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Published Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in Sports

Loss to Vikings tough for EC coaches, players

By Stuart Crosby

The Newnan Times-Herald

The look on the faces of many players and coaches for the East Coweta Indians told the story Friday night at A.B. Martin Stadium in Valdosta after the Lowndes Vikings ended EC's season with a 52-14 victory in the first round of the AAAAA state playoffs.

For head coach Clint Wade it's back to work now and looking ahead to his third season at the helm after an emotional post game speech to his players and coaches.

"Part of our job as coaches is to hope the kids learn from adversity," Wade said. "This game was one of those moments and I hate it for them because this has been a good group that did everything we asked of them."

For 23 minutes the Indians acquiesced to their coach's request by holding the third-ranked Vikings in check with big stops by a number of players including Zack Fore, Mario Clarke and Willie Holloway with a big fumble recovery in the first quarter by Clarke.

On offense, however, tailback Tay Willis had a difficult time against the Vikings' defense as he found three or four maroon clad players waiting for him on seemingly every snap.

Willis did have one good series in the second quarter as he carried the ball six times for 36 yards and a 13-yard reception during a series in which he scored on an 11-yard run with 3:58 remaining in the half.

The score gave Willis 28 touchdowns for the 2009 season.

Unfortunately for the Indians, Willis was unable to have a typical night at the office overall as he finished his final high school game with 89 yards on 25 carries and two receptions for 20 yards.

In two seasons as the primary ballcarrier for the Indians, Willis rushed for approximately 3,700 yards and had over 50 touchdowns during that span.

While the Indians had success in the first half, the beginning of the end came late in the second quarter when the Vikings scored a late touchdown to take a 17-7 lead to the locker room.

But the "dagger" play was the first play of the third quarter.

After being contained during the first half, Vikings' running back Khary Franklin bolted past the Indians defense for an 80-yard touchdown run and added a one-yard score four minutes later.

As Franklin and running mate Troy Braswell were wearing down the Indians defense for nearly 300 yards of rushing between them, the Vikings defense not only contained Willis but made life miserable for quarterback Austin Ingram as linebacker Telvin Smith and end Michael Copeland had their name called a lot by the public address announcer.

Ingram was 9-of-16 passing for 84 yards with an interception and a fourth quarter touchdown pass to K.J. Hill in the final game for both.

When the clock hit 0:00, the EC careers were over for 19 seniors including Willis, Fore, Ingram and Hill.

"Tay was our bellcow on offense and Zack was the same on defense," Wade said. "This group of seniors were leaders and a lot of them had to adjust to whatever roles we gave them and they did as well as they could."

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