KINGSPORT — Owning a quarter-and-a-half of its season-opening game at Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett allowed Farragut to overcome early adversity.
But the home team’s early and late success, which started by recovering an FHS fumble on the game’s second play and needing only 36 yards to score a TD, sent the Ads home unhappy, 27-20, in its season opening game Friday night, Aug. 23.
Finally stopping KDB on its third scoring drive attempt, after the Indians reached the Farragut 39 midway into the second quarter with the home team already up 14-0, FHS got a spark that created a momentum flame extending almost through the entire third quarter.
Sophomore quarterback Corbin Hobson’s first varsity touchdown pass hit senior receiver Robbie Jacobs in stride deep down the middle, 75 yards in all. The lead was 14-7.
A second Hobson-to-Jacobs TD lob pass of 19 yards on the next FHS possession, connecting in the back corner of the end zone, tied the game 14-14 with just 1:24 left in the first half.
With Farragut’s defense buckling down (allowing KDB just 273 total yards for the game) and junior kicker Ryan McCue adding field goals of 41 and 40 yards in addition to his pair of extra points, the Ads took a 20-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
But that’s when the Indians began using short, quick pass plays effectively — starting with a critical 18-yard screen pass on third down in the final seconds of the third quarter — to grab back momentum.
“We were going to have to open up the game a little bit and throw it a little bit more,” KDB head coach Joey Christian said. “We were able to do that for the rest of the game.”
Tying the game 20-20 with 9:43 left in regulation — FHS blocked the extra point — KDB made a critical fourth-and-1 defensive stop at the Farragut 40 midway into the final period.
About not punting in that situation, Courtney said, “We just thought we’d get a yard and then continue that drive and then go down and take the lead back. We’d been running it pretty effectively there in the second half. … We felt like we had a good push and good answers in the second half.”
The home team scored six plays later, taking a 27-20 lead with 3:53 to play.
However, Hobson fired completions covering 15 yards to tight end Aaron Heatherly and 11 yards to Landon Collins. The final toss to Jacobs landed the Ads at the Indians 20 with less than two minutes to play.
A second down pass to the goal line looked to be a touchdown — but simply was dropped. The next pass was intercepted, and KDB escaped with a narrow victory.
Had the catch been made to cut the KDB lead to 27-26, “Hindsight being 20-20, we might have gone for 2 here on the road, but we didn’t get to that,” Courtney said.
All totaled, Jacobs caught six passes for 142 yards.
“We are a team that’s always going to fight to the fourth quarter, and that’s exactly what we did,” Jacobs said. “We’re never going to give up.”
Hobson finished 14-of-25 passing for 228 yards and the two scoring strikes plus the one interception.
After Hobson had a rough first three series, “He settled in quite nicely,” Courtney said.
Another big weapon was sophomore Ethan Farhat, who returned eight kickoffs or punts for 149 yards, an 18-yard average.
Along with McCue’s kicking and punting and Farragut coverage units, “Outside of one return where we had two guys miss a tackle, I thought our special teams was really, really good tonight,” Courtney said. “Our punt return game was what allowed us to flip the field back in our position in the second and third quarters. Our exchanges on punts, I think we had an advantage there outside of that one return.
“Then Ryan’s field goal kicking, he was nailing them,” he added.
As a team, Farragut only gained 44 net yards on the ground. Team statistics had running back Charlie Noble rushing 12 times for 42 yards.
Defensively for Farragut, senior strong safety Henry Dee led FHS in both solo tackles (five) and total stops (nine), including two for minus yardage. Senior defensive end Harrison Kilpatrick had 7.5 total tackles.
Senior linebacker Bryce Thompson added six stops, including one for minus yardage. Of senior defensive back Kent Carbaugh’s six total tackles, four were solo.
Four of Jacobs’ five total stops at defensive back were solo. Hits by sophomore defensive backs Johnny Jacobs (four total) and sophomore Masyn Apaletegui forced fumbles (neither was recovered by Farragut).
A special thanks to Carlos Reveiz of CRFOTO for the action shots from the game. Check out CRFOTO.com weekly for a full photo gallery from Friday’s game. See a photo you like? They are also available for purchase directly from his website. Click here for this week’s photos.
Game Stats
