Calhoun City quarterback Chakel Gates might have made his biggest contribution to Friday’s 40-0 win against Houston while playing wide receiver.
Calhoun City (2-0) led 20-0 late in the second quarter but faced a fourth-and-20 in Houston territory.
Rather than elect to punt, Calhoun City coach Perry Liles listened to Gates’ plea for a wrinkle on offense. Gates tossed the ball right to running back Jaalen Thomas, and then ran a wheel route himself up the left sideline. Thomas, whom Liles says has the strongest arm of any player on the team, lofted a halfback pass to Gates for a 31-yard reception and a key fourth-down conversion that seized the momentum for
“We missed the same route a few plays earlier with a different receiver. We thought that it would be open and so we changed quarterbacks and it got a lot better. Chakel won’t like that,” Liles said with a smile.
Running back Jessie Nabors scored one play later on a two-yard run, and Brieton Sykes added the two-point conversion to give the Wildcats a 28-0 halftime lead.
“We worked on (the halfback pass) every day in practice,” Gates said. “I wasn’t playing well, so I wanted to make up for it. I asked coach for ‘30’ (the play call) to get me the ball and he gave it to me.”
Calhoun City relied on a balanced rushing attack that featured four players who each ran for more than 50 yards, led by Thomas’ 75 yards on nine carries (8.3 average). But it was an opportunistic defense that created six turnovers for the Wildcats and ultimately was the difference against the Class 4A Hilltoppers.
Calhoun City forced five fumbles and had one interception while holding Houston to 91 yards of total offense. Houston running back Brandon Townsend, who had 206 yards rushing one week earlier against Pontotoc, was held to just 48 yards on 14 carries (3.4 average).
“(Houston) helped us out some by turning it over, but we’re creating some of those turnovers,” Liles said. “Our goal was to get a shutout, and we did that against a good football team. I was proud of our defense for holding them.”
Sykes started the scoring for Calhoun City on a 36-yard touchdown run with 7:40 remaining in the first quarter. Calhoun City scored on three of its next four possessions, and the Wildcats finished with 183 yards rushing in the first half.
Nabors had 55 yards rushing on 11 attempts and two touchdowns, and Gates added 62 yards rushing and one touchdown. Even senior linebacker Pat Gardner and freshman quarterback JoJo Gray made significant contributions to the Wildcats’ 280 total yards rushing.
Gardner touched the ball only once on offense, but it resulted in a 50-yard touchdown run. Gray, who played most of the fourth quarter, finished with six yards on four attempts and one touchdown.
“That’s what you want to do is get everybody the ball so that defenses can’t just key on one person,” Liles said. “We have a lot of good running backs. People don’t realize that we lost our two top running backs last year and these are all new guys. We have a good group, but it starts with the offensive line. I have to give them some credit, too, because they got it done up front.”
Calhoun City will put its undefeated record on the line next week against Water Valley (1-1).
“It’s always your goal to keep going and win one week at a time,” Liles said. “We were really focused on Houston and not worried about the next game, and so we’re excited about being 2-0.”