Preview of September 7 Morgan County Football Games
September 5, 2018
Week 4 of the 2018 season finds every Morgan County school facing an in-county opponent.
Coalfield at Sunbright
By Greg Addington
The Jackets and Tigers renew their annual rivalry on Friday night with Coalfield traveling up Highway 27 to face Sunbright. Coalfield rallied from behind to defeat Harriman last Friday night on Rochelle Field 23-12 while Sunbright fell to top-ranked Greenback 49-0 on their home field.
Against Harriman, Coalfield turned a 12-3 halftime deficit into the winning margin with a 20-point outburst in the third quarter. The CHS offense took control of the game in the second half with 196 yards of their 284 yards of total offense coming in the third and fourth quarters. Lance Byrd threw for 135 yards on 6 of 14 passing and sparked the second half resurgence with a 14-yard pass to Isaac VanWitzenburg and a 50-yard strike to Peyton McKinney which set up his one-yard touchdown run to bring CHS to within one score. Coalfield recovered a Blue Devil fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Seth Lowe would score on his own one-yard run to put the Jackets up for good.
Sunbright struggled to contain the Cherokees offensively (something most teams will have problems with when lining up against Greenback) and played their first full game of the 2018 season after storms cancelled their game at Sale Creek in week one. Sunbright will look to sophomore quarterback John Wayne Freels to lead the Tiger attack with Jonathan Hammock and Ethan Hammock sharing much of the rushing duties and big senior tight end Wesley Bohanan helping with blocking on the line and also catching passes. Junior wideouts Jessie Jones and Josh Langley help anchor the Tiger passing game. Sunbright runs multiple offensive sets, many times out of the I-formation, but they will also line up in the spread and the pistol. Defensively, the Tigers line up in a 4-3.
Coalfield is looking to improve their region record in Friday’s county rivalry game and Sunbright would love to level their region record at the expense of Coach Keith Henry’s Yellow Jackets. The annual clash of Jackets and Tigers kicks off Friday night at Sunbright at 7:30 PM.
Oakdale at Wartburg
By Terry Futrell
Oakdale travels to Wartburg to face the Bulldogs in their homecoming game. Both teams have had their share of struggles this season – Wartburg is winless and Oakdale has defeated only Jellico.
With only 19 players on their roster, Oakdale has endurance problems. This was further complicated in their 40-7 defeat by Midway last Friday because several players had experienced a virus during the week. As one of the Oakdale coaches put it, “some of our players were like zombies even before the game began.” With very few substitutes, the Eagles are challenged to put forth a consistent level of effort for four quarters. The Eagles run two basic offensive alignments with either Eli Solomon at quarterback under center or Garrett Miller at quarterback in the shotgun formation.
A look at their second-half performance suggests Wartburg may have similar issues. First half statistics in Wartburg’s 46-6 loss to Oneida showed an entirely different team than the one that showed up for the second half. The Bulldogs held Oneida scoreless for the first quarter, and trailed by only 13-6 at the half, proving the Bulldogs have the capability to play with almost any team. While the Bulldogs struggled running the ball, they had much better success passing – quarterback Josh Moore completed 11 of 21 for 129 yards, with Caleb McCarty on the receiving end of four passes that netted 93 yards and 1 TD. The Bulldogs should have much greater success running against Oakdale, especially in the second half when fatigue begins to take its toll on the Eagles.
So, what will happen when these two struggling teams face each other Friday night? Well, it is Wartburg’s homecoming and spirits are high, which just might give them the edge needed to send the Eagles back to their nest. Game time is 7:30 PM at Wartburg on John R. Dillon field.