By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–If Friday night’s dress rehearsal at Covington is any indication, the 2022 football season holds significant promise for Union City.
Both the Tornado high school and middle school teams held their own against a pair of deep and talented Covington squads in the inaugural Purple and Gold Jamboree played on the Chargers’ new artificial turf.
UC and Covington battled to a scoreless tie in two 20-minute halves of varsity play, while the Twister middle school team was edged 8-6 by Crestview in one 20-minute segment.
In between, the UCHS Marching Tornadoes gave an abbreviated performance of their coming halftime show, and the Union City jayvee squad went against Covington’s younger players during a 20-minute period.
The head coaches of both Twister teams deemed themselves well-pleased with their respective squads’ efforts afterward.
“You made me so proud tonight – the way you battled and competed against a very talented Class 3A team that has a legitimate chance to play in the semifinals this season,” Nick Markle told his varsity troops at the end of the jamboree. “You answered the challenge. We had people step up, and we had others fill in for people who couldn’t play. And you were physical and played with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm.
“That kind of effort will win a lot of football games for us this season.”
UCMS head coach Cole Clanton had similar sentiments after his squad’s performance.
“As a competitor, you never like to come out on the short end of things – whether it counts or not – but I saw a lot of things I liked,” Clanton claimed.
“That’s a very talented football team on the other side, and we went toe-to-toe with them. We had one breakdown on defense and then allowed them to convert the two-point play, but the drive we had to open things was a really good one. We executed, we didn’t turn the ball over, and we were physical.
“Those are the types of things we harp on every day, and those are the backbone of success.”
Both teams’ defenses dominated the varsity session.
Union City, which returns 18 starters from last year’s seven-win team, turned away three Covington scoring threats with a ball-hawking unit that regularly had several players around Charger ballcarriers and defended the pass well.
Linebacker Gage Smith had a jarring fourth-down tackle to snuff out one drive at the Tornado 22, while Jacob Arnold came up from the UC secondary for a timely stop to end the host teams’ final challenge with under a minute to play in the second half.
Smith registered a team-high eight tackles, while Durrell Littleton and Kolby Craig were in on six stops apiece, and Tayehari Jones had five.
The Twisters, who did not play a handful of starters due to injuries, failed to mount a serious offensive challenge of their own, though quarterback Keaten Brown did have a couple of nice gains on keepers.
In the opening middle school portion of the jamboree, UC marked 70 yards for a touchdown on its opening possession.
Quarterback Zac Summers had a nifty 29-yard pickup on a play on which he broke several tackles before Rodney Jenkins later scooted 17 yards around left end for a TD.
Summers later had a 26-yard gainer negated by penalty, while Jenkins ripped off a 15-yard chunk. Fullback Jacob Rose was a workhorse between the tackles.
The Tornadoes came up with a pair of turnovers to thwart Covington drives, with John Matt Morgan pouncing on a fumble recovery late in the series.
Both Union City squads will open their respective regular seasons next week, the middle school at Crockett County on Tuesday and the high school playing at Lake County Friday.