Despite 2 Cutcher TDs, Karns beats HVA 29-14 in Wynn’s Hawk debut
Back on their home field Friday night, Aug. 23, the Beavers got their season-opening revenge, holding off the Hawks’ comeback attempts to win 29-14.
“We didn’t make plays when we had to; they made plays when they had to,” first-year Hardin Valley head coach Tyler Wynn said. “They hit us with some big plays. We weren’t able to get the stops when we needed it.”
“When we needed a big play, we made it happen,” Beavers head coach Lee Warren said. “We had guys step up and make big plays for us.”
A 29-yard completion from quarterback Austin Stover to Warda Apiat set up Karns’ first score, a 1-yard plunge by Douglas Turner. Turner’s two-point run made it 8-0 with 2:43 left in the first quarter.
After gaining a total of 18 yards on two first-quarter drives, HVA finally got a big play when linebacker Nathan Holbrook’s interception of a Stover pass put HVA at the Beavers 32.
The Hawks drove to the 1, where workhorse senior running back Kaden Cutcher plowed in on first down to make it 8-7 with 5:19 left in the half.
But the Beavers answered right back when, on third-and-27 from the HVA 40, running back Michael Stewart took a pitch and hit Justin Bigbee for a 40-yard score with 2:40 left in the second quarter. Karns led at halftime 16-7.
KHS made it 22-7 with 2:53 left in the third quarter after a 12-play, 90-yard drive. Stover’s 13-yard TD pass to Avery Wesfield was on fourth-and-13.
An interception by KHS’s Brady Kittle thwarted HVA’s next drive — which got to the Beavers 14 — but the Hawks cut it to 22-14 with 6:07 left in the game when Cutcher ran 13 yards for a touchdown.
“That was a big play,” Wynn said of Kittle’s pickoff. “It’s red zone … hats off to him ... .”
The stop HVA needed on Karns’ next possession didn’t happen. The Beavers drove to the Hawks 25 where, on fourth-and-8, Stover found Weston Ritter over the middle for the game-clinching score.
Photo courtesy of Jeremy Wiggs/Jeremy Wiggs Photography
