By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Union City’s turnovers weren’t as numerous. Unfortunately, they were just as damaging, though.
A week after losing seven of 12 fumbles in a stunning loss to Gibson County, the Tornadoes suffered a pair of costly turnovers deep in Jackson South Side territory that ultimately led to a 28-21 road loss Friday night.
UC lost the first of its two fumbles at the Hawk nine yard-line early in the second period when it was threatening to break a 7-all tie. Then, down by a TD but having driven to the South Side 23 with two minutes to play, a fumbled option pitch killed the Twisters’ chance at either forcing overtime or winning in regulation.
The tough loss spoiled another outstanding running-game performance by the Union City offense, which rolled up 372 yards on the ground and eclipsed the 300-yard mark rushing for the sixth time in as many games this year.
Trenchmen Neil Brown, Carson Corley, DJ Gray, Carter Bondurant and Alex Rodriguez dominated the line of scrimmage for much of the night, opening gaping holes for fullback Justin Wiggins to run for 225 yards and go over 1,000 yards (1,021) for the season.
The Tornadoes controlled time of possession and had 21 first downs, but gave up three touchdown passes to the tandem of Timothy Douglas and Desean Pope. Union City also had another fumble on fourth down that they recovered, but the bobble turned the ball over to the Hawks at the South Side 31 on the first possession of the second half.
“The turnovers hurt especially because they were so untimely,” UC head coach Darren Bowling said following the game that dropped his team to 3-3 on the season. “The thing that really, really stings, is that we’re really close to being 5-1 and a very good football team.
“The times when we haven’t executed have hurt us on both sides of the ball and have come at crucial junctures. The little things have really added up against us.”
UC answered the first of South Side’s scoring passes with a nine-play 80-yard drive, culminated by quarterback Sam Theobald’s 10-yard scoring keeper. Theobald had other runs of 13 and 17 yards in the march, and Wiggins ripped off a 27-yarder on his first carry.
Two Hawk TDs in a two-minute span in the second quarter put Union City down 21-7, however, and the Purple and Gold never recovered.
The second Douglas-to-Pope touchdown connection was followed by a 55-yard punt return to paydirt by Tyrelle Turner to give South Side a two-score cushion.
The Tornadoes got one of those touchdowns back just before the intermission with another nine-play touchdown sequence, this one covering 70 yards. Wiggins was the workhorse, carrying on all but one of those snaps. Kyrell Littleton picked up 20 yards on the other play before UC actually got some good fortune on a fumble when Travon Westbrook snatched a Wiggins fumble out of the air at the two and fell into the endzone.
The two teams swapped third-quarter scores, the Tornadoes mounting another long, time-consuming march that took a dozen plays and covered 80 yards with Wiggins powering his way into the endzone from the two. The workhorse fullback had his number called nine times in the drive.
Freshman Miguel Sanchez, who ran his streak of consecutive made PAT kicks to 27 with three more Friday, booted the extra point to make it 28-21 with eight seconds left in the third quarter.
UC seemingly then positioned itself for a heroic finish, gaining the ball after a fourth-down defensive stop at its 29 via an Alexander Cox tackle.
A 21-yard scamper by Wes Tilghman with a horse-collar tackle penalty added on got the Twisters on the plus-side of midfield before Theobald then kept for 15 yards. Any hope of a thrilling finish died on the next snap though, with Union City’s second lost fumble.
“If there’s any good news, it is that this wasn’t a regional game. That doesn’t make it sting any less, though,” Bowling added. “I thought we did enough good things to win and our kids played hard enough for us to win.
“We’re just having a hard time of finishing things off right now. And that’s frustrating because we’re doing some really good things at times. It’s really a hard thing to put my finger on.
“All I know to do is roll up our sleeves and go back to work on Monday.”
Brown and Westbrook were at the top of the Union City tackle chart with six stops apiece. Both Cox and Jonathan Stone were in on five tackles each.
Top-ranked and defending Class 2A state champion Trenton is up next for Union City next week at War Memorial Stadium.
South Side 28, Union City 21
Union City 7 7 7 0 — 21
South Side 7 14 7 0 — 28
SS — Desean Pope 41 pass from Timothy Douglas (Edward Havercamp kick). 9:18, 1st
UC — Sam Theobald 10 run (Miguel Sanchez kick). 4:59, 1st
SS — Pope 34 pass from Douglas (Havercamp kick). 6:42, 2nd
SS — Tyrell Turner 55 punt return (Havercamp kick). 4:15, 2nd
UC — Travon Westbrook 2 fumble recovery (Sanchez kick). 1:10, 2nd
SS — Pope 10 pass from Douglas (Havercamp kick). 3:39, 3rd
UC — Justin Wiggins 2 run (Sanchez kick). 0:08, 3rd
UC SS
Total Offense 372 345
Rush Att.-Yards 66-372 34-183
Comp.-Att.-Int 0-1-0 9-11-0
Passing Yards 0 162
First Downs 21 15
Punts-Avg. 2-32.5 2-41.0
Fumbles-Lost 6-2 2-2
Penalties-Yds. 5-30 11-92
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Union City — Justin Wiggins 34-225, Sam Theobald 20-71, Wes Tilghman 5-52, Kyrell Littleton 4-12, Carson Corley 2-10, Travon Westbrook 1-2 South Side — Graham Calloway 19-111, Timothy Douglas 8-63, Carlos Arias-Muhammad 2-11, Tyrell Turner 4-4, Team 1-(-6).
PASSING: Union City — Kyrell Littleton 0-1-0—0. South Side — Timothy Douglas 9-11-0—162.
RECEIVING: Union City — None. South Side — Desean Pope 4-103, Jermaine Moore 3-40, Tyrelle Turner 2-19.
RECORDS: Union City 3-3; South Side 2-4.
NEXT GAME: UC hosts Trenton, Friday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.
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