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Football Roundup: Watauga Whips McDowell, Ashe County Takes Down East Wilkes, Owen Defeats Avery County

By Nathan Ham

The Watauga Pioneers did not get caught looking ahead to this week’s big game with Freedom High School. Watauga took care of business against McDowell last Friday, taking down the Titans by a 50-13 score.

Watauga ran for 375 yards and scored five touchdowns on the ground, led by junior Bryce Satterfield who scampered for 102 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, and junior Jaiden Bond who needed just six carries to get 113 yards and a touchdown. Zach West added six carries for 50 yards and a pair of touchdowns, quarterback Anderson Castle had five carries for 76 yards, Jackson Greene added one carry for 26 yards and Seb Best had one carry for eight yards.

Castle passed for 34 yards and a touchdown, completing 2-of-6 passing attempts. West caught both of those passes.

Defensively, Eli Suggs led the team with 15 tackles. Ben Critcher had 11 tackles, Greene finished with nine tackles and an interception, Sam Sappington had seven tackles, Bond had six tackles and Grant Oliver added five tackles and an interception.

The Pioneers are still unbeaten with a 9-0 record and a 5-0 mark in the Northwestern 3A/4A Conference.

This week, the Pioneers take on the only other unbeaten team in conference with the Freedom Patriots coming to Boone for the final home game of the regular season. Freedom is 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference. Freedom leads the conference in points scored (424) and fewest points allowed (92). Watauga is not far behind with 403 points scored on the season and just 95 points surrendered. The winner clinches at least a share of the conference title.

Ashe County also inched another step closer to a conference title, taking down East Wilkes on the road, 54-26. The Huskies piled up 630 yards of total offense to move to 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the Mountain Valley Athletic Conference.

Quarterback Luke Hudler completed 16-of-20 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns. Austin Poe was the leading receiver, catching four passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. Corbin Coldiron had six receptions for 101 yards and two touchdowns, Branson Shepherd reeled in five passes for 52 yards and a touchdown and Kai Christoferson had one grab for 34 yards.

Sophomore running back Timothy Peterson carried the ball 24 times for a game-high 259 yards and four touchdowns. Ryan Blevins added two carries for 42 yards.

On defense, Christoferson made two big interceptions to shut down two East Wilkes possessions. Zach Bare led the team with 11 tackles, Blevins had eight tackles, Drake Elliott had six tackles, Logan Richardson had six tackles and Noah Vannoy added five tackles.

Ashe will travel to West Wilkes on Thursday night. The game was moved back a day due to Friday’s weather forecast.

Avery County traveled to Charles D. Owen on Friday night and ended up being dealt a shutout by the Warhorses, 48-0.

Ty Davidson led Owen with 112 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns. Otis Mallory ran for 64 yards and touchdown while quarterback Audun Meyers passed for 118 yards and ran for 13 yards and a touchdown.

Avery quarterback Troy Hoilman completed 20-of-37 passes for 126 yards and two interceptions. Sam McCollum led the team in rushing with 68 yards on 14 carries. Tyree Jackson had 21 rushing yards, Hoilman finished with 15 rushing yards and Dalton Towe had 10 yards on the ground.

Eli Hayes led the Vikings with eight catches for 72 yards. Jonas Bowman had one grab for 28 yards, McCollum had seven catches for 15 yards and Jesse Jones had one catch for 10 yards.

Avery County dropped to 2-7 overall and 1-2 in the Western Highlands 1A/2A Conference. The Vikings will host Mitchell this Friday in the final home game of the season.