DALTON, Ga. — Shaquon Moore has a simple approach to running the football: See hole, hit hole, run hard until you’re tackled.

On a homecoming night when Moore’s Dalton Catamounts found the going tough against upstart Woodland, Moore’s strategy worked wonderfully. The junior running back ran for 164 yards and three touchdowns and added another score on a short pass as the Catamounts fought off the Wildcats for a 36-14 Region 7-AAAA win.

Moore’s scoring offset a huge rushing advantage for the visitors, who amassed 341 yards on the ground to Dalton’s 179. The game’s key, according to coach Adam Winegarden, was the 3-0 turnover advantage for the Cats (5-0, 2-0).

“The way they were controlling the ball, us not turning it over was big,” Winegarden said. “We bent a lot tonight, but we didn’t often break. And Shaquon Moore is a special back. They gave us some looks on the both sides of the ball that we hadn’t seen and it took us a while to get adjusted, though I don’t really think we ever totally adjusted.”

Woodland (3-2, 0-2) ran only four offensive plays in the first quarter, but Evan Hilton’s 81-yard run on the team’s second play shocked a packed Dalton crowd. Dalton, which had no gain or a loss on seven of its first nine rushing plays, used a short kickoff and Moore’s hard running to put together a 11-play, 51-yard drive to tie the score just before the end of the quarter, with Moore bowling in from the 2.

After a long Woodland drive stalled at the 20 with a missed field goal, the game turned in a matter of moments. Finding the ground game going nowhere, Winegarden went to the air, with quarterback Stryker Brown completing passes of 38 yards to Reaves Coker and 26 to Tevin Collins before Moore’s 7-yard catch gave Dalton a 14-7 lead.

On the enusing kickoff, Dalton’s Derek Young made the tackle, stripped the ball and recovered it at the Woodland 37. Eight plays later Moore scored his third touchdown on a 2-yard run just before the half.

“Derek Young made a big play on that kickoff, really a game changer,” Winegarden said.

The Wildcats made it 20-14 on a 13-play, 80-yard drive to open the second half, with quarterback Michael Janusek scoring from 5 yards out. Dalton, however, answered right away when Moore broke free on a counter play for 53 yards and a 27-14 lead.

“Really, I can’t explain why I was having success, but I just saw the holes open up and I ran hard,” Moore said. “They were sending a lot of blitzers, so it was tough. But this is a good win.”

Woodland, which put together two long late drives that did not produce points, was led by Hilton’s 129 yards rushing and 113 from Andre Watts.

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