Apalachee football welcomed back on the field, shakes off rust as Clarke Central dominates

The winless Wildcats returned to the field Saturday for the first time in three weeks after an on-campus shooting on Sept. 4 took the lives of two 14-year-old students and two teachers, one of whom — Richard Aspinwall — was an assistant coach on the Apalachee football team.

Playing against Clarke Central at Billy Henderson Stadium, Apalachee (0-4, 0-1 in Region 8-5A) took an early 7-0 lead, but the Gladiators (4-2, 2-0) scored the next 38 points and emerged with a 48-21 victory over the Wildcats, who had just returned to school the previous Monday.

“There’s still a numb feeling,” Apalachee coach Mike Hancock said. “It was nice to get back on the field, and I’m glad we did, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to be a better football team. I’m proud of our kids — you see a lot of emotion in this for our coaches and our kids. We’ll go back to work on Monday and try to finish out the season and get these seniors football games.”

Said Clarke Central coach David Perno, whose team played a home game for the first time since Aug. 23, “It was tricky for our kids. You feel bad for them, and it’s a tough scenario on both sides. We need to play, and we want to play, and I appreciate coach Hancock getting his troops ready.

“They got an early lead, but our kids responded and reeled off 38 straight points, and that was good for our end. It was a tough week, and you throw in the hurricane, and we didn’t practice Thursday or Friday, but they were in the same boat as far as that goes.”

Apalachee captains Jason White, Jadon Brown, Favian Williford and Norman Robinson were accompanied by the rest of the Wildcat seniors for the pregame coin toss, and a moment of silence was held in the stadium before the Clarke Central marching band performed the national anthem.

Taking the opening kickoff, the Wildcats scored on their first possession as Williford reached the end zone on a 6-yard run to cap a seven-play, 65-yard drive highlighted by a 29-yard pass from Colin Eishen to Jaydon Brown with nine minutes left in the first quarter.

Although Clarke Central’s offense stalled out at the Apalachee 5-yard line, and the Gladiators missed a 32-yard field goal attempt on their first drive, they got on the board on their next possession, driving 62 yards in 11 plays and scoring on a 2-yard run by Corey Watkins Jr., who finished the day with 138 yards, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown.

The Wildcats were perhaps betrayed by their rustiness on their next possession when a snapped punt from the Apalachee 10-yard line sailed over Austin Pyle’s head and hit the crossbar, an automatic safety. Clarke Central quickly turned the miscue into points as quarterback Hezekiah Millender scored on a 15-yard run at the end of a seven-play drive that went 55 yards and was keyed by the senior quarterback, who added a 13-yard run and a 14-yard pass to La'gracion Little during the possession.

Bad luck continued to trail Apalachee as their next possession ended on a punt attempt that went all of 5 yards. Millender took immediate advantage of the situation with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Xayvian Berry to make the score 23-7 with three minutes left before the half.

To open the third quarter, the Gladiators picked up right where they left off as Miller — who ran for 50 yards and a touchdown and threw for 138 yards for the day — tossed a 36-yard scoring pass to Watkins Jr. with 10:20 remaining.

Special teams troubles continued to haunt the Wildcats as a bad snap on their next punt attempt put Clarke Central in business on the Apalachee 4-yard line. On the first play of the next possession, Millender tossed a short touchdown pass to Tyrell Husband, his third scoring pass of the day and 13th of the season.

The Wildcats then answered with a score of their own as Eishen hit Jason Flannigan on a 37-yard pass and Williford then ran in from 23 yards out to make the score 38-14 with five minutes left in the third quarter. Clarke Central scored again two minutes later as Millender rushed in from the 19-yard line to complete a drive that included two passes to Zaylen Sheats for 24 yards and a 14-yard run by Jayden Neal.

With two minutes left in the third quarter, Clarke Central put up its last points on a 31-yard field goal by Heinkel Mejia-Quintero. In a fourth quarter that featured a running clock, Apalachee tallied its final touchdown on a 2-yard run by Williford — who ran 21 times for 121 yards and three touchdowns — with five minutes remaining in the game.

On Friday, Hancock talked about how meaningful it would be to get his team back in the grind.

“The biggest things for our kids and our coaches, and after talking to our athletic director Mr. (Ralph) Neeley and Ms. (Jessica) Rehberg, our principal, we all just felt like we’ll heal better when we have an opportunity to get on the field,” he said. “Clarke Central is a great opponent and a very good football team, but I think for our kids it’s not necessarily about who the opponent is right now — it’s just a matter of getting them back on the field and getting back playing again.”

The week before Apalachee students resumed classes, the team held acclimation practices in helmets, and this past week, Helene’s oppressive wrath affected nearly every Georgia school’s practice schedule. Hancock assented that being in the spotlight has been an added personal difficulty.

“I really don’t want to be the face of this, to be honest, but it comes with being in this position,” he said. “I’m good — it’s like I told the kids, we all have our moments. I was in my truck the other day and a gospel song came on and I broke down and had my moment in my truck, thinking about (Aspinwall) and thinking about all the things coming. We’re about to play a game for one, without a really good friend, and two, without a really good football coach. We’ve had to shuffle staff around and had to change responsibilities.”

Clarke Central returns to the road Friday to face Habersham Central at 7:30 p.m. in Mount Airy. Apalachee is scheduled to play at home for the first time since Sept. 6, hosting Jackson County at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Apalachee football welcomed back on the field, shakes off rust as Clarke Central dominates