The season is over for the Mitchell High varsity football team after a 35-10 loss at Draughn on Friday, Nov. 11 in the second round of the 1A state playoffs.
The Mountaineers end the season 8-4 overall.
The team won its first-round game over South Davidson in Ledger.
On a chilly, soggy night in Valdese, the hosts got on the board first, scoring a touchdown late in the first quarter on a 6-yard plunge by Nigel Dula.
Dula scored again, this time from 2 yards out, midway through the second quarter to put Draughn up 14-0.
Quarterback Elijah Tillery scampered 33 yards for another touchdown minutes later and the Wildcats led 20-0 after a missed extra point.
Mitchell broke through as time expired in the second quarter with a 26-yard field goal from senior Chad Giarrusso. Draughn led 20-3 at halftime.
The Mountaineers tried to claw back into the game in the third quarter. Senior quarterback Ty Turbyfill scored a 13-yard rushing touchdown that trimmed Draughn’s lead to 20-10.
Draughn answered with another Dula touchdown run later in the quarter to push the lead to 28-10.
Dula showed off his arm late in the fourth quarter when he threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Pritchard, padding Draughn’s double-digit lead and increasing it to 35-10.
Dula was the game’s leading rusher with 154 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries. Tillery carried five times for 85 yards and a score.
Turbyfill paced the Mountaineers in rushing with 67 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. Giarrusso ran nine times for 53 yards and Gage Young carried six times for 48 yards.
Turbyfill was 9-of-16 for 122 yards and a touchdown through the air. He tossed one interception.
Joe Conley grabbed two passes for a team-high 49 yards. Dalton Hollifield had five catches for 30 yards. Young and Giarrusso had a pair of catches each.
Chandler Horney registered six tackles, including one for a loss. Hollifield had five tackles.
The loss marks Mitchell’s second of the season to Western Highlands Conference foe Draughn. The Wildcats beat the Mountaineers 56-21 this past September during the regular season.
After that September loss at Draughn, the Mountaineers rolled to four straight double-digit wins before another loss to those same Wildcats ended the team’s playoff run.
Mitchell was 4-2 before the September loss to Draughn and had lost only to the high-flying 1A upstart Andrews and 4A Watauga.