By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Halfway through the regular season and with back-to-back wins over previously undefeated opponents, Union City is in a good position to achieve many of its 2024 goals.
The Golden Tornadoes admittedly still have considerable work to do, though.
Tenth-ranked UC overcame a sluggish first half with a dominant final two quarters in wearing down No. 6 South Fulton 35-7 Friday night in a battle for midseason Region 7A supremacy.
Tayehari Jones ran for 201 of his 221 yards in the second half – including touchdown dashes of 53 and 49 yards – to lead the Purple and Gold. Union City outgained the host Red Devils 242-42 after halftime enroute to 21 consecutive points, controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock after holding only a slim 14-7 lead at the intermission.
“We played well enough to win once we settled in after halftime, but we have lots to clean up,” Twister head coach Nick Markle said after his team improved to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in league play. “It was a bad game, but a good win for us. We were sloppy and didn’t play well at all in the first half.
“But the message at halftime was to take a deep breath, calm down, and go out and execute our offense. We did that, and we got lined up correctly on defense and played much better in the third and fourth quarters.”
UC took a 14-0 lead midway through the second period following a scoreless first quarter. Quarterback Zak Summers darted 56 yards to paydirt on fourth down and Cohen Simpson made a leaping interception of Brady McFarland’s fourth-down throw and scooted 72 yards to the endzone to give the Twisters a two-score lead.
But SF (4-1, 1-1) quickly halved that deficit when McFarland – who had several passes dropped throughout the contest – rebounded from his first pick of the season and hit Dane Cirkles for a 63-yard TD with a little more than three minutes left before halftime.
Long regarded for its trademark ground-and-pound attack, the Tornadoes turned to their vaunted running game in the final 24 minutes to ultimately tire out the Red Devil defense.
The elusive Jones carried on half of UC’s 32 second-half snaps before Aiden Reid capped an 86-yard, 13-play drive that finished the scoring with just 35 seconds left. Reid hammered the interior seven times on that march, and Summers – who finished with 125 yards on 14 attempts – moved the chains for one of five first-downs in the series.
The last of five Marcos Landeros’ PATs accounted for the final tally. Landeros also booted three touchbacks on kickoffs, drawing praise from his coach.
“We got back to banging it in there, like we’ve been known to do,” Markle added. “Sometimes, because we have several more weapons this year, we have to remind ourselves to be patient. We just went with the old-school veer rules… four yards and a cloud of dust.
“We’re physical when we want to be, and we really started to lean on them and wore them down in the fourth quarter.
“Once we found our footing, we handled things like Union City typically does.”
Andre Small was the top tackler for a Twister defense that has given up just seven points the last two weeks with 11 total stops. Both Alijah Simpson and Kirben Thomson were in on six tackles each, with Simpson and Rylan Robinson recording sacks.
UC now turns its attention to homecoming next week, where 4-1 region foe Greenfield awaits.
“I love homecoming for our kids and our administration does a great job promoting all the fun things,” Markle concluded. “At the end of the day, though, sometimes it’s difficult to turn all that off at 2:45 and go to work.
“Homecoming is for the fans, our students, and the community. Our guys have business to take care of, and we have to continue to get better and fix the things that weren’t right tonight.
“It’s the only way we’re going to accomplish everything that we’ve set out to.”
Union City 35, South Fulton 7
Union City 0 14 7 14 — 35
So. Fulton 0 7 0 0 — 7
UC — Zak Summers 56 run (Marcos Landeros kick). 7:50, 2nd
UC — Cohen Simpson 72 interception return (Landeros kick). 5:07, 2nd
SF — Dane Cirkles 63 pass from Brady McFarland (Charlie Mike Mulchay kick). 3:14, 2nd
UC — Tayehari Jones 53 run (Landeros kick). 3:34, 3rd
UC — Jones 49 run (Landeros kick). 11:05, 4th
UC — Aiden Reid 1 run (Landeros kick). 0:35, 4th
UC SF
Total Offense 416 210
Rush Att.-Yards 55-414 21-61
Comp.-Att.-Int. 1-3-1 12-27-1
Passing yards 2 149
First Downs 21 8
Punts-Avg. 1-44 4-53.0
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-0
Penalties-Yds. 5-55 5-49
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Union City — Tayehari Jones 21-221, Zak Summers 14-125, Aiden Reid 12-72, Kyle Price 7-34, Team 1-(-38). So. Fulton — Dallas Whitehead 15-51, Josh McKnight 2-5, Brady McFarland 4-5.
PASSING: Union City — Zak Summers 1-3-1—2. So. Fulton — Brady McFarland 12-27-1—149.
RECEIVING: Union City — Tayehari Jones 1-2. So. Fulton — Dane Cirkles 3-75, Jonathan Doss 3-51, Josh McKnight 3-13, Dallas Whitehead 3-10.
RECORDS: Union City 3-2 (2-0); So. Fulton 4-1 (1-1).
NEXT GAME: UC hosts Greenfield for homecoming on Friday at 7 p.m.