Signal Mountain earned its first victory of the high school football season Friday night, with the Eagles rushing for 270 yards as they beat visiting Hixson 39-0.
The Eagles' potent backfield wasted no time establishing its presence as quarterback Jack Wilson struck first on a 1-yard bootleg keeper. After three quick turnovers on downs between both teams, running back Terrance Russell dashed around multiple defenders during a 12-yard sweep for another Signal score.
Despite some early movement, Hixson's offense could not find the end zone in its season opener, and the Wildcats' defense got fooled on Signal's next score, which covered 50 yards. Defenders believed Eagles running back Andrew Eichner's knee touched the ground in the backfield, but the referees did not blow the play dead and Eichner carried the ball into the end zone.
Signal coach Josh Roberts called for onside kicks multiple times, and with 2:07 left in the second quarter, his team had proven it had enough time to score again. Eagles lineman Beck Dudley drove through a Hixson blocker to recover the onside kick for Signal Mountain, and four plays later Eagles fullback Braden Casner scored on a tough 5-yard run up the gut.
Signal led 25-0 at halftime, then got its final two touchdowns from Wilson on a 20-yard strike to tight end Rod Hutcherson and Logan Farr on a 1-yard run up the middle.
A week after the Eagles lost their opener 59-14 to East Hamilton, Roberts attributed the success to simple execution.
"We went back to the basics," Roberts said. "The line went low, the backs were quick to hit the hole, everyone did their job consistently and that obviously worked out better for us, even executing fundamentals on the other side of the ball as well."
Hixson was held to 102 offensive yards.
"If we want to start doing well at this game, we've just got to do better up front," Wildcats coach Gary Murray said. "Right now we're looking for bad things to happen, but this week we're going to build on the good things in practice and rise above the bad."
Contact Justin Dempsey at sports@timesfreepress.com.