The Mitchell Mountaineers forced four turnovers and rolled up 44 first-half points en route to a 50-23 pasting of the North Buncombe Blackhawks at Memorial Stadium in Ledger last Friday night. The pageantry of the day-long celebration of Homecoming at Mitchell High culminated in the crowning of Ben Duncan and Ashley Greene as Homecoming King and Queen, respectively. In the meantime, Mitchell’s football team provided the punch to go with the evening pomp.
After a slow start to the first quarter, the purple-and-black clad Mountaineers club opened the scoring when Isaac Edwards booted a 26-yard field goal at the 5:21 mark to give Mitchell the early 3-0 lead.
In the second quarter, everything that could go right did for the Mountaineers. Troy Self scored the first touchdown of the night when he galloped across the goal line from three yards out, with the extra point giving the home team a 10-0 lead.
Following a Blackhawk turnover, Mitchell scored less than a minute later as Justin Hughes hit pay dirt with a one-yard plunge. The PAT put the Mountaineers ahead 17-0.
On the next series, the Blackhawks offense was victimized yet again by the Mitchell defense. After marching inside Mountaineer territory, a pass by North quarterback Christian Jewkes was picked off by Self, who took the interception 55 yards for a touchdown to boost Mitchell’s advantage to 24-0.
Mitchell went on to score 20 additional points in the final eight 
minutes of the first half. Hughes scored his second touchdown of the half with a five-yard run. Halfback Shawn Jackson got into the act as well when he crossed the goal line on a five-yard run of his own. Finally, Self found the end zone again for a third time when he reached the end zone on a two-yard run with just six seconds left in the first half. North Buncombe scored on an 86-yard touchdown pass at around the two minute mark of the second quarter, but the half was all Mitchell, as the Mountaineers took a 44-6 halftime lead.
Mitchell was never threatened by North in the second half, but the Blackhawks made the final score somewhat more respectable with 17 points over the final two stanzas well after the Mountaineers had begun playing its reserves.
Self ended the game with 197 yards in offense, while Hughes had nine carries for 95 yards and three touchdowns in the victory.
The win improved Mitchell to an even 2-2 on the season as the club opens Western Highlands Conference play next Friday night with a trip to Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy.
