Union football season comes to an end

The clock finally struck midnight for the 2023 Union Yellowjackets football team.

Union saw the best season in school history come to an end last week as top-ranked Charleston took a 40-14 win over the Yellowjackets in the Class 2A North State championship game.

Union finishes the season with a 12-2 record while Charleston improved to 12-2 and will take on Heidelberg in the 2A championship game on Friday at 4 p.m. at Ole Miss.

Union coach Jordan Wren said injuries finally caught up with his team with 1,600-yard rusher Xavier Boler on the sideline for most of the game with an ankle injury. That forced Wren to move Ky’Yon Harris to running back and off the defensive side, where he is a four-year starter.

“They always say that you have to be lucky to win it all because it’s hard to stay healthy,” Wren said. “Us not being healthy caught up to us. The main thing was having to play Ky’Yon mainly on offense, we had to shuffle people on defense. We had kids in the right spots and they were fast enough to get by us in some spots. We played hard the whole game but we made too many mistakes to win that game and that’s it in a nutshell.”

Charleston got the ball to start the game and drove the field, scoring on a 38-yard pass with 9:52 left in the first quarter. The try for two was good and the Tigers led 8-0.

Union was forced to punt on its first two drives and Charleston put together another long drive as they went 82 yards in eight plays and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:31 left in the first quarter. The try for two failed and Charleston led 14-0.

Union responded with a long drive and got deep in Charleston territory. Wren then dug deep in his playbook but a halfback pass by Ky’Yon Harris was intercepted and returned 90 yards for a touchdown with 10:00 left in the first half. The try for two was good and Charleston held a commanding 22-0 lead.

“In my mind, I got in a situation to where if we didn’t score, we were in trouble,” Wren said. “I didn’t know if we could keep up with them offensively. I got really aggressive. I thought I had a good play call but they brought some really good pressure and forced a bad pass. The corner just retraced and made a really great play. But that’s what good football teams do. They put you in aggressive situations and force you to make mistakes.”

Union did answer with another long drive as they went 75 yards in 12 plays as Harris scored on a 26-yard run with 5:02 left in the first half. Samuel Alawine’s PAT was good and Charleston led 22-7.

Charleston gave the Yellowjackets some hope on their next drive with an interceptions by Omari Holliday. But Union gave the ball right back on a fumble with the quarterback-running back exchange. Three plays later, Charleston scored on a 2-yard run with 1:28 left in the half to take a 28-7 lead at the half. 

In the second half, Union got the ball to start the half and went 61 yards in four plays as Harris scored on a 36-yard run with 10:29 left in the third. Alawine’s PAT was good and Union cut the lead to 28-14.

But Charleston answered quickly as they scored on a 51-yard touchdown pass with 8:33 left in the third. The try for two failed and Charleston led 34-14.

“I thought that was a back breaker,” Wren said. “We came out and scored in the second half and made it look easy. I felt like if we could have gotten a stop, we had a chance. Then their guy goes and breaks four or five tackles and scores. It’s not like we just missed him or didn’t get a good lick on him, he just went and made plays. That’s the thing, if we have No. 1 out there on defense, he probably makes that play. And that’s what big-time players do, they go make big-time plays in big-time situations.”

Union got deep in Charleston territory on the next drive but U’Darrian Hickman threw an interception in the end zone to end the scoring threat.

Charleston then went 80 yards in eight plays and scored on a 32-yard run with 10:25 left in the game. The try for two failed and Charleston led 40-14 for the final margin.

“At the end of the day, we had a heck of a year,” Wren said. “We scored the most points in program history and won the most games in program history. It’s something to hang your hat on for next year. We lost a lot of kids but we still have a lot of kids coming back. We are going to be fine.”

The Yellowjackets rushed for 323 yards and threw for 47 for 370 yards of total offense. Harris had another big night with 203 yards rushing on 23 carries with two TDs. Hickman had 73 yards on 11 carries while Boler had 47 yards on five carries. Hickman was also 5-of-11 passing for 47 yards with one interception. Mason Tucker had three catches for 34 yards while Keon Hutchins had 13 yards on two carries.