FRESH-MAN OF THE HOUR: In 1st start, Huffman’s 3 TDs lead Freedom to playoffs
Members of the Freedom football team take the field prior to a home game at Patton High School last month. The Patriots on Nov. 8 defeated Hibriten for the first time since 2015, earning the conference’s top 3A state playoff seed.
The Freedom football team put its season in the hands of a freshman, and he provided quite a ride in his debut at Hibriten on Friday, Nov. 8.
Making his first varsity start after playing JV quarterback this season, Patriots freshman Ryder Huffman passed for 179 yards and two touchdowns and added a 45-yard rushing touchdown as Freedom won in Lenoir, 26-21.
For the Patriots (6-4, 3-2 Northwestern 3A/4A Conf.), the win wrapped up first place in the 3A portion of the split conference and with it, a first-round home playoff game.
It was the third and most important 2023 loss that Freedom avenged this fall after having dropped an overtime heartbreaker in Morganton. The Patriots also ended a streak of five consecutive losses to Hibriten, where FHS had most recently won more than 10 years earlier, in October 2014.
This week’s home playoff game was Freedom’s first since 2019 and just its third in the last nine years since the program’s most recent playoff win.
“It means a lot,” said Patriots second-year starting junior Kobe Johnson, who tallied 116 yards and two TDs on five catches, plus added a tackle for loss on defense.
“It brings a lot of joy to me and everybody around me because last year, it was a short season. You know, and that was my sophomore season. We had a really good season, but there were some people I really loved on that team that I had to see go away, and it was just really heartbreaking last year. But now it just feels good being able to get past that, be in the first round, and hosting a game.”
After forcing a Hibriten punt to open the contest, the Patriots gained a first down on Huffman’s first series but netted just four penalty-aided yards before a punt of their own. Hibriten then struck gold on a 55-yard TD pass to end an eight-play drive.
But Huffman, now awakened, made sure that was Freedom’s only deficit of the contest. He engineered an eight-play, 60-yard drive of his own as Jaiden Belin tied the game with an 8-yard TD run.
Hibriten went three-and-out, and Huffman went over the top to Johnson for 69 yards and a TD on the next play.
“There was a little nerves, but I knew the coaches and the team had me,” Huffman said. “Just got to be a diamond under pressure in those moments. … The first drive, I got hit from my blind side, and it woke me up. And then the next drive we came out, put one in, felt pretty good.”
The score remained 13-7 at halftime, and Huffman’s long rushing TD gave the guests a two-score lead at 19-7 midway through the third period.
After a Panthers TD, Huffman and Johnson hooked up on the play of the night as Huffman rolled to his right and fired to Johnson, who went over his defender to snag the ball near the front of the end zone with 9:08 left.
Freedom’s Kobe Johnson (left) hauls in a long touchdown pass against Chase during a September home game. Johnson posted five receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns during a Patriots’ 26-21 road win over Hibriten on Nov. 8.
“(Huffman) just stepped up really big, put his nerves aside, put everything aside,” Johnson said. “He just leaned on us, and we leaned on him, and ultimately, we just came out on top.
“(The second TD catch) gave us a lot of momentum, but I just told everybody to keep their heads because I knew there was a lot of time left and there was a chance we could still lose.”
Hibriten scored its final TD with 7-plus minutes left, and Freedom’s ensuing drive stalled in the red zone before the defense sealed the win as Zaydrian Hausley forced a fumble that Justice Dominguez recovered. (Oddly, Dominguez was in on all three turnovers in the game, recovering another fumble and also committing a fumble after a reception.)
Belin rushed 21 times for a game-high 116 yards, and Freedom’s Kaleb Pearson added 34 yards receiving and 44 yards rushing.
“We made a decision to gameplan with (Huffman) last week and let him have the bulk of the reps and try to tailor to some of the things that does well,” Freedom first-year coach JK Adkins said. “He took a shot early on, and I think once he got up after that hit, he was good to go, and I thought he played really well.
“Backs did a good job, up front we did a pretty good job. Their defensive line is pretty good. They have some big, strong kids, and they played hard. When you can run the ball effectively and take some pressure off the back-end guys, that helps a bunch.”
Eddie Branch and Eli McMeans added tackles for loss for Freedom’s defense, which forced five punts and did not allow the Panthers a 100-yard rusher or passer.
“We wanted to try to win this league,” Adkins added. “Weren’t quite ready for Watauga, great program, great team. But we won the 3A part, so we get to host (a first-round game) and that’s a special thing. It’s been a while since we’ve hosted a playoff game, and so hope our guys enjoy it and we get everything we can out of this experience.”
Unbeaten Cougars cruise past Draughn
Draughn ran into a buzzsaw in its regular-season finale on Nov. 8 in Valdese, falling by a 49-6 final at the hands of Mountain Heritage, which posted a perfect record in Western Highlands 1A/2A Conference play for the second straight season while improving to 8-0 overall.
The Cougars outgained the Wildcats 372-221, with quarterback Brandon Quinn (19 carries, 214 yards, three touchdowns; 1-of-2 passing, 37 yards) accounting for approximately two-thirds of their offensive yardage and Cason Jones finishing with 312 all-purpose yards and three non-offensive TDs.
On the other side, Draughn senior QB Sterling Radabaugh was limited to 9-of-26 passing for 83 yards while carrying the ball 14 times for 78 yards. He was intercepted three times, twice by Parker Burleson and once by Jones — the latter of whom returned his pick for a 72-yard TD to make it 14-0 at the 8:59 mark of the first quarter — but did become the first 1,000-yard passer in Burke County this season as he finished the contest with 1,057 yards on 79-of-141 passing (56.0%).
Senior running back Marshall Brinkley had 62 yards and the Wildcats’ only TD on 13 carries, while classmate Kayden Lytle caught five passes for a game-high 48 yards and fellow 12th graders Connor Houston and Jacob Mull had three receptions for 33 yards and one catch for 2 yards, respectively.
Defensively, Draughn got an interception from junior Gavin Johnson late in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Mountain Heritage had four takeaways thanks to the aforementioned interceptions and a fumble recovery by Lane Chandler after the ball was punched out by Jones on the second play of the second half.
The Wildcats moved to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in league play following the loss, which saw Jones return the opening kickoff 96 yards for a TD before his pick-six moments later and the ensuing two-point conversion run from Quinn gave the Cougars an early two-score lead.
Draughn answered with a seven-play drive that covered 76 yards and ended when Brinkley scampered 26 yards across the goal line, but it was all Mountain Heritage from there.
Following a 2-yard TD run from Chandler and the subsequent two-point conversion pass from Quinn to Caleb Roy with 3:35 left in the first quarter, the Cougars increased their advantage to 30-6 on a 1-yard TD run from Quinn and a two-point conversion run from Jones at the 10-minute mark of the second.
Mountain Heritage also added a 65-yard TD run from Quinn with 5:19 remaining until halftime before Jones returned a punt 75 yards for a TD with 4:29 left in the third quarter and Quinn scored from 2 yards out on the second play of the fourth — Gabe Onchi added the extra point after the Cougars’ fourth-quarter score — to bring a running clock into effect for the remainder of the game.
Draughn’s final possession came after senior Cayden Roscoe recovered a fumble that was forced by fellow 12th grader Jamal Calloway with under 5 minutes to play, with the Wildcats ultimately running out the clock after advancing the ball to the Mountain Heritage 21-yard line following late runs of 15 and 10 yards by Radabaugh.
Cavaliers end season with home loss
East Burke ended a tough 2024 season with a second loss in five days on Saturday, Nov. 9, with a 51-7 home setback to Catawba Valley 2A Conference foe Bandys.
The Cavaliers (2-8, 1-6 CVAC) trailed 22-0 following touchdowns on each of the Trojans’ first three possessions. EB’s lone score came late in the first period on a pass from Carter Bennett to Cannon Morrison.
Bandys via its final score, which came in the fourth period, ushered in the mercy-rule running clock for the remainder of the contest.
Morrison also helped lead EB on defense, notching a tackle for loss to end a Trojans’ drive. No complete Cavaliers’ offensive or defensive statistics were available from the contest.
EB next looks for the program’s 11th full-time head football coach after Allen Wittenberg finished the season in interim fashion following the resignation of fifth-year coach Derrick Minor in early September. The Cavs went 2-6 in their eight games under Wittenberg, who is a former head coach at Draughn and Hickory and who is EB’s head baseball coach.
Paul Schenkel and Josh McKinney can be reached at 828-445-8595 or paul@thepaper.media and josh@thepaper.media.
