Titans stand tall in finale

However rocky things were at the start of the season for the McDowell Titans, the finish was undeniably sweet.

McDowell, which lost its first four games by a total of 11 points, beat the North Wilkes Vikings 28-7 Friday to finish the 2011 campaign with back-to-back wins. The Titans (3-8 overall, 2-4 Mountain Athletic 4A/3A Conference) followed up last week’s dramatic 41-35 comeback victory over Enka by dominating the Vikings (1-10) on both ends of the frigid, soggy field.

McDowell was balanced on offense – three players rushed for 50 or more yards and the Titans threw for 75 – and dominant on defense. McDowell gave up just 93 total yards and only allowed North Wilkes one net yard after halftime. Defensive tackle Brett Greer was essentially unstoppable, sacking the quarterback six times to finish the season with 19 sacks, a new single-season school record. The previous mark was 15, set by Kingsley Agbaeze in 2001.

“Offensively, it wasn’t overly pretty,” said Titans head coach Carson Gowan. “But like I told the kids, the job was done. It was a great job defensively. The kids played hard.”

The Vikings, coached by former McDowell head coach Dave Haynie, played hard as well, but could only sustain one drive against the Titans’ defense.

“Our kids played about as hard as they could play,” said Haynie. “That’s what I told them and I told them I was proud of them.”

McDowell scored the first 14 points before North Wilkes put together its only scoring drive of the night. But the Titans added a score just before halftime that took the win out of the Vikings’ sails. McDowell’s defense did the rest, limiting North Wilkes to minus-four yards in the third quarter and five yards in the fourth.

The Titans’ offense got contributions from all over the field.

Sophomore tailback Malique O’Neil rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries, while senior Chaven Lytle rolled up 83 yards and a score on 11 attempts. Senior Reshawn Chambers added 51 yards and a TD on five carries. Quarterback Grant Robinson was 5-of-10 passing for 75 yards and a touchdown, and senior receiver Noah Dunham caught three Robinson aerials for 57 yards and a touchdown.

The Titans could have had even more production. O’Neil had an 80-yard touchdown run called back on a penalty in the third quarter. Still, McDowell out-gained the Vikings 302-93. It was the third time this season the Titans have held their opponent to fewer than 100 yards of total offense.

“We rushed the football for a lot of yards, but we did some things to shoot ourselves in the foot, too,” said Gowan. “I don’t think either offense played overly well, and maybe that was the weather. I wish the track had been dry for Malique and Chaven. We ran our ISOs fairly well, but we never did get our counters going. Whenever we ran east to west on the field it just didn’t do good.”

The Titans had plenty of success going north and south, though. After Jared Helms returned the opening kick off 32 yards to midfield, it took Lytle just three rushes – the third one being a 39-yard scoring jaunt – to make it 7-0 with only 1:09 gone off the first-quarter clock.

The next two McDowell drives stalled, but the Titans went 74 yards in seven plays midway through the second quarter. O’Neil rolled up 33 rushing yards on the drive, and Robinson capped the march with a beautifully executed 33-yard pass play to Dunham on the fade route. The touchdown and the second of four Alex Huendo extra points made it 14-0 with 5:14 to go before halftime.

But North Wilkes answered on its next possession. Chris Patterson (3 carries, 46 yards, TD) had a 44-yard run that set the Vikings up on the Titans’ 13. Two plays later, quarterback L.J. Hendren found Randy Pruitt for a 14-yard scoring pass, trimming the lead to 14-7 with 3:12 left in the half.

On the ensuing possession, McDowell drove from its own 31 to the North Wilkes 9, but eventually turned the ball over on downs.

The Vikings appeared to have dodged a bullet, but they fumbled the ball right back to the Titans on the 22. O’Neil went 15 yards on third down to make it 21-7 with just 25 seconds remaining in the half, and the Vikings never recovered.

Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Chambers dashed 48 yards to make it 28-7 with 7:37 left in the game.

Gowan said the Titans made some mistakes, but recovered from them brilliantly.

“The difference is, we did those things tonight and still found a way to win the football game instead of just panicking and winding up in a 21-21 game with two minutes to go,” said the fourth-year head coach. “So there again, you’ve got to credit them for just hanging in there and getting the job done. I’m happy for our seniors. I think they’ve done a really good job all year long leading us. We’ve had some seniors who haven’t played a lot, but like I told them, you don’t have to be a starter to be a leader. They’ve done a good job in practice every day, working and doing the right things. Hats off to our juniors and sophomores, too. We’ve got a lot of good kids coming back.”

The Titans do not have the four wins required to qualify for the State 4A Playoffs, but still have a slight chance of making it. Three-win teams sometimes get in if there are not enough squads with four wins. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association will seed the playoff teams Saturday. The brackets are available at http://www.nchsaa.org/.