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Starting with the surprise announcement of fifth-year coach Derrick Minor’s resignation and culminating with the final buzzer of the “Five Miles of Wild� rivalry game versus Draughn, everything seemed to fall into place for a noteworthy victory, the Cavaliers’ first of the season.

East Burke topped Draughn 12-7 at home in Icard on Friday night, capturing a nonconference win just a day and change after Minor departed the program for health reasons. The Cavs seemed undeterred en route to their second Five Miles of Wild win in three years and an 8-7 edge over the Wildcats in the all-time series standings.

“It has been an absolute whirlwind,� Wittenberg said. “Just to go from everything that happened over the past 24-plus hours, for us to put this thing together and come out with a win, I’m just so proud of our staff and our kids. It was literally an hour before practice (on Thursday). I don’t know if my words will do it very much justice right now.

“I feel like a lot of stuff was stacked against us, and we found a way to get it done.�

It had been almost 10 years since Wittenberg had manned the sideline as the head coach of a Burke County team. Somewhat fittingly, that was during Wittenberg’s lone season as head coach of Draughn and almost 10 years since his lone win with the Wildcats, 3-0 over Chase on Sept. 26, 2014.

“Honestly, I’m just so happy for our kids. I didn’t think about it,� Wittenberg. “The last 24 hours, I only thought about playing (JV and varsity) football games. I thought about, ‘Let’s get through two football games, then we can kind of figure out what else we need to do.’ I just wanted to get us through that.

“That was our primary focus as a staff. I’m just happy for our kids.�

Any time a major personnel change happens in football, there obviously is going to be a trickle-down effect. For the Cavaliers (1-2), that meant assistant coach Fred Brown IV was called up to call offensive plays for the first time.

“Fred and I sat down for a long time today and he did a great job working on his script,� Wittenberg said. “We just kind of talked about different scenarios and what we thought would work and just stuck with our game plan. I wish we had executed a little bit better in some spots, but I’m so happy for Fred. He put a lot of effort into getting ready tonight and did a really good job.�

Brown credits everyone around him for helping to make Friday night’s performance a success.

“Winning tonight feels great,� Brown said. “It’s always fun to win a rivalry game. Getting this for our community and our seniors. The last 29 hours or whatever, I’ve never done anything like it. The kids on (the JV and varsity) teams, going out and winning both games while they had to go through all that uncertainty, I can’t say enough about how resilient the kids are.

“We couldn’t have done any of this without them, without Coach Wittenberg and his leadership and Coach Minor, as well. Neither one of these wins happen without what Minor’s done for this program. We threw out some wrinkles we had already been working on this week and put them in the plan today and the kids did a good job executing.�

One of the things that stood out about the offense was the use of power back Darren Hammons as the ice man at the end of the game. After scoring the evening’s first touchdown to put EBHS up 6-0, Hammons also sealed the game with some big runs late, gobbling up yardage to keep the clock moving after Zac Bennett’s interception had the Cavaliers clinging to a five-point lead with 5:42 left and a drive starting at their own 2-yard line.

Hammons finished with 82 yards on 12 carries two years after catching a touchdown in overtime to help East Burke beat Draughn (1-2) the most recent time in 2022.

“It was odd because I’ve never been in a spot like that, but it was a good feeling until after the play because I was tired,� Hammons said. “That was about all I had. But it was good, especially knowing I got us out of the end zone and that kind of helped us seal the deal a little bit.

“I feel like we’ve made our offense where you can’t key in on one running back anymore. You have to watch each one, which has helped open it up where Caden (Buff) can run outside more when they key on me or Zayne trying to run up the middle. It helps open up everything else when they have to switch up the defense to play against us.�

Bennett’s interception was one of two for the EB defense in the second half, with the other coming from Nathan Rees as the hosts held the Wildcats off the board for the entire second half. That’s the second week in a row the East Burke defense, led in part by senior linebacker Jordan Fox, has accomplished that feat after doing the same to Freedom in Fat Friday 50 in Week 2.

“We’ve had this game circled on the schedule for a long time. We’ve been looking forward to this,� Fox said. “Losing was not an option today. We were going to beat them no matter what. It doesn’t matter who’s the head coach, we ball no matter what. We’ll play under any circumstances, and we’ll get the same result any time. That’s all I’ve got to say.�

More than anything else, it was nice for the Cavaliers to come out on top of a 12-7 rivalry game after losing by that score against the Patriots.

“It’s not even a comparison,� Wittenberg said. “We were so close last week. We felt like we were always just a play away from having a chance.�