Mike Hutchens
Communications Director
While the schedule listed ‘Dyer County,’ turnovers were an equal enemy Friday night for Union City.
Four giveaways greatly damaged the Tornadoes’ chances at victory against their Class 4A foe in what was ultimately a 34-14 loss to the Choctaws at War Memorial Stadium.
Two of those UC turnovers led directly to Dyer County scores while a third occurred when the Purple and Gold was threatening inside the redzone early in the fourth quarter.
Easily the biggest of those Twister mistakes came when a fumble gave the visitors possession with time for just one play before intermission – one on which DC completed a 40-yard ‘Hail Mary’ pass for a touchdown that made it 28-7 and represented the Tribe’s second score in the final 21 seconds of the half.
“Turnovers are brutal. They’ll kill you,” Union City head coach Nick Markle said after his squad fell to 0-2 on the young season. “Sometimes, you have guys trying to do too much, but they’re all wanting to make plays to help us.
“I thought we did some good things. We got the edge when we wanted, and everything we practiced for, they gave us. But we left our defense out there too much, and we put them in several bad situations. When you’re essentially playing only 13 guys, you just can’t do that.”
The Tornadoes’ chances at victory took a blow early when senior linebacker/running back Kirben Thompson suffered a foot injury that took him out of the contest on DC’s first offensive possession.
“That really hurt us,” Markle confirmed. “Kirben is like our Swiss army knife…he does so many things for us. And when you have one man go down and you aren’t that deep to begin with, the shuffling affects other positions. We were just trying to keep our finger in the dam, so the water didn’t get out.”
UC halved a 14-0 deficit just before halftime when quarterback Jack Theobald capped a 10-play, 65-yard drive with a three-yard keeper to paydirt. Rodney Jenkins (17 yards) and Andre Small (19 yards) had big gainers in the series, and the Tornadoes looked to be in a good spot with less than two minutes left before the break.
Dyer County got favorable position on the ensuing kickoff return, though, and used completions of 18 and 21 yards by Landon Daniels to set up Korey Taylor’s two-yard TD run with 21 seconds left before halftime.
A Twister fumble on the first play following the ensuing kickoff, when it appeared they would go into the break down 21-7, gave the Choctaws one final play, however. And DC made the most of it as Daniels launched a jump ball that Grant West snagged with 0:00 on the clock – the third touchdown toss of the half for Daniels – that put UC in a three-score hole.
“I thought when they went up 21-7, we were still OK,” Markle claimed. “Then we gave it right back to them after a good gain, and they threw the desperation pass on the last play of the half.
“I know people in the stands are wondering how that happened and why we didn’t just have all our guys back in the endzone. It’s tough to practice those kinds of plays because we don’t have people who can throw the deep ball, nor ones who can go up and catch it like that on our scout team.”
A 66-yard scoring dash by Adrian Crawford on the opening play of the third quarter gave the Twisters some life and cut the deficit to 28-14. DC took advantage of a failed Union City fourth-down try deep in its own territory, though, to gain a short field and ultimately capitalized with a short plunge by Bryce Fulton to pad its lead to the final margin with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
The contest was delayed some 20 minutes earlier in the quarter when Dyer County’s Korey Taylor suffered a gruesome knee injury and had to be removed from the field by ambulance.
Crawford led Union City with 83 yards rushing on six carries, while Small had 72 on 12 attempts. Small also led the defense in tackles for the second week with six solos and one assist. Deyton Buckley recorded five individual stops and two assists, while Christian Jones had two tackles for minus-yards. Rylan Robinson and Cohen Wood recorded sacks.
The Tornadoes play their first road game of the season next week at Decatur County Riverside, which will also be looking for its initial win of the year.
Dyer Co. 34, Union City 14
Dyer Co. 7 21 6 0 — 34
Union City 0 7 7 0 — 14
DC — KeAnthony Barbee 6 pass from Landon Daniels (Jotham Powell kick). 6:49, 1st
DC — Grant West 16 pass from Daniels (Powell kick). 7:47, 2nd
UC — Jack Theobald 3 run (Alex Landeros kick). 1:36, 2nd
DC — Korey Taylor 2 run (Powell kick). 0:21, 2nd
DC — West 40 pass from Daniels (Powell kick). 0:00, 2nd
UC — Adrian Crawford 66 run (Landeros kick). 11:46, 3rd
DC — Bryce Fulton 1 run (Powell kick). 2:40, 3rd
DC UC
Total Offense 273 252
Rush Att.-Yards 34-109 38-246
Comp.-Att.-Int. 16-21-0 1-2-1
Passing yards 164 6
First Downs 16 12
Punts-Avg. 2-42.5 1-26
Fumbles-Lost 4-0 4-3
Penalties-Yds. 12-77 4-39
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Dyer Co. — Bryce Fulton 12-55, Korey Taylor 16-41, Landon Daniels 5-18, Team 1-(-5). Union City — Adrian Crawford 6-83, Andre Small 12-72, Jack Theobald 12-58, Rodney Jenkins 5-28, Logan Puckett 3-5.
PASSING: Dyer Co. — Landon Daniels 16-21-0—164. Union City — Jack Theobald 1-2-1—6.
RECEIVING: Dyer Co. — KeAnthony Barbee 7-58, Devin Hayward 3-29, Grant West 2-56, Antonio Fanklin 2-11, Maddox Kolwyck 1-8, Kaleb Mahome 1-2 . Union City — Andre Small 1-6.
RECORDS: Dyer Co. 2-0; Union City 0-2.
NEXT GAME: UC plays at Decatur County Riverside next Friday at 7 p.m.