For the first time in 12 weeks the Maroon Devils found themselves in unfamiliar territory, trailing in a football game. West Wilkes recovered a Swain football on the opening kickoff and drove down for a field goal to open the game, leaving Swain in a 3-0 hole. If the Devils had been guilty of overlooking West Wilkes, they snapped out of it pretty quickly. Swain scored on their next five possessions of the game, while holding West to only one first down on their next four possessions. The Devils went on to take a 40-10 win and advance to face Hendersonville in the 3rd round of the NCHSAA 1AA playoffs.
On their second possession of the game the Devils marched 75 yards on 6 plays to erase the 3-0 West Wilkes lead. Swain quarterback Raymius Smith went over the 2000 yard mark on the season as he hit Matthew Maennle for a 53 yard touchdown strike.
Smith and Maennle played catch for the remainder of the night with the two combining for three more touchdowns through the air. Maennle would finish with a 144 receiving yards and 4 scores, putting him over 1000 receiving yards for the season. He joins teammate Greg Tisho, who along with Marty Burns are the only Maroon Devils to ever go over 1000 yards in receiving yards in a season.
Smith finished with 215 yards passing on only 8 of 11 passing, and 5 touchdowns. Smith found Tisho for an 18 yard score in the second quarter. His 215 yards puts him at 2200 yards on the season with 35 touchdowns, he is the only player outside of Heath Shuler to surpass 2000 passing yards in a season.
Colyn Petty also put his name in the Maroon Devil record book. Petty kicked four extra points on the night, leaving him with 72 on the season, breaking the old mark of 69 by Nic Zimmerman.
The Maroon Devil offense did a little record breaking of their own Friday night. Going into the game the Devils had 569 points on the season, one shy of the school record. Now the Devils are the first team in school history to surpass 600 points on the season.
For all of the fireworks on offense it was yet another blue collar night for the Devils defense. The first unit’s stand in the first quarter and subsequent relentlessness on West’s first four possessions set the stage for the night and turned field position into a win for the Devils. After giving up three first downs on the initial the Devils yielded only seven more the remainder of the night. Their physical play, dominated and wore down the Blackhawks. Nathan Sellers and Corbin Panther each had 10 tackles, while Payton Parker, Luis Saeli, and Sean Cipriano all contributed heavily.
The Devils will host Hendersonville this Friday at 7:30 in the 3rd round of the NCHSAA playoffs. A large crowd is expected for the anticipated showdown between two of the top teams in WNC.