Mt. Juliet kicks off abbreviated Week 9 schedule tonight

Oct. 13—With three weeks remaining in the regular seasons, there are lots of region/playoff races all over.

But in Wilson County — not this week.

With all schools on spring break, four of the seven high school football teams are taking their byes this week. But for those who need a football fix, there are three games on the abbreviated docket, including Mt. Juliet's third, and final, straight Thursday game tonight as the Golden Bears bring RePublic to Roger Perry Field/Elzie Patton Stadium for Senior Night.

RePublic at Mt. Juliet (tonight)

For all intents and purposes, this is a final tune-up session for the 5-2 Golden Bears before the Region 5-5A leaders resume their quest for a league championship resumes next week at Hillsboro. It may well come down to Week 11 at Green Hill.

RePublic revived its football program this year after a two-year hiatus. But since it's the second year of the scheduling cycle, the TrailBlazers or Timberwolves (according to the TSSAA directory, the school uses both names) are not in a region and thus, not playoff eligible. The school is a 2A school in basketball. They've been outscored 297-12 in an 0-6 season against whoever they could find to play.

Mt. Juliet was looking for a game after Maplewood bailed out.

"They don't get 10 games," Mt. Juliet coach Trey Perry said. "They've gotten as many as they can get. We don't have the body of work (on video) as we usually get this time of year."

But what the TrailBlazers do isn't that important.

"We can focus on ourselves and things we can do this homestretch because this is the last week we can do that," Perry said. "The timing is good for us. The last thing you want to do when you make a lot of self-inflicted mistakes in bigger games is turn around and wait a week, which is what we had to do with Gallatin (Week 2 bye). It's so much easier to get a teenager motivated when there's a reward at the end of the week.

"It's potentially the last time we get to try different combinations with people — which we did a little bit last week with Lebanon — but try different combinations of people to see what we want to fit in situations moving forward. That should be exciting to a young guy or an older guy who's a backup. Maybe we're challenging that starting position to see who's going to do it down the homestretch. There's been a lot of that competition already so that's positive... We could be playing Oakland this week and I would want to focus on what we're doing or not doing. We had four bad snaps Thursday night. We dropped two touchdown passes. We had critical penalties. That's what we got to fix. It doesn't matter who lines up on the other side."

RePublic runs a spread offense with more empty backfield than many teams. The TrailBlazers usually stay in an even-front on defense. They rely on their speed.

"Because they've had to piece their schedule together, they've had to play some really tough competition," Perry said. "Mt. Juliet won't be scary to them by any stretch of the imagination.

"I'm impressed by them in that I don't see their sideline decreasing. I don't see their level of play decreasing. I see them getting better and that's a testament to that coach and that staff. Sometimes that's tough. They're just short-handed. They don't have the numbers."

It's a good time to nurse injuries.

"Didn't suffer any new ones last Thursday night which is a huge blessing," Perry said. "If there's anything there then this is not the week to try to push through those things. Again, it's a win-win because we get to see the other guy anyway to see if he can do it."

Twenty-two seniors, including managers, will be honored tonight before the Bears spend the final two regular-season weeks on the road.

Friendship Christian at East Hamilton

Like Mt. Juliet-RePublic, this matchup was born out of necessity after Ezell-Harding dropped to eight-man football after the schedule was drafted two years ago (E-H returned to 11-man this season playing a non-region schedule). The Commanders filled this slot at Red Boiling Springs last year. This time, the trip is longer (the Chattanooga suburb of Ooltewah) and the opponent is much tougher.

East Hamilton, is a 4A school with a 6-2 record. The Hurricanes are coached by Grant Reynolds, who coached Boyd-Buchanan against Friendship in playoff battles a decade ago. Former longtime Tyner head coach Wayne Turner is also on the 'Canes staff.

"They got a good team," Commander coach John McNeal said of the 'Canes. "They got size. They got speed. They got a receiver who's about 6-3, 6-4. The quarterback, which was the running back — the quarterback got hurt during 7-on-7 — he's about 6-2, 210.

"They got big skill people. They're coached well... They got the good receiver. They want to get it to him. They to run a lot of screens. They'll throw it up deep to him. Other than that, they do a lot of quarterback run reads. (Defense) they're a 50... They're going to have a lot of people in the box."

As a 4A team, East Hamilton has around 80 or more players while Friendship dresses 35, McNeal said.

"It'll be a good test," McNeal said.

The Commanders, top-ranked in Division II-A with a 7-0 mark, were off last week and appear to be reaping those benefits during the early part of the practice week.

"We had a good practice (Monday)," McNeal said. "The kids came back with energy."

Donelson Christian at Mt. Juliet Christian

This is the only region game on the local docket. But it figures to have little impact as defending state champion DCA is 2-0 in the Middle Region (4-3 overall) while MJCA is 0-2 in the league.

"They're pretty good," MJCA coach Dan Davis said of the Wildcats. "They're going to make another run this year."

The Saints are coming off their first win of the season following six opening losses.

"It was good for our kids," Davis said. "They played super hard and all the things we had been working on are starting to pay off and we're starting to see a lot of success. That's a good thing.

"This week, we're looking forward to build on that and go out there and play super hard and let the chips fall where they may. But it was good to see progress in our kids."