Chiefs surpass 250 yards, but turnovers hurt them in region opener

Sequoyah neared 280 yards of total offense Friday night, but six turnovers left the Chiefs stranded in their Region 3-4A opener — losing 49-14 to Signal Mountain in Madisonville.

Following Week 2’s defeat to Tellico Plains, Sequoyah coach Derrick Vestal wanted to see how his group responded. A week of better preparation ended with the Chiefs (0-3) finding the end zone twice and surpassing 100 yards of offense in both phases.

“One thing we talked about last night was our guys played hard the entire game and that is something that was different from last week,” Vestal said to The Advocate & Democrat on Saturday. “Sometimes when you are playing hard, you make some mistakes that you typically do not make. We turned the ball over six times last night. Those are effort things.”

The Chiefs fumbled five times and saw Signal Mountain (3-0; 1-0) intercept one pass.

“Sometimes it is trying to make a little more out of a play or trying to do a little more with a throw. Whenever we are sitting there at 0-0 and fumble, that is a hard pill to swallow,” Vestal added.

Sequoyah’s fumbles came early in the set of downs, fumbling twice on first down, twice on second down and once on third down. A series of plays left the Chiefs’ defense on the field and handed Signal Mountain positive field position.

“It is not like we fumbled on 4th and 17, it was 1st and 10. We make some mistakes there and when they get the short field it makes it difficult the whole night,” Vestal said. “Our defense played really good. Coach (Jalen) Sharp and (Andrew) Tyus had a good plan this week and we attacked with it. I think they did a great job.”

Senior running back Theo Spurling scored for the Chiefs twice, carrying the ball across the goal line to cap off long drives with six points each.

Sequoyah moved the ball with pass plays on the first touchdown drive before Spurling followed a block from Maddox Jones on a 15-yard touchdown rush.

The senior scored his second touchdown of the day in a similar fashion. Spurling made a tackler miss and took an inside run five yards to paydirt.

“Theo Spurling gets down there and he is a big body that is hard to tackle inside the five. Our front did a good job of pushing and getting movement there,” Vestal said.

Signal Mountain hit a season high 49 points in the win, but big scores are not abnormal for the 2024 Eagles so far — averaging 44.3 points per game out of a Wing-T offense.

“They do things that you do not see every week anymore. It used to be that that is what you saw every Friday night in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” Vestal said. “Now when they do it, it is something that you have to specifically gameplan for.”

Sophomore Caden Atkins recovered a fumble created by Spurling. Luke Brackett, Hunner Johnson, Dillon Wilson, Keith Gentry and Jones all notched tackles for losses.

Atkins led the Chiefs with nine tackles, followed by eight from Spurling, six from Jones, Gentry’s five and four for Levi Jones, Dallas Tallent, Colten Covert and Brackett.

“Our score did not reflect the game. If you take away our turnovers, it is a really tight ball game. Whenever you get behind in turnovers, that margin makes it really difficult,” Vestal said. “And the other thing too, we are finally coming back with everybody healthy. This (upcoming) week will finally be the first week with everyone back minus a couple of guys. Nobody is sick anymore which is a huge, huge help for us.”

Sequoyah continues region play next week, visiting Soddy-Daisy (2-1; 0-1) coming off a 34-21 loss to Loudon (3-0; 1-0).

“They are a good group and well coached. They have some big bodies — it will be the first time that we look across the field and see linemen the size of our linemen,” Vestal said. “But our big focus this week is no one’s job is guaranteed. No player’s job is guaranteed. Just because you have been starting at this or that — that is from quarterback all the way to center. Every position is up for grabs.

“We want to put our best 11 out there. That is one thing that has to come to fruition. We have to make sure we are competing every day. We have to make sure we are competing Monday through Thursday as well.”