Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday Night Lights - Bearden vs. Catholic

This week was the last week of the high school regular season. The game that I really wanted to attend was moved to Thursday night in Alcoa vs. CAK. So instead I went to a game featuring two teams with identical records at Bearden vs. Catholic. All the local stars were out for this one, including The Bear Jew. That's right, Knoxville's favorite sixth man was here to watch two future Tennessee football stars, and maybe his girlfriend cheer??? I'm not one to judge or anything, but this just seemed a little inappropriate.

What is about to happen at the end of this bat is more appropriate then what I saw tonight from The Bear Jew.

Moving onto the game, Catholic surprised me from the go by not kicking to Devrin Young. Apparently someone finally watched film. Both teams traded three and outs before Catholic had two big plays, a 15 yard run from Nolan Coulter followed by a 22 yard pass from Ryan Ridley to Zach Thomas, only to miss horribly on a field goal attempt. Bearden put together a nice drive and Devrin Young got the scoring going for the Bulldogs on a 1 yard run for a touchdown. The extra point was blocked however so Bearden's lead was only 6-0. Catholic couldn't answer and Bearden used a 45 yard pass from Kyle Riemer to Tyler Callaway to set up a 13 yard pass between the same two players to increase its lead to 13-0.

Even the bag pipe guy was ready to throw it in at this point.

After Catholic looked to be finally putting something together when Ryan Ridley hit Vic Wharton for a 34 yard gain, Ridley was intercepted on the next play by Stephon Stephens. Devrin Young didn't make Bulldog fans wait long, breaking free and going 88 yards for a touchdown, then scoring another touchdown from 3 yards out just as the half ended giving the Bulldogs a 27-0 halftime advantage. Everyone in the stadium realized this game was over, with a couple of the Catholic parents sitting behind us saying, "Well if this game keeps going like this, our boys may get in." This statement told me two things, that these guys had already thrown in the towel, and that their sons were scrubs.

I think we can all agree these kid's futures have a lot of this in them.

Catholic showed signs of life to start the half when Catholic quarterback Mike Wegzyn came off the bench and led the Irish on a scoring drive that was capped off by a 20 yard touchdown run by Trey Leake. Catholic was unable to capitalize on recovering the ensuing onside kick however and Bearden answered with a 5 yard touchdown run from Josh Haney to push the score to 33-7 Bearden after the extra point was once again blocked. Catholic scored a meaningless touchdown when Nolan Coulter scored from a yard out to make the final score 33-14. You could hear in the stands Friday night the math from supporters of both schools that goes into figuring out your playoff seed, if your in or out, and where or who you will be playing. That picture will be crystal clear by Monday, when we will know what the playoff bracket looks like. TSSAA football playoffs start next week and all roads lead to Cookeville.

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