Bears kick off three straight Thursday games tonight

Sep. 29—Mt. Juliet has played a Thursday night game at least once most every year in recent seasons.

With TSSAA strongly urging, if not downright requiring, teams to play at least one game a year on Thursday to help ease the officiating shortage, the Golden Bears will play the first of three straight on the fifth day of the week beginning tonight at Roger Perry Field/Elzie Patton Stadium.

Station Camp at Mt. Juliet (Thursday)It was one year ago these teams met in Gallatin on Thursday. The Golden Bears had just attained their first-ever No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll while the Bison were also highly ranked. The game met all expectations and went down to the wire where Station Camp escaped on a missed field goal with a 28-27 win.

That marked a turning point for the Bears, who didn't win another game in 2021 and eventually lost six straight carrying over into the start of '22. Station Camp didn't fare much better, going 2-2 the rest of the regular season, including a 48-0 annihilation at Green Hill to give the Hawks the Region 5-5A championship before losing at home to Nolensville in the first round of the playoffs.

The new season has been a tonic for both teams as Mt. Juliet has won four straight since that season-opening loss at Gallatin and is alone atop the region at 3-0. After White County and Green Hill (both 2-1 with the Warriors owning the tiebreaker), Station Camp is 1-1 but 4-1 overall with the loss coming to White County.

"That's gone from what we see on film," Mt. Juliet coach Trey Perry said of Station Camp's end-of-2021 issues. "They look like the team that beat us last year and not the one that stumbled down the stretch."

Station Camp's offense revolves around junior quarterback Luke Dickens and classmate Ellis Sanders, who Perry said might be the Bison's best defender at linebacker.

"Saying they's solid football players is an understatement," Perry said of Dickens and Sanders. "They are really good football players. Then they added a transfer running back (senior Trevon Barfield) from Knoxville West, which is the No. 1 team in 5A right now (Perry's Bears are No. 9 in the same poll), in the summer."

In addition, Cade Abner, nephew of former Mt. Juliet defensive coordinator Greg Abner, is handy for short-yardage running and blocking situations.

"In that offense — and this will be the fastest tempo we've faced all year — you need somebody to get the tough yards and block down and kick out when you need it the most, and he's just been great at that.

"They don't do a lot of formations because of their tempo. Their philosophy, not their scheme but their philosophy, is a lot like Tennessee. They're not going to change many formations because they want to get to the line and snap the ball. And that hurt us last year. That was part of the deal. We did not respond well to the tempo in the second half. So obviously that's been a big point of emphasis this week."

Station Camp will also throw on the bootleg and, in exploit matchups, the Beech smokestack and can threw the power pass, Perry said. The backup quarterback is a starting wide receiver, giving the Bison the option of a double pass.

The Bison run an odd-front defense.

"They're a little bit like us in that they don't mind putting undersized guys on the defense and predicate things off of speed," Perry said. "They'll run twists, slants and just try to disrupt before you get things started in the backfield."

Perry said the Bears have a couple of players nicked up. Linebacker Jayze Ballesteros has been out with an illness though Perry is hopeful he can return next week for Lebanon.

Lebanon at ShelbyvilleThe Blue Devils got the train back on the tracks last week, snapping a two-game losing streak with a 38-0 whipping of Lincoln County, bringing them to 4-2 for the season.

"We played better," Lebanon coach Chuck Gentry said. "Still not clean. Had some mishaps in the kicking game we weren't happy about. But pretty clean otherwise. We tackled better and played better defense. Anytime you have 450 yards of total offense, you feel you've done pretty good. I felt like we struggled at times but after we went back and watched it, it was just one little thing here or there."

Shelbyville is rebuilding at 0-5 for the season, 0-1 in Region 3-6A.

"Not playing very good football right now, but have some good-looking athletes on the field," Gentry said of the Golden Eagles, normally a playoff-contending team. "They were senior-heavy last year so even if there are older kids, they're not kids who have a lot of experience."

The Eagles like to hit the big play on you," Gentry said. "They'll play-action and throw it deep or just drop back and throw it deep. They like to hit the home run.

"Hopefully we can keep it in front of us. Hopefully we can stop the run and make them one-dimensional."

Shelbyville runs a 3-4 shaded front on defense.

"They like to blitz a lot," Gentry said. "They'll have a lot of people close to the line of scrimmage."

The loss at Coffee County two weeks ago likely cost the Blue Devils a chance to repeat as region champions. But they can win this week and in Week 11 against Warren County, they should be at home for the first round of the playoffs.

"We're just trying to get a win so we can say we're probably in the playoffs," Gentry said. "If we can do that, then we can kind of start sorting it out later."

White County at Wilson Central

The Warriors' Malaki Dowell was the nation's leading rusher going into last week's game against Green Hill. He was forced to the sidelines by an injury after rushing for 226 yards in less than three quarters of action, bringing his season total to 1,834 yards. But that missed final quarter and a half cost him the USA's lead, which is now just over 2,000 yards.

Wilson Central is preparing as if Dowell will be in the backfield for the Warriors, who are 5-1 for the season, 2-1 in Region 5-5A and ranked No. 8 in the AP 5A poll, just ahead of Mt. Juliet and Green Hill.

"He's a special dude," Wildcats coach Brad Dedman said. "He can make plays out of nothing. He's definitely somebody we got to make sure we can rally and hem in get to the ground. He does a good job of trying to find his way out and make a lot of big plays.

"He is as patient of any runner I've ever seen or ever coached against. He just waits for (the hole) to open and all of a sudden it does and he shoots through there like a cannon. He's got a burst a lot of kids don't have."

As a change of pace, White County turns to quarterback Tripp Pinion, not necessarily for passing, but for running.

"He makes a lot of big plays himself," Dedman said of Pinion. "He probably has half as many explosive plays as Dowell does. He figures out how to get his plays and get his reads in when they run the power read or the quarterback counter. They do a good job of dispersing the football between the two."

White County runs a 4-4 or a 4-2-5 defense.

"They play with a lot of linebackers inside the box," Dedman said. "Sometimes they bump them outside, so we'll see what defense that we get and go from there."

Central lost running back Ethan Kimes early in last week's loss to Mt. Juliet with a knee injury and is considered questionable for this week, said Dedman, who added running back Tavin Hardin might return Friday.

Watertown at East Robertson

The Indians are 5-1 and ranked No. 7 in the AP Class 2A poll. They are tied atop Region 2 with Westmoreland at 2-0. Watertown and Harpeth are both 1-1 in the region with the Purple Tigers 2-4 for the season as they venture to Cross Plains in Robertson County.

Watertown coach Gavin Webster said the Indians are probably the most athletic team in the region.

"They'll spread the ball," Webster said. "They'll play with three receivers, a tailback, a sniffer, fullback.

"Based out of spread principles is what they're doing. Sort of what we've done in the past."

East Robertson runs a 4-2 base defense.

"They got a lot of speed, decent size, a very athletic football team," Webster said.

The injury-plagued Tigers seemed to put the brakes on their lengthening injury this week as Webster noted most of the players with one possible exception should be available this week.

"It's not worse," Webster said.

The other issue this season has been consistency.

"We've not been consistent on either side of the football," Webster said. "We've got to be consistent and protect the football and block and tackle, all that stuff that comes with football.

"We got to get a running game going."

Friendship Christian at Bell Buckle Webb

The top-ranked Commanders return to East Region action looking to build on a 6-0 record and 1-0 mark in the league. Webb is 2-3 going into the Feet's region opener.

"They've really done a lot with their program," Commander coach John McNeal said of the Feet. "Facilities for one. They've got a nice turf field, stadium. They're getting kids in with the boarding school.

"I think their numbers are larger than hours. They've really taken their program to another level."

Webb runs a 3-4 defense and go multiple sets on offense.

"They got a good freshman running back; he started as an eighth-grader last year," McNeal said. "Try to get him the ball in different ways whether it be in the flat, flares or running the ball. They like getting him in space, too."

On the injury front, running back Tyson Wolcott continues to nurse an ankle injury.

"I held him out on my own," McNeal said of last week. "Doc (Shawn Mountain) released him. I just felt like another week. We'll see this week in practice and if I like what I see, then he'll play. If he don't, he won't."

Green Hill at East Nashville

It's the only non-region game on this week's docket. But the No. 10 (in AP Class 5A) Hawks face an undefeated Eagles team which moved into the top spot in the 3A poll when Alcoa lost to 5A No. 1 Knoxville West on the final play of the game last week. East Nashville lost to Alcoa in the 3A title game last year, is 6-0 last year and leads the Tornadoes by one point in the poll.

"It will be a good test for us, and that's part of non-region for us," Green Hill coach Josh Crouch said. "Our philosophy is to play the best. So excited to play against the best team in the state.

"They're big, strong, powerful. They got a transfer wide receiver (6-foot-3 senior Trey Joyner) from Pope John Paul that's four-star, so they can do a little bit of everything."

Senior Zack Beard is in his second season as East Nashville's starting quarterback.

"They return pretty much everybody back from that team (which lost in last year's BlueCross Bowl)," Crouch said, noting this will be a good measuring stick for his 4-2 team which is coming off a one-point loss at White County.

"We've had six turnovers in two weeks," Crouch said. "If we just get out of our own way, I feel pretty confident in our playing ability. Right now, we're stuck in our own kind of way. With East coming in, you have to be forced to play kind of a perfect game to in order to defeat that kind of program."

Crouch said the Hawks lost left guard/defensive tackle/team captain Jarren Tatum to a broken leg last week.

Mt. Juliet Christian at Columbia Academy

The Saints are 0-5 but coming off a midseason bye as they travel to 2-3 Columbia Academy. Both are 0-1 in the Middle Region.

"They're playing pretty good ball," MJCA coach Dan Davis said of the Bulldogs. "Their record doesn't necessarily indicate it. But they've played pretty good teams. They've played Boyd Buchanan, they've played FRA (Franklin Road Academy)."

Columbia Academy runs a spread offense with a no-huddle and uptempo pace. The Bulldogs are a 4-2-5 defense.

The Saints enter the second half of the year coming off a home loss to Franklin Grace Christian which ended with MJCA scoring just its second touchdown of the season.

"We're definitely ready to go in the second half," Davis said. "There's a lot of learning with a lot of moving parts on top of being young.

"We feel like we have something to build on. We've spent time working on what works and what we thought was successful and building upon that."