The difference was like night and day as HVA rolls, 45-25

By Steve Williams

The Pride of Pellissippi Trophy was handed back over to Hardin Valley Academy after the Hawks topped off a 45-25 victory over rival Karns Saturday afternoon.

With lightning in the area Friday night, the season opener had to wait an hour before it was safe to play. The two teams got as far as halftime, but more lightning forced the game to be suspended until 2 on Saturday.

Hardin Valley had built a 38-12 lead in the first two quarters and extended the margin to 45-12 on its first possession in the second half on the following day on a 48-yard touchdown run by Chance Sharp and Logan Holbrook’s PAT.

Karns didn’t roll over by any means and Weston Ritter scored on a 1-yard touchdown play just under four minutes in the third quarter and Jonas Zimmerman capped off a 64-yard drive with a 14-yard TD catch from Austin Slover with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

Tyler Wynn, who is in his second year as HVA’s head coach, was pleased with his team’s first game of the season and added “our kids” were the key to the win. “You don’t win Game 1 in August. You don’t win Game 1 even in July. It’s a buy-in from our kids from the last game last year.

“We finished the season with a bad taste in our mouth and a lot of kids that were hungry wanted to put in the effort it takes to take this program to the next level. We’ve still got a long way to go. But this is great to get that first notch. Like door No. 1 – strike it off. That’s a big one.”

Despite mistakes and penalties, Karns jumped out to a 6-0 lead Friday night as Slover threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Ritter. That would be the Beavers’ only lead.

HVA quarterback Riley Matz answered with a 5-yard TD run and Becks Allen’s 2-point run put the Hawks ahead 8-6. Samuel Mann added a 3-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion to make it 16-6.

Slover pulled the Beavers close (16-12) with a 22-yard TD pass to Ritter, but the 2-point pass failed.

Owen Vaughn intercepted a Karns pass and returned it 15 yards. Levi Amey then zig-zagged 32 yards up the middle for six points and Mann added the 2-point conversion with a tush push play to double the lead (24-12) with 9:30 left.

A penalty backed up the Beavers to their 20-yard line and a sack by defensive end Sharp pushed them farther back. Then Karns snapped the ball over punter Tanner Clark’s head and Andrew Perkins recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown. Holbrook’s PAT made it 31-12.

Brody Lamb’s 61-yard TD catch from Matz gave the Hawks a 38-12 command.

Despite the huge deficit on Saturday, Karns Coach Lee Warren wanted his team to battle back and they did. “I’m proud of you guys,” he told them in the post-game huddle on the sideline.

Ritter, a senior, said the team talked a lot about adversity in the summer and how we needed to respond to that. “I felt like last night the rain and all the delays kind of set that adversity. We came out today and it kind of really showed us where we are as a team and kind of responded as well as we could.”

Hardin Valley and Karns, which are just 4.3 miles apart via Hardin Valley Road, restarted their rivalry in 2021 and have now played five games since then, with the Beavers leading the latest series 3-2. Overall, the Hawks lead 6-4 in all games.

Mann, a senior running back and linebacker for HVA, was named this year’s Player of the Game.