With Evans trailing Grovetown late in the third quarter by a 6-5 margin that looked more befitting of a baseball game in late March than a football game in late September, a 15-yard touchdown scamper by EJ Hogan flipped the game’s momentum for good.
And it wasn’t just the fact that Hogan scored. It was how he scored. The 5-foot-9, 155-pound junior, listed on the Knights’ maxpreps.com roster as a quarterback, took a direct shotgun snap from center, made one sharp cut and darted toward the gaping hole waiting for him, thanks to the work of his offensive line.
At that point, Evans had held the ball on that scoring drive for over eight minutes, and there were ample signs that Grovetown’s defensive front was weakening.
Evans Coach Barrett Davis knew it would happen. That’s not a slight, per se, to the Grovetown defenders. Let’s call it confirmation, instead — confirmation that his plan to develop his team with a tough non-region slate of games worked exactly how he told his team it would.
“Didn’t I tell you guys,” Davis said to his squad during the post game huddle after Evans’ 27-6 win to open Region 2-AAAAAA play. “I told you that those tough games in the beginning were gonna get you ready for what you had to do in the region. Was I right?”
The boys clad in white, black and gold shouted a resounding, “Yeah!”
And it was absolutely clear what Evans had done throughout the course of the game. Though Grovetown struck first, the Knights kept chipping away with a solid run game, an opportunistic passing attack led largely by Thomson transfer Noah Story that helped them pick up key conversions on third and fourth downs and a stingy defense that kept putting the Evans offense in good positions.
Meanwhile, as Evans was notching its first win against a cross-county region foe, Burke County pummeling Statesboro to go 5-0, North Augusta was taking it to a talented Thurmond team in a back-and-forth war over in South Carolina.
Why does that matter? Because each of those teams are squads that Evans lost to in non-region play. And Davis decidedly did not care. In fact, even if Evans managed to go 0-4 in non-region play, he would have run it back again and changed nothing.
“Strom Thurmond’s a great team,” he said. “Burke’s a great team. North Augusta’s a great team. And that prepared us for tonight. We executed well tonight, especially in the second half. We took care of the ball and we wore ‘em down a bit. That’s what we said would happen. We don’t care about going 0-4 or 4-0 in non-region. That stuff don’t matter. The new season started today with region play, and we’re 1-0 in the region where we need to be.”
A new arm in the arsenal
Evans’ defense has been stingy all season, despite the wins and losses in non-region play. Nothing was different Friday night. The Knights surrendered one touchdown early to Grovetown and really limited any other major scoring threats the rest of the way. But as ballyhooed as Davis’ defense has been, people have spoken in beleaguered terms about the offense.
The 27-point output in Friday’s Grovetown win is the highest so far this season. One factor was an improved passing game that helped Evans extend drives on third and fourth downs. Quarterback Noah Story who transferred over from Class AA state champion Thomson, has, no doubt, helped in that. He completed several big throws on third downs in the second and third quarters especially, and he also tucked the ball and made some big plays with his legs.
Davis said Story’s presence behind center certainly bolsters his offense’s capabilities.
“Everybody’s been saying stuff about our offense these first four games, but they just went 1-0 and put up 27 points in the region opener,” Davis said. “It’s called playing good teams. We’ve got Noah and another kid, Marc-owen (Chancey), who’s a transfer from Augusta Christian. Both good kids. Both did it the right way. We went from having two or three quarterbacks to five, and all stepped in at different points.”
From holding on extra points and field goals, to rotating in and out for designed quarterback run plays or, like in Story’s case, needing a signal caller to drop back and make a play with his arm downfield, Davis estimates “nine or 10 guys” came in to take a direct snap from center, and that’s how he likes it.
“It just shows the depth we have at the running back and quarterback positions,” Davis said. “I’m proud of all those guys. They made big plays when they needed to.”
Story, himself, is no stranger to a crowded quarterback room. He shared time most of last year with Thomson’s Jahkiaus Jones as both took almost equal turns leading the Bulldogs to a Class AA state championship last year. But Story played with a bit of an extra chip on his shoulder while on a team where he’s now likely to be more of the featured guy.
On two consecutive plays, instead of looking for a throw, he tucked the ball and ran for first downs, both times lowering his shoulder to truck a would-be Grovetown tackler. On his second run, he looked to have banged up his shoulder a bit and sat out the rest of the game. But his moxie is contagious.
“He got a little bit of a banged up shoulder, and we pulled him out, but I tell you, the next guy came in and did just fine,” Davis said. “So these guys understand what they need to do to have each other’s backs. They follow the game plan and are good teammates.”
An ever-evolving offense
Speaking of game plans, Davis said he’s excited about what he feels his offense can develop into as the season progresses. As mentioned, Story adds depth, experience and a solid downfield passing threat. But Rayshaun King at running back and guys like Hogan, sophomore quarterback Tripp Furgeison and running back Brandon Mims who also took direct snaps behind center, are all primed and ready to add diversity to the Knights’ offensive attack.
“It’s all still kind of a feel out process,” Davis said. “A couple of our guys were banged up, but, you know, we’ve went to some single wing, some heavy package kind of stuff to try and run some stuff off it. But we also do our spread stuff well, too. I knew we needed to get better throwing the ball, and I think we did that tonight.”
The strength for Evans Friday night was its offensive line led, of course, by Alabama-commit Mason Short at tackle. But the entire unit dominated, especially down the stretch, and that’s what Davis said he’s looking to see more of throughout the season.
“We felt we could control the line of scrimmage up front pretty good, and our guys did that, especially in the second half,” he said.
Defense is the calling card
Even in Evans’ three non-region losses, defense has rarely been the complaint. The Knights have played a stingy style of defense that has made it difficult for even the most talented offenses they’ve faced so far this season to find rhythm.
So the domination of Grovetown Friday night — sans the one early-game touchdown drive — shouldn’t be a surprise.
“Our defense played great,” Davis said. “They wanted it in the second half. We wanted to keep everybody in front of us, rally down to it, and they did. They played hard. They were prepped for what they knew they would see and did a great job executing it to a ’T.’”
Beyond just solid tackling and limiting big plays, Evans’ defenders made some spectacular individual plays as well.
In the first half, defensive end Jack Herrington put the first points on the board for the Knights by intruding into Grovetown’s offensive backfield and wrapping up the Warriors’ Jaden Howard in the end zone for a safety.
Then, just before halftime, defensive back Dontevius Williams dove toward the sideline for a beautiful interception grab that halted what had been a decent Grovetown drive to that point.
Davis said the effort showed his team’s resilience and ability to bounce back from less-than-perfect performances, whether in games or practice.
“Our kids practiced hard all week,” he said. “But they did take some butt-chewings some last week because we didn’t have a couple of good days early in the week. But they did what they needed to do. They played their butts off, and I’m really proud of all my coaches. We’ve got great coaches, and they make me look good. Our coordinators and our staff do great work preparing our guys through the week.”
