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RUTLEDGE – Elizabethton was able to stifle the Grainger rushing attack while posting a well-balanced offensive effort of their own in a 65-14 win over the Grizzlies Friday night.

The Cyclones out-gained Grainger 377-127 in total offense which included only 36 yard on the ground by the Grizzlies on 26 carries. Grainger did find some success through the air as they tallied 91 yards. Kaleb Holzer ran for 92 yards and three scores for Elizabethton and Cameron Baker added 78 yards with Zeth Mullins scoring twice on seven carries and 51 yards. Rhett Slagle threw for 101 yards. Ashton Taylor ran for 42 yard and threw for 19 yards for the Grizz.

Holzer scored a pair of touchdown for the Cyclones in the first quarter to give them a quick 14-0 lead. For the second week in a row, the Grizzlies fell victim to an interception returned for a touchdown as Landry Buckles picked off a pass for a 24-yard score. Later in the first, Mullins scored from the five to put Betsy up 28-0.

The highlight of the game was on the ensuing kickoff as Jace Robinson took the ball at the four and was off to the races for a 96-yard return. Hunter Mallicoat walked into the end zone on the two-point conversion to make it 35-8.

“Jace did a great job but unfortunately, it almost killed him,” Grainger head coach Michael Manis said of Robinson’s long run. “He didn’t get on the field the rest of the night as he had been sick all week and it kind of zapped him but he has had great effort all week. I thought we had great overall effort by our kick return team and that is something we have been really trying to work on.”

Elizabethton answered on their next drive with Mullins scoring on an 18-yard TD run. It appeared the Grizzlies might be ready to crack the scoring column again as Brizen Solomon was on the receiving end of a 57-yard pass from Luke Davis. The drive stalled at the nine, however, as the ball turned over on downs.

“We have been trying to get Brizen more involved in the passing game,” Manis said of Solomon’s big catch. “With our quarterbacks, we have been saying there is one guy that you want to throw to, then you have to catch, step and release the ball and let him get underneath it to get it. He’s too big of a target and too good of an athlete to not have the ball in his hands.”

The Cyclones went to their two-minute offense as they marched down the field and completed a scoring drive with 6.4 seconds remaining as Slagle hit Baker for a 25-yard score. The kick by Will Bowers, who hit all his extra points in the contest, was good to put the Carter County visitors up 49-8 at the break.

Elizabethton added two scores in the final two quarters as Holzer had a 45-yard run and Baker added a 42-yarder. They added a safety when they pinned the Grizzlies deep in their own territory and then stopped a run in the endzone. Ashton Taylor took over in the fourth quarter as the Grizz quarterback and took his team on a scoring drive that resulted in him hitting pay dirt on a 37-yard TD. The two-point conversion failed which produced the 65-14 final score.

“Ashton unfortunately wasn’t with us for the offseason and he’s a backup slot guy. With Carter (Williams) being out the rest of the year, he is a similar kind of athlete,” Manis said of the junior who came in late at quarterback. “He’s a baseball kid with a strong arm so in the last two weeks, we have had him in our backup quarterback role. Ashton is a nice athlete who can run so we are just trying to find some ways to get him involved out of the backfield.”

Grainger hits the road next week for a game at Pigeon Forge.