Friday Night Lights - Maryville vs. Alcoa

I know this was a Thursday night game, but I'm not going to change the name of the post. This is high school football and boy was it on display tonight. I had heard tales of having to get to the game hours before it started in order to get a seat so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I picked up my friend Stone, a Maryville alum, and we headed to the stadium around 5:30pm. On our way he explained some of the things that had happened in past games and just how bitter this rivalry was. I have never been to a high school game where the two schools just absolutely despise one another so I was a bit nervous to be a neutral fan, worrying that if I cheered for a good play, no matter who made it, would I immediately be exiled. 


We ended up being able to sit a few rows behind the Maryville student section, and 2 hours before kickoff the stands were already packed. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The two student sections were throwing barbs across the field at one another. Every time an Alcoa supporter had to walk through the Maryville section they were met with a wall of insults and at times had water thrown on them. It reminded me a lot of The Swamp in Gainesville. After the teams stretched and the National Anthem was played, it was finally time for kickoff of one of the biggest rivalries in Tennessee High School Football

On the first drive of the game, Maryville's running back fumbled the ball. When an Alcoa player went to recover the fumble, somehow it was kicked further down field, and then before any of the other players could catch up to it, a referee went to pick up the ball not realizing that the 22 players on the field were still trying to chase it down. Luckily the player who fumbled was ruled down before he fumbled but still not a smart move on the part of the ref to try and pick it up. My roommate Andre', who met us at the game, also pointed out that Maryville has a player on their team whose name may or may not be Mufasa.

Mufasa or not, this was his program picture.

At halftime Andres' friend left to go get food. He came back with Sour Punch Straws and water. I told him that was the first time I had seen Sour Punch Straws since 6th grade, and Andre' followed that statement up with, "What made you buy those anyway?" His reply, "They were out of pizza." I am still baffled by this diet substitution. Anyway, Alcoa led at halftime 14-10, which was better than the 42-19 margin that Bearden had over Walker Valley in the last game I had attended. 

The second half started slow but heated up towards the end of the third quarter after a roughing the kicker call on a 40+ yard FG attempt that was shanked something fierce. The penalty I agree with, what happened after the flag was thrown . . . not so much. A Maryville player overcome with joy after finding out the drive would continue, threw up his hand to give the head referee, who also happened to be the one to throw the flag, a high five. This action is fine, but what is not fine is said referee actually giving it to him. The penalty allowed The Rebels to continue the drive that led to a Maryville touchdown. 

Alcoa answered back quickly though with Alcoa running back Vanderbilt Hambrick breaking a huge run for an Alcoa score. This gave the Tornadoes a 21-17 lead. While we were talking about how fast Hambrick was, as well as how he easily had the best name out of anyone on the field, Maryville receiver Clarence Langley caught a pass on a post route and took it to the house to put the Rebels back on top 24-21.

The scoring seemingly didn't stop from that point on. Alcoa's Vanderbilt Hambrick took a sweep play to the outside for about 9 yds before cutting it back up field, breaking about 6 tackles and juking everyone and their mothers out of their shoes, including Stian Romberg, who was definitely the goat for the Rebels tonight. Romberg dropped numerous passes including one that would have been a touchdown early in the 1st quarter. The Rebels and Tornadoes traded scores a few more times but after Darrell Warren scored from two yards out for Alcoa, and the Tornado defense held on 4th and long, all Alcoa had to do was run out the clock and leave Maryville with the 35-31 victory, handing Maryville their first home loss since 2000.

Maryville sulks on one end of the field while to Alcoa go the spoils on the other.

I won't be able to go to a game this Friday, but next Thursday I am planning on getting out to Powell High School for the Powell vs. Halls game and next Friday I am looking forward to watching my alma mater play for the first time this year as they take on the Mavericks of Anderson County. It's going to be really hard to top the game I just watched though. However it will also be really hard to be as bad as the Bearden vs. Walker Valley game. I guess I'll have to wait a week to see what each game brings.

Friday Night Lights - Bearden vs. Walker Valley

Last night was week zero for the 2010 high school football season. Just looking at the games lined up I couldn't really find any game that stood out and screamed GREAT GAME so I decided to find a school that I knew was usually pretty decent and hope that the school they were playing was about the same. Not knowing anything about Walker Valley, I kinda just prayed they were good. Ford and my brother went with me to Bearden to watch and almost immediately my brother pointed out that all high school students are the same. I laughed for a moment, but then realized that about 5 years ago, some college kid was looking at me and thinking the same thing.

It was immediately evident that we had not come to a game that was going to be close at all. Ford pointed out how ridiculously bad the Walker Valley place kicker was. Very reminiscent of last year's UT FG unit. wide left, wide right, line drive into the back of the center's head.

Bearden recieved the opening kickoff and moved the ball at will, mostly on the legs of their running back Devrin Young. We found out later that while schools with interest in Devrin include Illinois, Vandy, and Ga. Tech, only Stanford has offered him a scholarship up to this point. He definitely helped his case tonight though. It seemed like every time Bearden scored it was him, and he also took a kickoff back some 80 yards for a touchdown. There was one play where Devrin absolutely destroyed a Walker Valley LB. My brother, Ford, and myself immediately began to take jabs at the poor kid only to find out that his mother and uncle were sitting directly in front of us. That still did not change that fact that her son just got trucked.

Walker Valley was entirely out of their league in this game. Nothing was going right other then a kickoff returned for a touchdown and a great catch by a Walker Valley receiver just before halftime. On a punt attempt, Ford and I discussed how far we thought the punt may go. Right before the snap Ford got all prophetic and called for a block. Sure enough that is what happened and Bearden scored a touchdown. On another attempt the ball sailed over the punters head and out of the endzone for a safety. After the 1st quarter it was 30-6 Bearden. We left at the conclusion of the 3rd quarter because it was becoming hard to watch. Staying any longer would have been like watching a train wreck. 

When we got back to my apartment and turned on the TV to see that Carter and Hardin Valley were about to go into OT. That is the game we should have gone to. Next week, on Thursday, I am going to the Maryville vs. Alcoa game. With multiple D-1 prospects on both squads, I would have to assume this won't be the same 72-27 blow out that the Bearden game was. Below is the schedule of games that I plan to attend. If you know a better game to go to on any particular week, drop me a line.

Why Not

So I figured since I have no tests to study for or any sort of homework my last semester of undergrad school, I would start a blog. It just seems like the cool thing to do and would give me something to do in the time that I would be spending studying for tests and what not. I thought I would just take this time to to briefly describe what I thought I might do with this thing. Living in Knoxville there are quite a few high school football teams in the area, most of which I have never seen play. So this year I decided I would change this and find the most intriguing match up of that particular week and go with some of my friends to watch it. So at least until the end of the high school football season this blog will just be about the game that we were able to watch. After that I'll find something else to post on maybe. Enjoy!