By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Turns out, the 16th meeting between Union City and Gibson County ended up like the other 15.
The Golden Tornadoes, facing a sixth-ranked GC team fresh off an upset of then No. 3 Trenton, nonetheless continued their all-time mastery of the Pioneers with a 30-22 victory Friday night at Yates Field.
The win put UC in the thick of the Region 7-2A race – one of five teams with just one league loss in the updated standings. The Tornadoes (3-4, 2-1) have now won back-to-back games for the first time this year after facing a brutal first half schedule and ended Gibson County’s five game winning streak.
GC is now 6-2 overall, 3-1 in the region.
Union City simply did what Union City does Friday in extending its unbeaten ways against the Pioneers.
The Twisters’ vaunted physical triple-option offense consistently pounded the interior with fullback Kaleb Craig hammering away for 245 yards, two touchdowns and a conversion, before Travon Westbrook got loose on the outside with 81 yards and a couple more scores.
UC’s offensive front of DJ Gray, Carson Corley, Jay Ramsey, Neil Brown and Alex Rodriguez controlled the line of scrimmage, paving the way for the Tornadoes to average nearly seven yards on 58 rushing attempts while gaining 394 in all.
The Tornadoes had scoring drives of 67 and 73 yards in the first half, and a 68-yard TD march in the third quarter.
Defensively, the Twisters gave up just one sustained drive – one GC score coming on a trick double-pass play just before the intermission, another in the final minute with the outcome already essentially decided.
Craig had a monster all-around night, also leading the defense with eight tackles – including three for lost yards and a sack. Justin Wiggins was in on seven total stops, while Connor Terrell had four solos and three assists. Sam Theobald was credited with five tackles, while Connor Hurt had a handful of bone-jarring hits.
“I thought our guys really played and fought hard,” Union City head coach Darren Bowling said afterward. “Gibson County has a good football team, as good as they’ve had in a long time. They came out and hit us in the mouth, but our guys never blinked and came right back and scored.
“It helped that we had the same quarterback (Theobald) for the second week in a row. We did a better job with our meshes and our timing was better. The fumbles we had were out on the field. Connor (Hurt) is continuing to get more healthy every week and that really helps us on both sides of the ball.”
After GC scored on its first possession and went up 8-0, the Purple and Gold responded with 22 unanswered points.
Westbrook had scoring jaunts of 27 and 11 yards after catching option pitches from Theobald and Craig, who regularly bulled his way for extra ground and bulled his way in from the four.
After the Pioneers got within 22-14 with the aforementioned trickery just before the intermission, Craig ripped off his most impressive run of the night – a 51-yard TD romp on which he broke at least four tackles after twice appearing to have been stopped. He then tacked on the two-point conversion to make the difference two scores.
Gibson County did get within the final margin with 56 seconds left before failing on a last-gasp onside kick.
“Right now, we’re just trying to get better every week,” Bowling added, when asked to look ahead to his club’s final three games. “The best thing is that we still have tons of room for improvement. We have good guys who work hard in practice and play hard on Friday night, and we’re just trying to gel and work on our chemistry.
“Next week is a big week. It’s Senior Night and we have to negotiate around fall break and the distractions that come with that. I truly believe, though, our guys are way past having letdowns. They’ve been through this before and they know what’s at stake in the last three weeks.”
Union City will host Adamsville (3-4, 0-3) Friday, the Cardinals one of just two teams to beat the Tornadoes last season.
Union City 30, Gibson Co. 22
Union City 8 14 8 0 — 30
Gibson Co. 8 6 0 8 — 22
SCORING
GC — Camron McMackin 6 pass from Payton Lamberson (Will Cantrell run). 6:09, 1st
UC — Travon Westbrook 27 run (Sam Theobald run). 2:13, 1st
UC — Kaleb Craig 4 run (Westbrook run). 8:25, 2nd
UC — Westbrook 11 run (run failed) 4:43, 2nd
GC — Hayden McGuire 37 pass from Cadon Wylie (run failed). 0:48, 2nd
UC — Craig 51 run (Craig run). 7:29, 3rd
GC — Lamberson 11 run (Lamberson run) 0:56, 4th
UC GC
Total Offense 394 260
Rush Att.-Yards 58-394 28-172
Comp.-Att.-Int 0-1-1 5-12-0
Passing Yards 0 88
First Downs 18 10
Punts-Avg. 1-44 4-43.2
Fumbles-Lost 4-2 1-1
Penalties-Yds. 7-55 5-46
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Union City — Kaleb Craig 32-245, Travon Westbrook 7-81, Sam Theobald 12-51, Connor Hurt 3-15, Wes Tilghman 1-11, Team 2-(-2), Kaylon McLendon 1-(-7), Gibson Co. — Payton Lamberson 13-107, Cadon Wylie 3-43, Ozzy Rico 6-14, Colin Warren 3-10, Team 1-0, Will Cantrell 2-(2).
PASSING: Union City — Sam Theobald 0-1-0 — 0. Gibson Co. — Payton Lamberson 4-11-0 — 51, Cadon Wylie 1-1-0 ‑ 37.
RECEIVING: Union City — None. Gibson Co. — Camron McMackin 4-51, Hayden McGuire 1-37.
RECORDS: UC 3-4 (2-1), GC 6-2 (3-1).
NEXT GAME: UC plays host to Adamsville Friday for Senior Night.
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