By Michael Lindsay
The Upperman Bees improved to 7-0 Friday night following a low-scoring victory in the UCR Game of the Week at Smith County, 14-0.
“They (Smith County) have a quality team and my hat’s off to them,” said Upperman head coach Adam Caine. “They’re big and physical and had the ingredients for what it takes to beat us.
“It was a big-time environment,” Caine added. “We needed to be in one of those because we know what’s coming down the road.”
The Bees found the end zone twice in the first half while shutting out Smith County all four quarters for the win.
Upperman running back Ethan Palk rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries while quarterback Bronzden Chaffin went 11-21 for 123 yards and a touchdown. Chaffin also had 76 rushing yards in the win.
“We knew we were going to have to throw it,” Caine said. “We knew we couldn’t just run over their guys the entire night. When we had to, we were able to line up and get first downs.”
The Bees struck through the air on the game’s opening drive as Chaffin hit Kam Bush on a 25-yard touchdown pass with 8:51 left in the opening period to give the Bees a 7-0 lead.
“We’ve got a quarterback who’s capable of doing that,” Caine said. “It was great to see him execute. That first touchdown helped us out.”
A Smith County turnover late in the second quarter set up the Bees’ second touchdown as the Upperman defense recovered a fumble at the Smith County 32-yard line late in the second period.
Baxter hit paydirt four plays later as Ethan Palk broke loose for a 19-yard touchdown run to put the Bees ahead 14-0 at halftime.
The two first-half scores were enough as Upperman’s defense stood strong in the second half. The Bees’ kept Smith County out of the end zone for the entire second half to secure the 14-0 victory.
“We played pretty well on defense,” Caine said. “We tackled pretty well. The key to the game was our pash rush; we don’t really play a ton of four-down front, but we felt like we needed to generate some rush on their quarterback.”
Upperman improves to 7-0 overall as the Bees enter their bye week this week. Upperman will travel to White House (5-2) on Friday, Oct. 13.
Smith County falls to 5-2 overall and travels to Jackson County (3-4) next week to face the Blue Devils.
