The rain came during halftime, but the Bearcats firepower rained down long before the clouds opened up as fourth-ranked Hendersonville upended the Avery Vikings 40-7 Friday night.Hendersonville opened the scoring on a 35-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ben Walgenbach for an early 7-0 lead.
As the Bearcats defense remained strong throughout the half, the special teams made its mark on the scoreboard. Desmond Whiteside fielded a long punt at the 18-yard line, jostled his way through a number of defenders, and broke free down the sideline for an 82-yard touchdown return.
Later in the first half, Hendersonville return man Daniel Orr tried to prove to his teammate Whiteside "Anything you can do, I can do better" when he fielded a punt that rolled back to the Hendersonville 30. Orr skirted through the Avery tacklers and darted 70 yards to pay dirt.
The Vikings had difficulty holding on to the football in the second quarter, as the Big Red gave the football away four times in the second quarter on a pair of fumbles and two intercepted passes. Hendersonville was turned away on one drive by an Avery goal-line stand inside the red zone, but the Bearcats managed to score a pair of touchdowns, capitalizing on a pair of the Avery gaffes. Whiteside scored his second touchdown of the game on a touchdown run, while teammate James Foster got into the act with a TD run of his own to help Hendersonville to a commanding 33-0 halftime lead.
With the skies graying throughout the first half, the rain began to pour in buckets upon the fans and Homecoming festivities at halftime. The rain continued through much of the second half, causing the grass surface to become muddy and puddle-riddled.
In the second half Avery came out of the locker room focused on winning the quarters ahead of them. The Vikings prevented the shutout as quarterback Alex Villanueva scampered through the raindrops and the Hendersonville defense for a 36-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. Villanueva accounted for 50 yards rushing during the 5-play 68-yard scoring drive, cutting the Bearcats lead to 33-7 at the 9:28 mark.
Hendersonville answered the Avery score with its longest drive of the evening, an 11-play, 78-yard scoring march. A five-yard touchdown pass from Walgenbach to Marquis Johnson capped the drive and closed the scoring for the contest.
Avery falls to 4-3 on the season, with a 2-1 mark in conference play. Hendersonville improves to 7-0 this season, with a perfect 3-0 conference record. Avery will return to MacDonald Stadium next Friday night to host Polk County, while the Bearcats travel to Ledger to take on the Mitchell Mountaineers.
