By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Union City took care of Union City.
Everything else that happened was irrelevant.
Both the Tornado high school and middle school football teams were impressive in their final preseason tune-ups Friday, outscoring patchwork entries from Milan – 12-6 on the varsity level and 30-0 in middle school play.
While UC used the occasion as a dress rehearsal for its season opener against Lake County next week and played its starters much of the time, the visiting Bulldogs did not dress their regulars in either contest for a variety of reported reasons.
None of that mattered to Tornado head coach Nick Markle, who focused solely on his troops and their jamboree effort.
“We can control us. What anybody else does is on them and up to them,” the Union City skipper said after his squad scored twice and had two other TDs called back by penalty in a solid performance. “We treated it like what it was supposed to be – an opportunity for our kids to play under the lights and get the jitters out of the way before we play for real next week.
“It was good for us to be back on our homefield in front of our fans with the cheerleaders and band both doing their things. It’s been a while. It was a nice welcome-back party.”
UC scored on its first two possessions, the first after a Jacob Arnold interception on Milan’s second play from scrimmage.
Quarterback Keaton Brown kept five times on a nine-play 59-yard touchdown march before Kolby Craig jetted 17 yards around left end for a score.
The Twisters, who mixed in reserves halfway through the session that consisted of two 20-minute quarters, tallied again on their second series when back-up QB Jackson Chism threw a 41-yard pass to a wide-open Tayehari Jones.
Union City had a pair of TDs wiped away by flags – one a 64-yard gallop by Kyrell Littleton, the other a pass from Chism to Arnold on the next-to-last play of the session.
Other than the negated touchdowns, the only downer for the Tornadoes was a knee injury suffered by two-year starting offensive lineman Harris Cagle. The senior tackle will be further evaluated in the coming days.
“We can’t have the penalties — they’re back-breakers,” Markle said. “That tops the list of things we have to clean up before next week.
“And I’m just hoping and praying for the best for Harris. He’s a tough kid and he means a lot to our football team. Injuries are obviously a big concern of mine, but if we can stay healthy, I truly believe we can do some great things this season.”
Linebacker Gage Smith had four tackles and Arnold recorded a stop behind the line to pace the Tornado defense.
UC 30, Milan 0 (Middle School)
The Tornadoes dominated the group that Milan put on the field, throwing them for losses on six of seven running plays and limiting the Bulldogs to minus-yards total.
Big Cooper Javellana was in the Milan backfield on most plays and had two tackles for lost yards for Union City. Deyton Buckley and Cohen Wood also had stops behind the line.
Offensively, the Twisters scored at will.
Quarterback Kirben Thompson dashed 54 yards on UC’s second play to set up a 14-yard TD by James Turner. Thompson tacked on the PAT.
Aiden Reid had a 27-yard scoring scamper and a two-point run to make it 16-0 before Adrian Crawford rushed seven yards to paydirt. A 48-yard pass play from Thompson to Owen Waggoner accounted for the Tornadoes’ last touchdown with Thompson hitting Zak Summers for the two-point play.
Union City will open its 2021 middle school season Tuesday night at Trenton with kickoff set for 6:30.