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Anyone who just glanced at the final statistics would assume East came away with a victory Thursday night at Burke-Toney Stadium.

But those stats don’t account for blunders in the kicking game that led to the Hurricanes suffering a 36-10 setback.

East had 188 rushing yards and 164 passing for 352 total yards to just 274 yards total offense by the Hawks and the Hurricanes rolled up 21 first downs to only 10.

However, a high punt snap sailed out of the endzone resulting in a safety for the Hawks. Another snap over the punter’s head set up a short touchdown drive and a blocked punt was recovered in the endzone for another TD by the visitors late in the half.

Add in a 78-yard kickoff return to start the second half to set up another TD and its easy to see that the kicking game put Coach Dallas Kuykendall’s team in a hole they couldn’t get out of in falling to 0-2 for the young season.

The Hawks also got a 76-yard interception return for a score so their offense didn’t need to pile up a bunch of yards to reach the endzone.

East had a 63-yard drive for a field goal in the first quarter to lead for the first time this year and marched 80 yards for their only touchdown in the final period.

Hardin Valley tacked on a 70-yard scoring run by Brady Loveland with under two minutes left in the game that accounted for over a fourth of its total offense in improving to 2-0.

Kuykendall, who in his first season at East, a bad first half put us behind the eight ball again and we were just fighting and clawin’ from there.

“We’ve got to find a way to come out and get our footing and be better early in the game,” he added. “We need to build some confidence early instead of taking so long to get going.”

The coach went on to say, “We had way too many mistakes and we can’t have that. We have to shore up that stuff. We’ll work as a team to do better as we start region play.”

East will have two weeks to correct the mistakes as they have an open date this week before playing at William Blount on September 8.

Kuykendall saw some improvement from East’s opening loss in the city championship. “I thought we ran the ball a lot better this week.

“We have to continue to lean on our running game because we have an in-experienced quarterback who hasn’t played a whole lot of reps. I thought we did a really good job of that tonight but we’ve got to do better on first downs. If we can do that it will give us some sort of flexibility on second and third downs.”

Eli Davis racked up 91 yards on 10 carries for the ‘Canes and scored the only touchdown. The coach said, “Eli ran hard. He’s a great kid who never complains. He just comes out and works every day and those things are starting to pay off for him.”

With the long run, Loveland led all runners on the night with 104 yards on 9 carries.

East quarterback Caleb Billings completed 11 of 29 passes for 164 with two picks. Carter Gilliam had six catches for 108 yards and Isaac Greene caught five passes for 56.

The ‘Canes got the ball first and started at their 20 after Nathan Holbrook kicked off into the endzone. On second down, Billings dropped to throw and was chased into the endzone. He unloaded the ball but it went to a lineman and East was backed up to its two with a third-and-28 after the penalty.

On fourth down, the ball was snapped out of the endzone and the Hawks had a 2-0 lead with 10:52 left in the first quarter.

The ‘Canes kicked off from their 20 and forced a three-and-out and started at their own 24. Easton Woody, who finished the night with 72 yards on 19 carries broke a 30-yard run and Billings added an 11-yarder for a first down at the Hardin Valley 13.

Three plays later the ball was still at the 13 and Alfredo Hernandez came on and booted a 30-yard field goal to give East a 3-2 lead with 4:38 remaining in the first frame. It was the first field goal for East since October of 2020.

The Hawks got three first downs after the kickoff but East stopped the threat and Holbrook punted into the endzone.

Billings produced first downs with an 8-yard pass to Greene and a 9-yarder to Gilliam but a third-down pass fell incomplete and East faced another punting situation.

The snap was over the punter’s head again and HV started at the East 24. It took five plays to reach paydirt with Brady Hogrefe scoring from the three. Holbrook’s PAT made it 9-3 with 7:54 left in the half.

East got four first downs behind the running of Woody and Davis before the Hawks’ Taa Henderson stepped in front of a receiver for an interception and raced 76 yards untouched to score. The point after upped the lead to 16-3 with only 1:36 left in the half.

That was enough time for disaster to strike again.

The ‘Canes started at their 18 after the kickoff and a holding penalty backed them to their eight. A one-yard gain combined with an incomplete pass and a fumble out of bounds for a two-yard loss put the ball at the nine on fourth down.

This time, punter Benjamin Cruz got the snap but the Hawks’ Michael Stewart got through to block the kick and Brady Miner pounced on the ball for another touchdown with only 13.9 seconds left in the half.

East got a 46-yard run from Davis on the first play after the kickoff but time ran out.

Cooper Rittenberry took the second-half kickoff at the eight and took it all the way to the East 14 before being run down. A penalty backed the Hawks out to the 29 but the scored in three plays.

The big play was a 25-yard pass down the middle from quarterback Caleb Standifer to Hogrefe. Standifer scored on a sneak on the next play and Holbrook’s kick made it 30-3.

Austin Brannan returned the kickoff 34 yards to the 49 and the Hurricanes drove to the HV 34 before they turned the ball over on downs.

The Hawks came right back with three first downs but Holbrook missed a 22-yard field goal try with 2:38 left in the third stanza.

Starting at the 20, East drove 80 yard in a dozen plays to get its touchdown. Davis and Max Baker did most of the work on the ground before Davis scored from the three with 8:36 left in the game.

The biggest play of the drive was a 25-yard pass to Greene that converted a fourth-and-eight from the 28 to set up Davis’ score. Hernandez kicked the point after.

The teams traded turnovers on the first two plays after the kickoff. East’s Trevor Foulks got a fumble on the first and the Hawks’ Barron Sheetz intercepted on the next.

East had another great chance to score, moving from its 14 all the way to the HV 13 before turning the ball over on downs. Billings completed four passes with two each to Gilliam and Greene in the push.

After taking over the Hawks got a first down when East jumped offsides on a third-and-three and then Loveland took a handoff up the middle, bounced off two East defenders and outran the rest for his long TD.

A 37-yard catch by Gilliam got the ‘Canes to the HV 32 but a fourth-down sack turned the ball over and the Hawks ran out the clock.