The Athens offense looked to be off to a slow start.
Robert Dickelman lined up for his second straight punt of the game, but proceeded to complete a 37-yard pass to wide receiver Logan Maxfield. That conversion led to a 10-yard touchdown run from Tyler Roback, and the Bulldogs only piled on from there, beating Vinton County 63-14.
“I just really wanted to get momentum going as fast as we could,” coach Ryan Adams said. “It’s something we’ve been practicing for a few weeks, and I thought it was a good time to pull it out.”
The scoring started with the fake punt, but the dominance followed because of Athens’ offensive line. Adams has said multiple times this season the big guys up front were the strength of his team, and they proved it Friday night — keeping quarterback Brendan Sano’s jersey clean all night and opening sizable running lanes for ball carriers.
“I’ve never even had anything like this (offensive line) before,” Roback said. “It’s amazing, really.”
Wide receiver Treyce Albin stole the show from there by accumulating 127 all purpose yards on six touches while scoring three touchdowns. It was his first major involvement on offense since Sano took over as quarterback, and he looked like Athens’ most devastating weapon going forward.
“That’s what I expected out of him,” Sano said. “He’s an amazing athlete. We just need to find ways to get him the ball, and he’s gonna make plays.”
Athens also showcased a two running back system Friday night after Mike Casteel’s big week against Alexander. Casteel ran for 93 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries while Tyler Roback ran for 113 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
Roback said being replaced only drove him to work harder. It pushed him to new heights — namely, a new season high in rushing yards.
The Bulldogs ran for 302 yards while the first team was in the game. They averaged 9.4 yards per carry and scored on eight of their next nine drives after the initial three-and-out.
Vinton County’s struggles with its passing game slowed down the clock and allowed the score to get out of control, and Sano saw a glimpse of his offense’s true potential.
“It was great,” he said. “We finally showed what our offense can really do. We got everything going — pass game, run game — everything looked good tonight.”
