During the North 2A powerlifting meet last year, Eupora football coach Stephen Edwards got a good look at the Union football team.
Edwards saw the Yellowjackets flex their muscles again as they took a 42-9 win over the Eagles on Friday night.
Union improves to 3-0 on the season with the win while Eupora falls to 1-3 on the season.
“I thought up front they were really good and I knew that they would be,” Edwards said. “I thought they sort of pushed us around at times. I thought our kids played hard but made some mistakes and it just got out of control. Union is a good football team and will compete for 2A South. I saw them in powerlifting last year and they were really strong. When you are strong and have speed to boot, you are going to have a good team.”
Union scored first as Colby Ferguson scored on a 7-yard run with 9:21 left in the first quarter. Henry Thornton booted the PAT and Union led 7-0.
The Eagles responded with their best drive of the game and found the end zone as Cade Adkins hit Daniel Brown on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 6:14 left in the first quarter. Kimble Dillinger’s PAT was blocked and Union led 7-6.
From there, it was all Union as the Yellowjackets scored 35 points in the remainder of the first half
Union got back in the end zone as Ferguson his Markus Jones o a big 47-yard touchdown pass with 5:35 left in the first. Thornton’s PAT failed and Union led 13-6.
The Union defense then got in on the action as Kenyon Clay intercepted an Atkins pass and returned it for a touchdown. Ferguson ran in the two-point conversion and Union led 21-6.
Eupora responded with a good drive as they got deep in Union territory but had to settle for a 33-yard field goal by Dillinger to cut the score to 21-9.
“I thought we played hard until things got our of reach,” Edwards said. “We moved the ball and did a good job of mixing up the run and the pass. We busted some runs and had some nice catches. We just have to tackles and block better. It’s a process. We just have to find the right pieces on defense. They had some angles to block us on defense and we are going to try and fix that.”
Union tacked on three more scores in the second quarter. The first came with 9:16 left in the first half as Ferguson hit Markus Jones on a 19-yard touchdown pass. Thornton booted the PAT and Union led 28-9.
After forcing a Eupora punt, Union got going again as Jaylon Buckley scored on a 5-yard run with 4:24 left in the half. Thornton’s PAT was good and Union led 35-9.
Union added another score late as Ferguson scored on a 3-yard run with 1:07 left in the half for the final margin of 42-9.
“We are where they were two years ago,” Edwards said. “They were really young two years ago and now those kids have been playing for two years. They had a lot of older kids and some guys being recruited. They were able to platoon us and play most of their kids on one side of the football. That makes a difference.”
Union outgained Eupora 312-194 despite running four fewer plays. Union had 191 yards rushing and 121 passing.
Eupora had 188 yards of total offense with 102 passing and 92 rushing. Atkins was 5-of-12 passing for 102 yards while Travon McMillian had 44 yards on nine carries.
Tra McComb had 38 yards receiving on one catch while Zak Morris had 41 yards receiving on three catches.
