Cougars claw Titans

The Asheville Cougars looked every bit as good as the hype — maybe even a little better.
Asheville, the state's fifth-ranked 3A team, scored early and often during a dominating first half and cruised to a 47-6 win over the McDowell Titans on homecoming.
The Titans (1-8 overall, 1-3 Mountain Athletic 4A/3A) essentially had no answer for Asheville's big-play offensive backs and menacing defensive front four. The Cougars (6-0-1, 3-0) led 19-0 after one quarter and 33-0 at the half. At one point, Asheville was up 12-0 despite having possession of the ball for just 21 seconds.
"We had trouble matching up with Asheville anywhere on the field," said Titans head coach Carson Gowan. "They're really a very good football team, very talented at every position. Coach (Danny) Wilkins and his staff have done a very good job. Not only are they very good, but I thought they were a quality football team and very classy. We just ran into trouble with everything we tried to do, and ran into trouble on defense as well."
Cougars tailback Tysean Holloway ran for 201 yards and touchdowns of 4 and 70 yards on just seven carries, and didn't touch the ball in the second half.
Backup tailback Denzel McKnight was nearly as good after he took over, rushing 11 times for 127 yards and scores of 1 and 70 yards.
Meanwhile, quarterback Brandon Whiteside — who is donating $1 for every one of his passing yards this season to breast cancer research — threw just eight times but tossed touchdown passes of 15, 35 and 6 yards. He finished 4-of-8 for three scores and 59 yards, pushing his season total past the 900-yard mark.
Asheville owned a 139-5 edge in total yards in the first quarter; it was 296-52 at the half.
The Cougars' massive yet agile defensive front, which included linemen Jamil Hawes (6-0, 275), Omo Hardy (5-9, 280) and Roosevelt Hardin (6-4, 290) and defensive ends Trevor Sawyer (6-6, 215) and Jeoffrey Pagan (6-4, 275), helped hold the overmatched Titans scoreless through the first three quarters.
A 2-yard touchdown pass from Dakota Arrowood to Brent Rowe with 8:35 left in the game kept the Titans from being shut out, but it only got them as close as the final score.
Arrowood was 6-of-13 passing for 73 yards and a touchdown and ran for 39 yards on 15 carries.
Rowe caught four passes for 50 yards and a score, and Tim Velez rushed 12 times for 47 yards.
But bright spots were few and far between for the Titans. One came on the first play of the game. Cameron Moore returned the opening kickoff 66 yards to the Asheville 32, but McDowell fumbled six plays later, giving the Cougars the ball at their own 16.
Holloway dashed 75 yards on Asheville's first play from scrimmage, and a facemask penalty on the Titans set the Cougars up at the 4. Holloway scored from there for a 6-0 lead with 8:32 left.
The two-play drive took just 15 seconds off the clock.
The Titans fumbled at their own 15 on the ensuing possession, and Whiteside hit fullback Travis Whiteside on a swing route on the next play to make it 12-0 with a drive that took six seconds.
Tim Velez intercepted the attempted conversion pass.
Brandon Whiteside hooked up with tight end Sawyer on a 35-yard catch-and-run later in the quarter to make it 19-0.
Asheville's second-quarter scores came on a 6-yard pass play from Whiteside to Brandon Williams and a 70-yard run by Holloway.
McKnight scored both his touchdowns in the third quarter to make it 47-0.
Asheville ended up with a 448-161 advantage in total yards and had 21 first downs while holding the Titans to 11.
McDowell is on the road at A.C. Reynolds this Friday (7:30 kickoff). Asheville hosts T.C. Roberson this week.
The Titans return home Oct. 30 against Enka in the season finale.

YARDSTICK
Asheville McDowell
First downs 21 11
Rushes-yds. 42-389 39-88
Passing 4-8-0-3 6-13-0-1
Passing yds. 59 73
Total yds. 448 161
Return yds. 0 155
Fumbles/lost 1/0 5/3
Penalties-yds. 8-62 5-34
Punts-avg. 2-37 5-27
Time of poss. 24:54 23:06

Asheville 19 14 14 00 – 47
McDowell 00 00 00 06 – 06

Individual stats: Rushing: Asheville (Tysean Holloway 7-201-2TDs, Brandon Whiteside 4-m15, Denzel McKnight 11-127-2TDs, Brandon Williams 6-35, Darius Drummond 2-m2, Darius Miller 4-24, Devonte Battle 4-19, Deveron Roberts 4-0) McDowell (Dakota Arrowood 15-39, Cameron Moore 3-m1, Tim Velez 12-47, Terrance Anderson 1-1, Dama Martin 7-6, Josh Foxx 1-m4) Passing: Asheville (Whiteside 4-8-0-3-59 yds.) McDowell (Arrowood 6-13-0-1-73 yds.) Receiving: Asheville (Travis Whiteside 1-15-TD, Trevor Sawyer 1-35-TD, Williams 2-9-TD) McDowell (Brent Rowe 4-50-TD, Ryan Lambert 1-26, Anderson 1-m3)

Scoring summary
First quarter
Asheville – Holloway 4 run, kick failed (8:32)
Asheville – T. Whiteside 15 pass from B. Whiteside, conv. failed (7:05)
Asheville – Sawyer 35 pass from B. Whiteside, Mark Powell kick (1:41)
Second quarter
Asheville – Williams 6 pass from B. Whiteside, Powell kick (9:04)
Asheville – Holloway 70 run, Powell kick (:47)
Third quarter
Asheville – McKnight 1 run, Powell kick (6:07)
Asheville – McKnight 70 run, Powell kick (:58)
Fourth quarter
McDowell – Rowe 2 pass from Arrowood, kick failed (8:35)