The Shadow
TOUCHDOWN RETURN — Covington senior Kashawn Carter (21) ties the game in the second quarter with a 79-yard kickoff return for a touchdown Friday night in Haysi. The Tigers took advantage of five Cougar turnovers and limited their guests to 37 second half yards in scoring the 35-21 Group 1A West second round playoff win. (Gavin Dressler Photo)
TOUCHDOWN RETURN — Covington senior Kashawn Carter (21) ties the game in the second quarter with a 79-yard kickoff return for a touchdown Friday night in Haysi. The Tigers took advantage of five Cougar turnovers and limited their guests to 37 second half yards in scoring the 35-21 Group 1A West second round playoff win. (Gavin Dressler Photo)
SIDELINE STRATEGY — Covington head coach Rod Tenney talks to Raquann Matthews. (Gavin Dressler Photo)
SIDELINE STRATEGY — Covington head coach Rod Tenney talks to Raquann Matthews. (Gavin Dressler Photo)
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HAYSI — The turnover bug bit the Covington Cougars again Friday night.
This time the bite was season-ending.
Haysi scored 21 points in the final 3:48 of the second quarter, 14 coming off turnovers, in a 35-21 win over the Cougars in the second round of the Group 1A West football playoffs.
The Tigers made a 28-14 halftime lead stand up, sealing the win with a touchdown in the final minute.
“In a game with two closely matched teams — and I believe we were closely matched — the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins,” said Covington coach Rod Tenney. “We both had turnovers, ours just came at bad times.”
In fact, the two teams combined for 10 turnovers and 193 yards of penalties in a game that was chippy from the opening whistle.
In an ugly final minute, there were a combined four ejections.
But the story of the game was the Haysi defense.
The Tigers (10-2) held Covington to just 173 yards and only 37 after the halftime break.
“They were physical,” said Tenney. “They plugged the holes that we tend to run through and they had a good pass rush.”
The Cougars scored just one offensive touchdown, a Luke Moye to Raquann Matthews pitch-and-catch that gave them a 14-7 lead with 4:01 left in the half.
The Tigers responded in a big way.
Hunter Sutherland returned the kickoff 80 yards to tie the game at 14, and after a CHS fumble, Tristan Yates rambled 31 yards for a score and a 21-14 lead.
Haysi wasn’t finished.
After another Cougar fumble, Jalen Skyes hit Sutherland with a 4-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the second quarter.
Junior linebacker Tyler Dressler cut the lead to 28-21 in the third period, one-handing a Skyes throw for an interception and returning it 23 yards for a score.
After his brother Derek Dressler batted away a third-down pass on the next possession, Tyler picked off a fake punt pass and the Cougars were in business again.
A Moye-to-Matthews first down throw, a Tyler Dressler run and a late hit on the Tigers took the ball all the way to the 13-yard line.
But the drive stalled from there and two more Covington possessions resulted in just a single first down.
“We had a couple of big plays, but we just didn’t have any consistency on offense,” added Tenney.
“We had a lot of great plays all night long coming up with stops,” said veteran Haysi coach James Colley.
Covington also played their share of defense.
Matthews and Ashton Oyler joined Tyler Dressler with interceptions. Dressler also forced a fumble and Austin Waddell had a recovery.
Kashawn Carter, who was stopped for 22 rushing yards on six carries, had a nifty kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter, reversing the field twice in covering 79 yards.
Moye completed 9-of-16 throws for the Cougars, with Matthews catching five balls for 100 yards.
Sykes was good on 18-of-35 throws for the winners, despite throwing three interceptions.
The Tigers will host Galax, a 60-21 Friday night winner over Patrick Henry-Glade Spring, next week.
The Cougars ended the season 7-5 and closed the careers of 15 seniors — Luke Moye, Raquann Matthews, Trever Jack, Adam Persinger, Ethan Hinton, Kashawn Carter, Raqwann Carroll, Darnell Tolson, Alex Gibson, Ashton Oyler, Austin Waddell, Chase Carper, Austin Knox, Derek Dressler and John Roldan.
“It’s been a great group,” said Tenney. “Many of these guys started when they were sophomores.
“I called them road warriors earlier in the week,” he added. “When they were sophomores we won at Rappahannock and last year we went down to Honaker and won. They’ve got great chemistry and have done a great job. It’s a tough bunch to let go.”
