Neers knock off the Catamounts: Dalton grad Poag leads North Murray to win on his old high school field

Published 11:45 pm Saturday, August 17, 2024

North Murray Head Coach Preston Poag admits it.

It is pretty special what his North Murray Mountaineers pulled off Saturday night on Harmon Field in Dalton.

Both for his team — and personally for the Dalton High grad who played and coached games on the other sideline.

“It means a lot,” Poag said after the game, still standing on Harmon Field. “I played here, and it just means a lot. We expected to win all week.”

Poag and the Mountaineers ground out an “old-school,” 22-9 win over Dalton Saturday, winning over Dalton for the first time in the school’s history — the two teams played for the first time in 2022 — and becoming the first school from Murray County to beat Dalton High since Murray County High did it in 2000.

Dalton had some big missed chances early, North Murray capitalized, gained a 14-0 lead by halftime and kept Dalton down with stellar defense for most of the night on the way to the win. Dalton didn’t score its first points until the third quarter and didn’t score its lone touchdown until late in the fourth. North Murray was able to kill the rest of the clock after the Catamount score and grab the win.

“Old-school” was the way Poag described the win to his team after the game, and the game’s stats could just have easily been pulled from the late 80s or early 90s, when Poag and Dalton head coach Kit Carpenter suited up for the Catamounts.

Both North Murray and Dalton had junior quarterbacks last year that passed for more than 2,500 yards. But, both — Dalton’s Ethan Long and North Murray’s Skyler Williams — transferred out to other schools.

Both schools installed a more traditional, ground-heavy offense. There were just three completed passes and 34 passing yards between both teams Saturday night.

It was North Murray that had more success in the “old-school” running game, lining up for the majority of their snaps in the I formation and grinding out 237 rushing yards on 48 carries. Dalton, starting a freshman quarterback, running back and several other first-time starters, rushed for 136 yards and passed for six.

“We just sort of dominated up front,” Poag said. “I love to throw the ball, but you have to do what best fits your team. We just lined up ran a lot of the stuff we did when I played.”

But, despite being held scoreless for much of the game, it initially appeared Dalton was headed for an explosive start.

A big kickoff return by Isaac Summey set Dalton up at the North Murray 27 after the opening kickoff. Dalton drove inside the 5, but was stopped on 4th-and-goal.

North Murray couldn’t get any offense going from the shadow of their end zone, and a punt went into the hands of Summey for another electric play.

Summey went one way, reversed field, and sprinted all the way around the punt coverage team for a would-be touchdown, but it was called back because of a face mask penalty.

After the two early Catamount scoring opportunities instead came up empty, North Murray got on the board.

Layten Myers powered in for a 3-yard touchdown, and quarterback Hudson Hulett hit Aiden Ellis on a 2-point conversion to put the Mountaineers up 8-0 early in the second quarter.

North Murray got another break when an option pitch by Dalton hit the turf, and North Murray pounced on it.

They converted the turnover into another score, as Myers bounced outside this time and sprinted for a 20-yard score. A failed two-pointer left the score at 14-0 through halftime as North Murray kept strong on defense.

“It’s probably one of our best defensive games since I’ve been here,” Poag said.

Early in the second half, Dalton got the break it needed to get back in the game, but instead another would-be touchdown was wiped out.

North Murray fumbled the ball away to Dalton at the North Murray 24 on its first drive of the second half. In a rare pass play, Dalton quarterback Caine Woods scrambled left before perfectly finding an open receiver for the would-be score, but the scoring play was nullified because of another penalty call.

The Catamounts finally got on the board with a 36-yard field goal by Adrian Gongora later in the third quarter, but North Murray drove in for an early fourth-quarter touchdown that put the low-scoring game in serious doubt for Dalton.

Hulett ran in from the 6, then scored the 2-point conversion to put North Murray up 22-3 with 10:39 left.

Dalton finally got a touchdown, a Summey 6-yard scamper, but it took five more minutes off of the clock for the all-run Catamount offense to move down the field to score.

Even with Dalton selling out to stop the run game, North Murray managed first downs that kept the clock ticking down. Facing fourth down with 9.4 seconds left, Poag had Hulett take the snap, run backwards away from the defenders, and duck out of bounds when the clock had officially run out, setting off a celebration from the North Murray sideline.

Hulett, making his first start at QB after playing as a wide receiver, had 119 rushing yards before the final play that lost yards to kill the remaining time. Myers had 78 yards and the two scores on 13 carries despite sitting most of the second half after dealing with cramping.

Summey led Dalton with 47 rushing yards.

“We wanted to win a little bit more than they did,” Poag said.

The win is the first for North Murray against Dalton after the Catamounts won the first two played. Dalton won 49-27 in the first game in 2022, then won 35-14 last year.

Dalton plays North Oconee, which won its first 12 games last year before falling in the 4A quarterfinals, at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m. North Murray will play another Whitfield County team, Northwest Whitfield, for the Mountaineers’ home opener next Friday at 7:30 p.m.