Devils head coach Travis Tapp said. “They worked hard all week getting ready for Unaka and when you get that fast start it is always good. We wanted to work on our running game and we were able to get everyone in there to get experience.”

Phipps added a 37-yard scoring run to give the Devils three touchdowns on three plays from scrimmage and a 21-0 lead. Sheldon Anderson capped a three-play, 45-yard touchdown drive with an 11-yard scoring run with Acosta once again adding the PAT to give Harriman a 28-0 lead with 8:04 remaining in the first period.

After a pass interference penalty on Harriman, Unaka began to move the ball on its next drive with quarterback Blake King connecting with Ray Combs for nine yards and a first down to the 41-yard line. On his next pass, Giovanni Cromwell stepped in front of his intended target and raced 52 yards for the touchdown that made it 35-0 near the end of the first period.

The next Rangers (1-3) drive saw the team move from its 20 to the 47 before turning the ball over on downs. The Devils wasted no time scoring in four plays with Anderson tossing a 15-yard touchdown pass to John Johnson for a 41-0 lead after Acosta’s kick went wide right.

King completed four-of-14 passes in the first half for 42 yards with one interception but the Rangers running game was held to negative eight yards in the half. King finished with 122 yards on five-of-17 passing which included an 80-yard pass and run to freshman Blake Isaacs.

Isaacs caught the quick pass from King and cut across the field to the home sideline breaking six tackles along the way and broke free at midfield and outraced the defense to the end zone. King hit Hunter Bentley with the two-point pass with 8:54 remaining.

“Harriman has good skilled people and coach Tapp does a great job coaching them,” Rangers head coach Steve McKinney said. “They got the quarterback, the running back and the good receivers. My guys may have been a little intimidated and we are going through the tough part of our schedule now, but like I told them we still are in first place in the conference and can still win the conference.”

Harriman 48-8

Harriman 35 6 8 0 – 48

Unaka 0 0 0 8 – 8

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

H – Phipps 58 run (Acosta kick) 11:50

H – McClain 46 run (Acosta kick) 11:05

H – Phipps 37 run (Acosta kick) 10:41

H – Anderson 11 run (Acosta kick) 8:04

H – Cromwell 52 int return (Acosta kick) 4:03

Second Quarter

H – Johnson 15 pass from Anderson (kick failed) 6:39

Third Quarter

H – Frazier 28 pass from Frost (Acosta kick) 1:36

Fourth Quarter

U – Isaacs 80 pass from King (King pass to Bentley) 8:54