The home opener was three weeks and three road trips in the making, and the storms threatening all night mostly cooperated, showing up as a light rain in the middle of the game rather than anything that stopped play. Before play began, Hanna held a pregame moment for the 25th anniversary of September 11th, the kind that reminds everyone what a scoreboard is actually worth.
Hanna opened with a three-and-out, forced Wren into a turnover on downs, and went 55 yards in six plays for the first score. A forced punt came next for the Hurricanes, then a two-play 48-yard drive to make it 14-0 with nearly three minutes still left in the first quarter. Just like the week before, the quick 14 points were not foreshadowing for how the rest of the night would go.
Wren answered on one play. Josiah Mosley took the handoff and went 90 yards to the end zone. What followed was genuine defensive football from both sides, five combined drives ending in punts. Neither offense finding anything clean, the game tightening the way it does when two defenses lock in. Then Wren put together one more answer before halftime. Starting from their own territory with just over four minutes on the clock, Jacob Owings found Jack Hughes for a 45-yard gain to ignite the drive, then hit him again for a 31-yard touchdown strike. Those two throws in before halftime were the ones that changed the shape of the whole evening.
The third quarter belonged to Hanna. The defense held Wren to just 57 total yards in the frame, five rushing and 52 passing, and posted another shutout in the period where through four games this season the Jackets have allowed only six total points. Wren's defense matched Hanna in the third, and the fourth quarter opened tied at 14.
Wren went three-and-out to start the final period, punted, and pinned Hanna at the 6-yard line. What happened next was one of the better drives of the season, more than seven minutes chewed off the clock, the ball worked all the way to the Wren 24. The game result seemed to be tilting Hanna’s way. Then came the fumble. Wren recovered at its own 26, and the next three plays vaulted Wren ahead. A 28-yard run, a 20-yard pass, a 26-yard touchdown strike to Hughes with 2:02 remaining pushed the score to 21-14. Hanna down seven.
The final drive got the ball to the Wren 26 with 20 seconds left. Forced to the end zone, Hanna’s pass went up looking to connect for the tying touchdown. In the end, Wren’s Sloan Sanders came down with it.
Both turnovers came when the game was tied or Hanna trailed. Comebacks do not survive turnovers, promising drives do not survive penalties, and the flag that wiped out the 46-yard score was the single most costly moment on a night that had several of them. Nine flags for 81 yards, matching the BHP game in volume and turning manageable third-down situations into massive hurdles. The sugar-in-the-gas-tank problem, again. The car ran. It just could not get to the finish line. But even with the loss, all of Hanna's goals for the season remain exactly where they were Friday morning, ahead of them. But for the first time in 2026, adversity showed up for four full quarters, and now this team gets to show everyone what it does next.
Week 5 Preview: Mauldin Mavericks
Hanna stays home Friday and closes out non-region play against the Mauldin Mavericks. Mauldin comes in at 1-3, looking to snap a six-game losing streak to Hanna and find a spark in a season that has not gone the way they planned.
This will be the 35th meeting between these programs. Hanna holds a 23-11 advantage in the 34 previous matchups, including six straight wins over the Mavericks and nine out of the last ten. Mauldin's only win this season was a 10-3 decision over Christ Church in the opener, followed by losses to Greenville (21-19), Westside (41-24), and Fountain Inn (24-10). The record looks lopsided, but context matters. Coach Andre Cook took over at Mauldin in 2023 and went 0-10. He won two games the next year, then five last season. The program has been moving in one direction, and a game against a top opponent is exactly what a team three years into a rebuild circles on the calendar.
Junior quarterback CJ Edwards runs the Mauldin offense. On the season he has completed 28 of 72 passes for 456 yards and two touchdowns, adding 25 carries for 65 yards and a score on the ground. Edwards is not a designed runner the way Wren's Jacob Owings was, but he creates problems differently. When a passing play breaks down he extends it, keeps his eyes downfield, and picks up chunk gains against a secondary that has already moved into coverage assignments 15 yards away. Designed runs are one kind of threat to prepare for. A quarterback who finds real estate because the play died and he refused to let it is a different problem entirely.
His receiving options give him genuine weapons. Tyson Smith leads the team with six catches for 179 yards and a touchdown. Landon Cash provides the possession element with 10 receptions for 108 yards, and Malakai Ford adds seven catches for 125 yards. Three targets, three different functions, all capable of making a play on any given snap. Spreading the ball that way stretches a defense sideline to sideline on every down, and that horizontal pressure is what opens up the running game for sophomore Rylan Walton, who comes in with 42 carries for 253 yards and three touchdowns running into lighter boxes because of what the passing game demands.
All of it runs behind the biggest offensive line Hanna has faced all season. Kushal Khadia at 6'3", Jacob Whitehead at 6'4", and Nehemiah Jackson at 6'4" give Mauldin real size at the point of attack. When they are moving in the same direction, Edwards has time and Walton has lanes.
On defense, Mauldin builds from the back end forward. Their corners and safeties are active in both coverage and the run game, using speed to make plays at or behind the line of scrimmage and enough physicality to shed blocks from larger offensive players. They generate pressure from multiple directions at once, mixing linebacker and strong safety blitzes with twists and stunts from the defensive line in combinations that are hard to account for because the source keeps changing. Linebacker Isaiah Thompson leads the front with 30 total tackles, 11 solo, three tackles for loss, and a sack and a half. Defensive end Joshua Evans is the one who changes how an offensive line has to think before the snap, coming in with 22 total tackles, nine solo, 4.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, and 18 quarterback hurries through four games. Eighteen.
Mauldin is a 5A program built the way 5A programs are built. Their offensive line is large, their skill positions are stocked, and their defense is designed to create chaos. A 1-3 record does not tell you the ceiling on what they can do on any given Friday night, and Coach Cook has been assembling this thing long enough that these kids know how to compete. There is nothing a program on the rise wants more than a win over a program like Hanna, and they are coming to the Yellow Jackets' field Friday to try and get one.
The Friday Formula
Mauldin is a 5A school and their team size shows from top to bottom. They have the talent on both sides of the ball to outplay most teams on their schedule and Friday they will be looking to spark their season snapping a 6 game losing streak to Hanna. However here are the three things that Hanna has to have in Friday's formula to get their first home win of the season.
Penalty and Turnover Free. Against White Knoll and Powdersville combined, Hanna had nine penalties for 70 total yards. Against BHP alone, 10 for 80. Against Wren, 9 for 81, and that count does not include the 46-yard score that got called back Friday. With that, Hanna has also had at least one turnover in every game this season. With fewer flags and fewer giveaways, the scoreboard will show the result.
Pedal to the Metal for Four Quarters. Two weeks running, Hanna has gone up 14-0 in the first quarter and watched the opponent climb back. Getting out front early is a real skill, and this team has it. Keeping the motor revving after the lead arrives is the next one. This is a young roster accumulating game experience in real time, which means some of these lessons only take hold by going through them. Friday is another classroom, and the version of this game this team needs to play is the one where the early lead grows instead of offering an invitation to slow down.
Respond. This team has not faced a loss together in 2026 until now. The in-game resilience has been there all season, the BHP and White Knoll comebacks, both requiring real answers in the moment. The question this week is a different one. How does this group come out after a week of practice, carrying a loss, against a fresh opponent? That answer has not been given yet. The history under Coach Tone says 8-0 after a loss in the same season. History does not block or tackle. The team does, and Friday is when they show their response.
Non-region play closes Friday. Hanna has learned things across four weeks that a soft schedule would not have taught. Close margins, explosive plays in the open field, what turnovers cost in the final minutes, and now a first loss with specific and correctable lessons attached. None of those came free. All of them are useful. Mauldin did not teach any of those lessons - they just gets to find out whether or not Hanna learned them.
Statistically Speaking
Hanna suffered its first loss of the season last week, which makes how this team has historically responded worth a look.
All time, the Yellow Jackets are 119-133 following a loss, which tells you clearly that bouncing back in high school football is genuinely hard regardless of who you are. Under Coach Tone specifically, Hanna is 8-0 after a loss. Narrow it further to the first loss of a season and the numbers lean even more: 34-26 all time when rebounding from that first defeat, 10-3 since 2010, and 6-0 under Coach Tone. That last number is the one that matters most this week.
Home field adds a layer. Hanna is 65-65 all time in home games following a loss, but 54-68 on the road in the same situation.
Of the 34 all-time meetings between Hanna and Mauldin, Hanna has been coming off a loss for 17 of them. The Yellow Jackets hold a 9-8 record in those 17 games. As close to a coin flip as numbers get. Nothing is decided by the ledger on Friday though. It just says Hanna tends to show up.
Wrap-Up
Region play starts next week. Non-region was supposed to be preparation, and it has done its job. Four different opponents, four different problems, close margins, explosive plays, and a loss with specific and correctable lessons attached.
For me, Friday feels less like a game about Mauldin and more like a test with a real answer at the end. Can this team limit the penalties and turnovers that have quietly followed them all season and loudly cost them last week? Can it build a lead and keep building? Can it come back from its first loss and play like a team that took something from it? The record says yes. The coaching says yes. Six seasons of data under Coach Tone says yes. Friday night at home against a Mauldin squad hungry enough to make it interesting, that is when the team says it for itself.
We hope to see every Yellow Jacket fan in those home statnds this Friday! If you can't make it, follow along on X and Facebook, with live stat updates on Exceeding Stats. Check back next week for the next Hanna Between the Hashes.