Last night, the Pickens Dragons varsity football team took to the road for the first time in the 2016 campaign as they took on a familiar opponent in the North Hall Trojans. These two teams were apart of the 7-AAA region some years ago, but haven’t faced off since 2009 with the Trojans carrying a 4 game win streak into last night’s match up.

Pickens won the coin toss and elected to differ to the 2nd half giving the home standing Trojans the ball first. North Hall used their wing-t offense to drain nearly 8 minutes off the 1st quarter as they powered it in from 2-yds out, giving them a 7-0 advantage with 4:07 left in the opening frame. The first quarter came to an end as the Trojans held the lead, 7-0.

Both teams went back and forth in the 2nd quarter, with neither team able to come away with points. Late in the half, North Hall marched their way down the field as the Pickens defense thought that they had forced a fumble at their 5-yd line. When it was determined that the ball went out of bounds, the Trojans were able to get points with 26 seconds left, to stretch their lead out to 13-0 at the break.

The 3rd quarter, like the 2nd, saw both teams trading field position looking for points. North Hall found those points in the form of a 25-yd field goal at the 5:30 mark, to make it 16-0. Pickens finally was able to get a sustained drive going towards the end of the 3rd, and 8 seconds into the 4th, Chris Pittman fought his way into the end zone for the score. Jacob Brumby connected with Dylan Huffman on the 2-pt try and suddenly, the Dragons were in the game with 11:52 left.

Both teams traded possessions during the 4th, and Pickens had their last chance at tying the ball game up with just over 2 minutes left. The Dragons mixed the run and the pass well converting on key 3rd downs during the drive. Pickens found themselves on the edge of the goal line as time was winding down. As the clock struck 0, the Dragons fell inches shy of a score that would have given them the chance to tie it. North Hall was able to come away with this one, 16-8.

Stats for Pickens

For the game, the Dragons had 18 1st downs, went 7-14 on 3rd down, & 2-5 on 4th down, racked up 301 total yards including 244 on the ground and 57 through the air

Jacob Brumby was 7-14 for 57 yards passing

Chris Pittman led the Dragons in rushing with 112 yards on 20 carries & a score, Dylan Huffman ran it 12 times for 71 yards, Trevon Hawkins ran it 6 times for 37 yards, & Kelton Gilbert ran it 5 times for 22 yards

Huffman led Pickens in receiving with 31 yards on 4 catches, Zach Goss had 23 yards on 2 catches

Avery Luke led the Dragons in tackles with 11 including 7 solo, Will Wotring & Michael Cain each had 9 tackles, Michael Burrell finished with 8, & both Alex Pittman & Josh Cain finished with 6 tackles each.

C. Pittman punted the ball twice on the night for 75 yards, Wotring returned 1 kick for 21 yards, & Hawkins returned a kick for 20 yards

Pickens will again be on the road for next week’s opponent, the North Forsyth Raiders. North Forsyth is out of region 5 7-A and is 2-1 on the season after having a bye week this past week. This will be the first match up in football between the two schools since 2001, with the series tied at 3-3. Game time will be 7:30