Deal, Gault, Maldonado lead Evans' rout of Wayne County, 42-6
By Cooper Brady | Sports writer
The Evans High School Knights took the sting out of the Wayne County Yellow Jackets at home 42-6 on Friday, Sept. 25.
Knights’ quarterback Grant Deal had an outstanding evening, completing 10-of-11 pass attempts for 157 yards and three touchdowns. Deal added another touchdown with his legs, on a seven-yard run.
Meanwhile, running backs Brycen Gault and Anton Maldonado dominated the ground, the former with 132 yards on 17 carries and the latter with 67 yards on 12 carries.
Surprisingly, neither would find the end zone, although Saintwain Roberts would have a big day with two scores—one out of the backfield on a jet sweep and the other on a punt return.
Evans senior Christian Scott was the most effective receiver on the day, catching all three of his targets for 57 yards and two touchdowns.
Coach Lee Hutto of the Knights praised his team’s physicality in manhandling the Yellow Jackets.
“We tackled to the ground more than we usually do,” he said. “We felt like we weren’t physical enough last week in our loss to Jenkins, and that’s not us. We got after each other in practice this week to fix it and it worked today.”
There wasn’t much to celebrate for Wayne County, but quarterback AJ Bennett put forth a valiant rushing effort, 56 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries (albeit with a fumble mixed in). Octavius Leggett would follow him with 42 yards on the same number of carries. Wayne County couldn’t find any advantage passing, Bennett going 6-of-17 for a mere 42 yards.
The Knights (3-2) looked like a team possessed from the very first snap. After electing to receive the opening kickoff, they’d put together a seven-minute-long drive, imposing their will on the ground to open the game. This culminated in a jet sweep to the house by Roberts.
Roberts would capitalize again extremely quickly, with the Knights forcing a Yellow Jackets punt that he would return 52 yards to make it 14-0. Wayne County found no better luck, going three-and-out and allowing themselves to be worn out on the ground even more before Deal punched in the Knights’ third touchdown of the first half with over 10 minutes left in the second quarter.
Now staring down the barrel of a 21-point deficit, the Jackets looked like they might have life after a broken punt of their own saw them recover and drive down to Evans’ 21. There was no luck to be found, however, and a beautiful pass breakup by Knights defensive back Troy Mobley forced a turnover on downs.
With under two minutes left in the half, the Knights would move the ball nearly 80 yards in only three plays, Deal completing a 34-yard pass to Bryce Parker before a 35-yard scoring toss to Scott.
The Yellow Jackets (1-4) recognized it was likely in their best interest to get to the locker room as quickly as possible and simply let the clock run to halftime, held scoreless and down by 28.
This decision to regroup was rewarded, as Wayne County would score relatively quickly on the first drive of the second half, led by a 19-reception by Trent Houston (where he was pulled down by his facemask while securing the ball) and a 21-yard rush by Bennett. The extra point was blocked, and the Yellow Jackets would surrender yet another score to the Knights on the ensuing drive, bringing the score to 35-6 with a little over 14 minutes of clock left.
Bennett would fumble while crossing midfield on the next drive with 30 seconds left in the quarter. The Knights, looking to put the nail in the coffin, ran down the clock and scored to make it 42-6 with eight minutes and 24 seconds remaining in the game. Probably for the best, the officials let the clock run for the rest of the game, and the Knights basked in the cheers of the Evans faithful as their alma mater played.
Hutto also praised place-kicker Nick Farmer, whose sole miss this year in both extra point and field goal kicks came from a week one block.
“He’s automatic,” the Evans coach said. “Any time you’re in the red zone, or even 20 yards outside it, you feel like you have a chance to score with him on your team. His leadership as one of our seniors also can’t be overstated.”
Wayne County coach Scott Roberts attributed the struggle his team faced to both learning the game and a strong Evans team.
“It’s our first year as a program,” Roberts said. “We’re just trying to get better right now, and we’ve got a long way to go. Evans has a really good football team. They punched us in the mouth and we didn’t respond, so kudos to them.”
The Knights will look to improve to find their first win streak of the season and improve to 4-2 on the season on Friday, Oct. 2, at Benedictine, while the Yellow Jackets will look to rebound and get their second win of the season at home versus the Jenkins Warriors.
(Note: A version of this story appeared in Augusta Good News.)
Contact Cooper Brady at coobrady@augusta.edu.
Evans' Troy Mobley brings down Wayne County's Trenten Houston during the Knights' 42-6 win over the Yellow Jackets on Sept. 25. At the top of the page, Knights’ Quarterback Grant Deal (17) takes the center snap during Evans' victory over Wayne County. (photos by Brelynn Crewe/the Bell Ringer)
