By Mike Hutchens, Union City Schools Communications Director
Whether Union City improved its seasonal record to 8-3 or is now 1-0 following a first-round playoff hammering of Westwood is a matter of perspective.
What’s not up for discussion is how much tougher things are about to get for the Golden Tornadoes.
“The regular season was over last week,” UC head coach Nick Markle said after his team spanked the Longhorns 62-6 in a Class 1A postseason romp Friday at War Memorial Stadium. “Our mindset coming into this week was that we want to go 5-0 in the playoffs. And this was a good first step in that direction.
“But this one’s over now. We’re going to enjoy it for 24 hours. We know it’s going to get more difficult the further we go, and we’re going to turn our attention immediately to a really good MASE team next week.”
Fifth-ranked MASE (Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering) will host the Round 2 matchup next Friday at a to-be-determined venue in Memphis. The Phoenix (9-1) will enter the contest winners of nine straight after beating South Fulton 52-14 in their Round 1 matchup.
Union City (8-3) – victors in seven of its last eight games – handled its first-round business as expected against Westwood and was superior to the Longhorns in every facet of the contest that marked the Twisters’ seventh mercy-rule win of the season.
Jacob Arnold ran for 135 yards and three touchdowns, Keaten Brown bulled his way into the endzone for three more scores, and the Tornado defense intercepted a trio of passes in the first half to set up short TD drives against the outmanned Memphians.
Markle liked the focus of his heavily favored group coming into the game.
“One of our seniors was talking before the game about ‘now the real season begins,’’’ Markle added. “We work really hard to play in the postseason, and our program has a great playoff history. We don’t ever just want to make the postseason – we want to make a deep run in the playoffs.
“I believe our guys understand the mindset you must have when it comes postseason time. And I think they had that tonight.”
Arnold, who posted his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season, capped UC’s first two drives with touchdown runs of one and 41 yards. The two-time 1,000-yard fullback tacked on another scoring jaunt of 12 yards in the second period as the Twisters built a commanding 48-0 intermission lead.
Brown added to his team-leading TD total (20) with scoring keepers of two, seven, and four yards and is now just four yards away from reaching 1,000 yards on the ground in back-to-back seasons.
Tayehari Jones had scoring runs of five and 28 yards in the second quarter for an offense that has not punted in four straight games. Reserve quarterback Troy Joslin capped the Tornado touchdown barrage with a four-yard score in the final minute.
Marcus Landeros made 8-of-9 PATs.
Arnold, Brown, and Adrian Crawford had interceptions of Westwood quarterback Jordan Irvin in the first half and were part of a defensive unit that recorded six sacks and had five more tackles for lost yardage. Jayce Rogers, Corban Avery, Deyton Buckley, Aiden Reid, Kirben Thompson, and Davis Hayes were all credited with sacks of Irvin.
Reid posted a team-high seven tackles.
Markle said he believes his group is battle-tested in all areas and will be ready for the challenge that is MASE in Round 2.
“We’ve dealt with a lot of hurdles and several distractions this season. I believe in the old adage that everything happens for a reason, and I think those things have given us a greater resolve. We played really good competition early in the season, and I expect us to be locked in all week at practice and certainly when it comes game time next week,” Markle added.
“It’ll take our best effort. It’ll take our best coaching. But I think we’re in a good spot. I’d like to be a little less banged up, but I like our line play right now. We have good leadership, and our defense has been salty all year.
“We just need to stay the course and keep this train rolling
