Happy Valley’s fast-paced offense ran the Unaka Rangers dizzy on Friday night at Goddard Field. The Warriors took a 35-0 halftime lead and beat the Rangers 56-8 in a non-conference contest.
The Warriors (3-2 overall) had 239 yards of total offense in the first half with senior Mookie Madison rushing for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Junior quarterback Sage Haun was three-for-five, passing for 65 yards and two scoring throws to senior receiver Josh Hammonds and Dylan Street had a touchdown run for HV in the first half.
“We played well in all three phases of the game,” Warriors head coach Jason Jarrett said. “… I was proud of the effort we put forth. We got a lot of players in the game and they deserved to play.”
After forcing a Unaka (1-5 overall) punt, the Warriors went on a seven-play 57-yard drive that ended with a four-yard scamper by Madison for a 7-0 HV lead. Seth Chesser made a play on special teams when he tackled Ranger punter Jacob Day to give HV possession at the 32-yard line of the Rangers.
Six plays later, Haun hooked up with Hammonds on a 25 yard scoring pass for a 14-0 Warrior lead. Junior LB Austin Hicks picked off a pass from Unaka QB Blake King and ran it in for a score, but a penalty on the Warriors pushed it back to the Unaka 26 yard line.
One play later, Street scored on a 15-yard run for a 21-0 HV advantage.
Happy Valley was penalized eight times for 95 yards in the half which was the only negative stat on the Warriors’ sheet. But the Rangers could not take advantage and punted on their next possession with HV taking over at the 43-yard line.
In all, the Warriors had 11 penalties for 130 yards. “That’s been a thorn in our side all year,” Jarrett said. “It’s been all five games that we have had too many penalties, and that falls on my shoulders.”
Haun finished the drive with a 38-yard pass to Hammonds and the rout was on as HV now led 28-0. Madison capped the first half scoring blitz with a 35 yard run just before halftime.
In the first half Unaka had 53 yards of total offense with minus 13 yards rushing. Happy Valley had eight tackles for loss with Hicks having two tackles for loss and an interception in a dominating performance by the Warriors’ defense.
Junior running back Dylan Street amassed 184 return yards and had 41 yards rushing. Street had an 88-yard punt return in the third period. “The whole team did well,” Street said. “… We haven’t had many games like this at Happy Valley that we get that many points on the board.”
HV scored three touchdowns in the third period with Dylan Townsend scoring on an eight-yard run. Hammonds picked off a pass from Unaka freshman QB John Ramsey and returned it 45 yards for a score to make it a 49-0 contest.
Just three plays later Street took a Unaka punt at the 12-yard line and went all the way for the score that made it 56-0 in favor of the Warriors.
Unaka managed to put together a nice scoring drive in the fourth quarter as senior Micah Hunt ripped off runs of 16 and 29 to get the Rangers to the HV 11-yard line.
From there, Ramsey connected with Matthew Bently on a touchdown pass as Bently tiptoed into the end zone sideline and Hunt run in the two point conversion. For the game Hunt managed 15 carries for 83 yards.