The 10th-ranked Indians did so on their opening drive of the game, when Ty Griffin sprinted into the end zone from 37 yards out to cap a four-play scoring drive that started on their own 20-yard line.
McEachern then went on to score twice more in the first quarter and add another three touchdowns in the second, and it already had a four-possession lead at the half before winning 49-27 at Walter Cantrell Stadium.
“We’ve been working hard, trying to start better, because we haven’t been starting good,” McEachern coach Kyle Hockman said. “They responded. That’s what so neat about this team.”
McEachern (6-2, 6-0) accumulated 481 total yards against North Cobb (5-2, 3-2), with 338 coming from the ground.
Griffin, an offseason transfer from North Cobb, led the Indians with 127 yards on 18 carries. Clemons totaled 95 yards on six carries, and Taj Griffin had six carries for 82 yards.
Even though the Warriors had some success moving the ball — quarterback Tyler Queen threw for 210 yards and rushed for 56 —they didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with McEachern’s weapons. North Cobb’s leading receiver, Xavier Borishade, didn’t have a catch.
“Our game plan was a great game plan,” Hockman said. “Our offensive coach did a great job, and our defense played their tails off and did a really good job against a very good offense. I’m just proud of our guys.”
North Cobb kept the game close for most of the first quarter. It struck back on its second drive after a weak McEachern punt gave the Warriors a short field, and they capitalized five plays later, when Queen found Cameron Albright in the end zone for a 6-yard strike.
But North Cobb was unable to solve McEachern’s offense the entire first half. McEachern consecutive touchdowns in the final 2 minutes of the first quarter to break the game open.
The first touchdown came on an 8-yard run by Ty Griffin, and the second came on a 30-yard scamper by Taj Griffin after Queen threw an interception on the previous play.
The Indians added to their lead on the first play of the second quarter when Clemons disguised a running play before going deep to T.J. Rahming for a 42-yard touchdown. They would strike again 3 minutes later on another touchdown pass — a 39-yard pass from Ty Griffin to tight end Chris Okeh for a 35-6 lead.
North Cobb fought back on its ensuing drive and cut into the lead with a 3-yard run by Queen, but McEachern answered before the half with three straight running plays of 25 yards or more. That set up a 4-yard touchdown up the middle by Ty Griffin for a 42-13 halftime lead.
With a second-half comeback unlikely, the Warriors scored twice in the second half to make it more respectable. Queen had two 20-yard touchdown passes to Nick Miller and J’Vonte Herrod.
McEachern put the finishing touches when Ty Griffin hit Clemons for a 27-yard touchdown early in the fourth.
Follow us on Twitter!
The bottom line is the final result from the game and it was one of the more surprising results I have seen in a while in a contest that most figured would come down to the end. That Indians team has improved every single week since the Kell Classic game and last Friday night they showed themselves to be the dominate team in Region 4, no argument. The preparation and execution was on another level, the proof being a 42-13 halftime score which allowed me to head out the door. To North Cobb's credit, they never quit, though I heard the frustration of losing showed on the field at times in the 2nd half.
Very, very tough to stop that many weapons on offense...the more impressive thing to me was the Mac defense holding such a high scoring offense in check and shutting down one of the best receivers in the county.
Case in point, obviously Im not Coach Richt but blogs allow you to use handles other than who you really are. So, please move on families. As long as the test scores and grades are there, the Griffin kids and the Queen kid will move onto to college and play ball.
ENUFF ALREADY!
Again.
NCHS was average last year because defense could only hold a team for so long. There were games where defense hadn't given up anything only to have offense( qb queen in particular) to fumble and give up points and lose games. So yes we were average last year, but did everyone forget it was because offense was so bad?
The Queen kid has improved a good bit this year but is still no comparison to the kid we lost.
Griffin boys were in beast mode.