Eagleville's Cameron Lawson named DNJ player of week

EAGLEVILLE – It took Cameron Lawson a while to get used to Eagleville's offense.

As a move-in to Eagleville this season, Lawson's experience running the football came out of the Wing-T at Armuchee High School in Rome, Georgia.

But Lawson is fitting in well now with the Eagles' zone run attack.

Lawson had 23 carries for a career-high 226 yards with five touchdowns in the Eagles' 42-12 rout of Fayetteville last week. Lawson, a junior, has been named The Daily News Journal's football player of the week.

"It was a little different," said Lawson, who played corner back and running back in Georgia. "I had to buy into what we were doing here. The more I've done that, the more success I've had."

Lawson credits the Eagles' offensive line as the key part to his success. He has 909 yards and 10 touchdowns on 153 carries for Eagleville, which improved to 4-3 for the season on Friday with its first home win of the season.

"(Friday) night was probably the best night I've had so far," Lawson said. "The key to it was the offensive line. They helped me with the holes they opened up. We were clicking on all cylinders. I'm used to being in an offense where there were three running backs, not one main one.

"I've never gotten this many carries before."

Eagleville football coach Steve Carson said Lawson's success against the Tigers was crucial for Eagleville, which collected its first District 9-A win on Friday night.

"They cut it to 21-12 at the beginning of the fourth quarter," Carson said. "Our next drive was his drive. We got it at the 20 and had all runs downfield. If we ran it 10 times, he ran it eight of those times.

"He made some big runs for us."

Lawson's success running the football comes at a perfect time for the Eagles. Standout running back Chris Hale graduated this past year. He was a four-year starter and the program's first Mr. Football finalst.

Ironically, Lawson wears No. 22, the same jersey number that Hale wore.

"He wanted 22," Carson said. "He had asked for No. 2, but a senior had that so he couldn't have that number. He then asked for 22. I told him I didn't think that was fair. I explained to him that the guy before him was really good and it would be a long time before we had someone run for 4,500 or 5,000 yards like Chris did.

"But he wanted it. He had watched video of Chris. So I told him, if you want it, you can have it."

Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.

DNJ PLAYERSOF THE WEEK

The Daily News Journal will name a football player of the week all season. Players are honored based on observations made by DNJ reporters. Nominations may be sent to DNJ prep editor Tom Kreager by noon on Monday at tkreager@dnj.com.

Week 0: D.J. Williams, Smyrna

Week 1: Justin Winn, MTCS

Week 2: RoShea Grays, La Vergne

Week 3: Jauan Jennings, Blackman

Week 4: JaCorey Smith, Oakland

Week 5: Cortland Owens, Riverdale

Week 6: Cameron Lawson, Eagleville