Independence went on the road Thursday night and defeated Albany 26-16, securing Sam Messina\u2019s first career win as head coach of his alma mater.<\/p>\n
The Tigers built a 19-0 halftime lead and held off a furious Hornets rally for a 10-point victory.<\/p>\n
On the first play from scrimmage, Indy\u2019s Deon Melton took the carry and exploded around the edge for a huge gain, all the way to the Albany 35.<\/p>\n
Senior QB Je\u2019Marcus Weatherspoon kept it himself from the 11-yard line and sprinted to the right pylon for the game\u2019s opening score, 7-0 (Victor Ochoa kick).<\/p>\n
Albany was forced into a quick punt, and Weatherspoon scrambled for a first down on third and long but was belted out of bounds in the process, injuring himself.<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 starting signal caller never returned to the game, and backup QB Kadarius Harris was inserted into the lineup.<\/p>\n
The sophomore looked far from out of place, orchestrating a long touchdown drive, capped by a five-yard scoring toss to senior Jayden Anderson on third and goal.<\/p>\n
Anderson caught the short dump off in the flat and plowed over a Hornets defender at the goal line for six. A low snap derailed the point after process, but Independence jumped out to a 13-0 advantage with 8:28 to go in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Albany was finally able to get something going as junior QB Jake Milton connected with freshman WR Yadrieon Williams on a deep pass. However, Williams had the ball punched out by Indy CB Kyson Garner, which was recovered by Melton, for a Tigers turnover.<\/p>\n
The Hornets\u2019 defense forced a punt, but their offense turned the ball back over to the Tigers on downs with just over three minutes to play in the first half.<\/p>\n
Harris then connected with Melton on a short reception that turned into a lot more as the speedy senior picked up chunks of yardage in the open field before being pushed out of bounds inside the Albany 30.<\/p>\n
On the ensuing play, Harris found Dorin Sellers in one-on-one coverage and delivered a dime to his senior WR for Indy\u2019s third touchdown of the opening half, 19-0 (failed PAT).<\/p>\n
In the dying embers of the second quarter, Albany\u2019s Jayden Lapine fumbled the kickoff, but picked it up and found a crease for a great return to the Independence 33.<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 defense stood tall and sacked Milton to go into halftime with a commanding lead.<\/p>\n
The Hornets faired much better in the third, as senior RB Jonah Grob concluded a methodical scoring march with a touchdown run on third and goal to finally get his side on the board. Grob also converted Albany\u2019s two-point try on the ground, cutting into Independence\u2019s lead, 19-8, with just over eight minutes left in the quarter.<\/p>\n
Indy\u2019s offense was stopped on fourth and three from the Albany 35, and suddenly the home team had life.<\/p>\n
Grob ran through multiple would-be tacklers to the Tigers\u2019 25 on a huge run as the Hornets fans expressed their approval.<\/p>\n
But an aborted snap was recovered by Independence DT Jose Aguirre.<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 momentary momentum wouldn\u2019t last long as a high snap over the punter\u2019s head resulted in an Albany safety, 19-10. Ochoa didn\u2019t make a bad play worse for Indy, smartly falling on the loose ball in the end zone to negate a possible touchdown.<\/p>\n
Heading into the fourth, the Hornets were faced with a fourth-and-seven in their own territory. With Grob as the usual punter, a fake was always on the cards, and Albany head coach Travis Mikel dialed up just that.<\/p>\n
Independence wasn\u2019t fooled and tackled Grob a yard or two short to take over in plus territory.<\/p>\n
However, the Tigers fumbled the ball back to the Hornets, reigniting the contest.<\/p>\n
Albany leaned heavily on the legs of Grob (6\u20190, 205), who didn\u2019t disappoint, carrying Indy tacklers with him during the Hornets\u2019 touchdown drive and was the one who found the end zone again.<\/p>\n
Independence\u2019s defense had enough on the two-point attempt and tackled Grob well short of the goal line to keep its lead at 19-16 with 7:46 remaining.<\/p>\n
Faced with a fourth-and-three from the Albany 48 in what was perhaps the play of the game, Messina elected to go for it. Harris delivered an accurate ball on the perimeter to senior Jaylan James, who outflanked the Hornets\u2019 defense, racing 46 yards before finally being forced out of bounds at the two-yard line.<\/p>\n
A false start penalty on the Tigers made things less straightforward, but on third-and-goal from the one, Messina wasn\u2019t messing around, putting DE\/RB Christian Butler (6\u20193, 230) in at tailback.<\/p>\n
The senior used brute force to power his way into the end zone, essentially icing the game for Independence, 26-16 (Ochoa kick).<\/p>\n
The Tigers\u2019 secondary made things official, as Garner picked off Milton\u2019s deep ball intended for Williams, and Indy was able to run out the remainder of the clock for a well-earned victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great for the kids. We\u2019re moving in the right direction,\u201d said Messina. \u201cKadarius Harris stepped in, and we didn\u2019t miss a beat offensively. I saw a lot of poise in the way he handled himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messina was complimentary of starter Weatherspoon\u2019s play early on and said his injury doesn\u2019t appear serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlay hard. We\u2019re getting better every week. There\u2019s more to come,\u201d said Harris on the Tigers\u2019 mindset.<\/p>\n
Independence (1-3) will hope to build on its first win of the season next week at Ponchatoula for another Thursday night clash (Oct. 2).<\/p>\n
Albany (1-3) is looking to regroup at home against Jefferson RISE Charter on Friday night (Oct. 3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independence went on the road Thursday night and defeated Albany 26-16, securing Sam Messina\u2019s first career win as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,11864,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-305958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-hornets","13":"tag-local_sports","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115273166126344503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}