Bryson City
The Maroon Devils took little time extending their current winning streaks, as they scored 7 unanswered touchdowns on their way to a 68-22 win over East WIlkes in the 1st round of the NCHSAA 1AA football playoffs. With the win the Devils have now won 24 straight games, including 18 straight at home, and 6 straight playoff games.
Quarterback Raymius Smith entered the game needing only 131 yards to become only the 2nd Swain player in school history to surpass 2000 yards in a season. Smith didn’t give himself a chance to go over 131 yards, as he tossed 4 touchdown passes in the first quarter, and finished by playing only one half. He did have 116 yards through the air and 4 more touchdowns to pad his WNC leading total to 30 touchdown passes on the year.
Smith’s receiving corp of Matthew Maennle and Greg Tisho also had major milestones on their horizon. Both were less than 100 yards shy of going over 1000 yards receiving on the season, a feat which only one other player in school history had accomplished. Tisho, who only needed 18 yards, went over the 1000 yard mark with 9:36 remaining in the first quarter on a 24 yard touchdown pass from Smith. While Maennle did come up just shy of the 1000 yard mark, finishing with 54 yards on 4 catches, he did break the school record for touchdown passes in a season by snagging 3 touchdown passes in the first quarter, giving him 16 for the season.
On the ground, and without senior leading rusher Garrett Lane, the Devils rushed for 261 yards. Swain used 13 different runners to get 261 yards. Blake Wright, Sean Webb, and Kobe Toineeta each finished with over 40 yards rushing. Wright would finish with 3 touchdowns, while Toineeta, and freshman Derek Fortner each added a score.
Senior kicker Colyn Petty had a busy night. Petty’s career numbers now have him only 1 extra point shy of the school record for extra-points in a season, with 68. For the evening Petty made good on 7 extra points, while Cooper Reinert came on to add one of his own.
The Maroon Devil defense saw their streak of holding opponents to under 100 yards rushing end at 8, as the Cardinals finished with 193 yards on the ground. Jathan Sales went over 100 yards for East, the first 100 yard rushing performance the Devils have given up since the Robbinsville game.
Peyton Parker led the Devils defense with 10 tackles on the evening. Desmond Ellington made the most of his time on the field recording 9 tackles, most of which came on kickoff returns.
Swain will host West Wilkes this week in the 2nd round of the NCHSAA 1AA playoffs, with kickoff set for 7:30.