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Revenge was on the mind of every single Beech player when they took the field Friday night for their second round matchup with Southwind.
Last year the Jaguars sent the Buccaneers home in the second round with a crushing 23-point road loss. The stage was set for Beech to return the favor.
By the time the final horns were blaring, Beech had gotten its revenge and then some to the tune of a 49-19 win.
“I was very impressed and thought our guys did a great job of executing our game plan,” Beech coach Anthony Crabtree said. “We really didn’t give up a whole lot on defense. Our message the whole week was that they were going to make a play or two, but we just needed to continue to make them snap the ball, minimize big plays and see if we can get a turnover or two.
…offensively I thought we played pretty dang good. We got after them early and tried to make it a physicaly football game.”
The game plan for the Buccaneers was simple entering the game to keep Kelvin Perkins off the field. They were going to establish the ground game and they were going to do it early.
They showed that on their first drive of the night. After converting a pair of fourth down conversions, Chelton Swafford capped it with a 22-yard touchdown run.
That touchdown was the first of what would be a career night for the future. By halftime he had three and by the end of the night his evening with four touchdowns.
“This whole week we’ve been thinking about getting our revenge,” Swafford said. “It’s just a sweet feeling. I didn’t like the way they knocked us out last year and I felt like this was due. We came out wanting to knock them in the mouth on every play and every drive. That’s exactly what we did.”
Kaden Powell takes next step forward as Bucs leader
High expectations were put on Powell when it was announced that he was transferring from Smith County to Beech following his freshman season.
Admittedly Powell had his fair share of struggles in his first year with the team. Now though, he seems to have figured out what is needed of him to lead the Bucs back to the top of Class 5A.
“When he came here as a sophomore, it’s a little bit of a bigger stage and the people you play are different,” Crabtree said. “Even thought he started as a freshman at Smith County, he came here and had to play a new level and also learn all new terminology. All of that can take awhile for a young player toearn. which just takes awhile to learn all that stuff.
…earlier this year he was better and we feel like he’s just continued to get better every week. He was really impressive tonight and I thought he played extremely well.”
Crabtree’s high-praise for Powell came following a second half that saw him account for three total touchdowns. While Swafford dominated the first half, the second was the ‘Kaden Powell Show’.
On Beech’s first drive of the second half he connected with KaJuan Harris over the middle for a 51-yard touchdown.
From there he took the game over with his legs.
Late in the third Powell bulldozed over multiple Southwind defenders for his first of two rushing touchdowns. The second came midway through the fourth from 28 yards out.
“Last year left a really bad taste in our mouths so we prayed for this matchup,” Powell said. “I really wanted to play them again. The game plan was to just go with what was working and running it down their throats was what was working.”
