No win is an easy win. Every victory is hard fought and earned by the team that works the hardest when nobody is looking. However, some wins do come much easier, and if any team needed such a win, it was the Magee Trojans.
After starting the year on a strong note notching two victories with little test, the last two weeks have been hard on the Magee faithful and the team. Two weeks ago, the Trojans lost in bad fashion to in-county rivals, the Mendenhall Tigers. Last week, Magee came within a touchdown of taking out the 2A powerhouse Collins Tigers, only to be swindled every way possible by the men in black and white. Magee was in desperate need of a "right the ship" game and the Newton Tigers happily obliged by submitting to a 50-7 shellacking.
The Trojans dominated all aspects of the game against the Tigers. The offense ironed out some of the kinks from previous weeks. The defense was able to get more pressure and worked on containing opposing playmakers. The special teams were able to pile up yardage on returns and capitalize on key mistakes by the Newton punt team. Everything turned up Magee in Newton.
"We are getting better on the line of scrimmage," said Coach Dyess, "offense and defensive line, both sides are getting a lot better. Our saying is one percent better each week and we got one percent better this week." The stars of the game were Chandler Pittman, who tallied 123 total yards on the night, and Josh Sanders, who racked up 104 total yards and two scores. Both stars made their impact early and often against the Tigers.
Magee began the game at their own 40 and went to work pushing around the undersized Newton D-Line. The MO for the Trojans early in the game was smash mouth, run it down your throat, power running and they did just that on their opening possession. Javo Thurman, Ross McInnis, Pittman and Sanders all contributed key runs on the drive. The final blow came at the hands of McInnis on a powerful 3-yard touchdown run to cap off the drive that saw the Trojans go 60 yards in three minutes to get an early 7-0 lead.
The Tigers found some holes early in the middle of the Magee defense after quarterback Trevion Hillie connected with Jykial White for a 25 yard gain. This would be the only play that netted positive yards on the drive as the Tigers slipped into reverse on the next three plays before punting the ball to the Trojan 3. The following Magee drive was the Chandler Pittman Show. Thurman hit Pittman on a 2nd and 15 play for a first down at the Magee 20. Thurman then got the ball to Pittman on a pitch off a speed option play that saw Pittman look like the Flash running down the sideline for an 81-yard touchdown. The Trojan lead grew to 13-0 after a missed PAT with 4:36 remaining in the first quarter. On the ensuing kick off, the Newton return man made a very questionable decision. Sam Rials drilled the ball deep over the heads of the return men and the back man decided to let the ball roll and see if it would go out of bounds to get an kick out of bounds penalty on the Trojans. However, the ball rolled dead at the 1-yard line where it was picked up and taken out of bounds by the Tiger return man. Newton now faced 99-yards of grass and a Magee defense that had had their way with them to this point. Hillie managed to scamper for 25-yards around the outside to get the Tigers out of the shadow of their own goal line. The common thread throughout the night for Hillie was that he spent most of the night running for his life from a vicious Trojan pass rush. The Magee D-Line stepped up the pressure on this drive as they chased Hillie from the pocket and an ill-aimed pass forced into triple coverage that ended in the hands of Terrell Thornton, who returned the interception for 25-yards to give the Trojans the ball in plus territory.
The Trojans wasted little time scoring on the drive following the Thornton interception. After starting the drive in reverse after a holding penalty negated a 15-yard Zacc Hall reception, Thurman was able to hook-up with Sanders on a slip screen that saw Sanders make turns quicker than a rally car driver for an 8-yard touchdown and 2-point conversion to push the lead to 21-0 late in the first quarter.
One thing the Trojans did not dominate was kickoff coverage. The Magee kickoff team gave up several long returns to the Tigers after breaking contain and leaving their lanes. After grasping a dominant three touchdown lead, the Trojans gave up a return that saw the Tigers break away to midfield before being brought down from behind. Another issue the Trojans faced was missed tackles on defense. White was able to slip through several would-be Trojan tacklers on his way to a 12-yard run. The Tigers success did not last long as the Magee defense stiffened on the next three plays forcing another Newton punt to end the first quarter.
The Newton punt game was...exciting...to say the least. As a former punter, I can say there is no worse feeling than seeing a snap go over your head. The Tiger punter became all too familiar with that feeling against Magee. Newton started the second quarter with a snap over the punter’s head. The punter scrambled to pick the ball up and get the kick off, only to see the ball batted out of his hands by Cayden Bridges then scooped and taken to the house by Hall for yet another Magee touchdown to push the score to 28-0 early in the second quarter. Containment issues on kickoffs again plagued the Trojans as the Tigers found room around the outside for a 65-yard return that was fortunately erased by a block in the back penalty. The Magee defense could smell the blood in the water as they racked up two key sacks on the drive and kept Hillie from feeling comfortable in the pocket. After being backed up to their own 1, the Tiger punter again was forced to face one of those dreaded moments, punting out of the back of your own endzone. With little room to work, the Tiger punter placed his heels just inside the backline of the endzone. On the snap, he was forced to step back to receive the snap; unfortunately for him he stepped out of the back of the endzone for a safety to give the Trojans a 30-0 lead.
After the safety, Newton was forced to kick the ball off to the Trojans on a free kick. The kick was fielded and taken 70-yards to the house by Xavier Franks for yet another Magee touchdown to push the lead to 37-0 with halftime still 10:11 away. Things only got worse for the Tigers on the following kickoff as Etoya Traxler recovered the ball at the Newton 36 for the Trojans. Magee's offense went three-and-out for the first time on the night and saw a Thomas Dyess punt roll dead at the Newton 15. The Tigers couldn't muster a first down on the following drive and were forced to attempt another punt. The Newton punting woes continued as the kick rolled off the punter’s foot along the ground, off a Magee player into the endzone where it was recovered by Daryious Collins for another Trojan touchdown running the lead to 43-0, which it would remain until halftime.
Sadly for the Tigers, this was the team’s Homecoming night, and the Newton faithful stuck it out until the end. The Homecoming processions ended with the first fireworks from the Tigers all night; unfortunately it was after the Homecoming queen was announced.
Magee called off the dogs in the second half, only running screen passes and rushes up the middle for the most part. The only scoring drive in the second half for the Trojans saw McInnis rush for back-to-back 15-yard gains as he began to wear the Tiger defense down. Thurman connected with Pittman for 20 on a tunnel screen that set up a 70-yard shovel pass to Sanders for a touchdown to make the score 50-0 at the end of the third. The lone score for the Tigers came on a 75-yard run by Hillie after the Trojan backups had been put into the game.
The Trojans got back above the .500 mark as they improved their record to 3-2 on the young season. Coach Teddy Dyess said, "It feels good, the big thing was we came down here and jumped on them early and put it away and didn't let them hang around," when asked how it felt to get back in the win column. Next week, Magee suits up against the Lanier Bulldogs at 7 p.m. at Trojan Field as they look to earn their first home win of the season. Lanier enters the game sporting an impressive 4-1 record to face their own toughest test thus far.
