Volunteer Expects Bunch of Grainger Ground Attack in Friday Showdown
by JIMMY MOORE
TriCitiesSports.com
September 21, 2017
Volunteer is off to a 0-5 record this season after finishing last year 5-5 including a 20-10 victory over Grainger at home. The two teams will meet for a third time Friday night.
The Grizzles and Falcons are both coming off huge losses last week, Elizabethton downing the Grizzles 49-0 while the Falcons were on the short end of a 48-7 loss at cross-county Cherokee.
The two teams will square off Friday night at the Grizzles stadium where the Falcons saw a potential victory slip through their hands allowing Grainger to score in the waning seconds to notch a 26-19 victory two years ago.
Both teams have suffered double digit losses this year, Grainger giving up 31.5 points per outing while the Falcons have surrendered 51.8 points per game.
Falcon coach Barry Jones said the staff was pleased with their first half at Cherokee last week when they trailed 14-7 at intermission but a second half kickoff return by the Chiefs sapped the Falcons and ended any hope they had of victory.
“We just made too many mistakes to get us back in the game,” said Jones. “We had opportunities but just didn’t execute. But the attitude of our team is pretty good right now. We went to Sullivan East Monday night and won a jayvee game.”
Jones said despite their 2-2 start Grainger is still a pretty good football team this year, just not as big as they have been in the last couple of years in the offensive line but still gets a lot out of their flex-bone offense.
“Jacob Bunch is their go-to guy,” said the Falcons’ coach. “He’s about 6-foot-1 and a 215-pound fullback. Their quarterback is Zac Courter. In 229 plays this year they ran on 205 of them.
“I hope our defense can clog the middle and get some kids in some spots where they have a predetermined place to go. Hopefully our aggressiveness on defense will be a little better. We had made some changes last week in our defensive line and it really helped us.”
The Falcons’ coach said the Grizzles’ defense does some things different from what you would normally expect but they get the job done and play fast and to have a chance at victory his team will have to play up to their potential.
“Courter will run the ball with Bunch leading and sometimes he will move out to wide receiver with Bunch taking the snap and No. 29 (Andrew Armstrong) comes in and blocks for him,” added Jones. “Their offense is so hard to simulate.
“Zac Christian continues to carry the load for us. We also got Devin Smith back at linebacker and we have moved some people around.”
Jones noted the staff would love to play middle linebacker Dane Dykes some at fullback but the freshman is too valuable on defense while sophomore Peyton Derrick continues to be a player they try to get into open space on offense.
“Dane’s going to be a monster,” noted Jones of the 5-foot-10 and 210-pound linebacker. “The experience he is getting this year is invaluable to him. Hopefully the next three years he will be a fullback/linebacker that 5A programs need to have on both sides of the ball.”
GAME NOTES: The game will be available on the internet at volunteersportsnetwork with Jeff Fisher doing play-by-play along with Alex Reed and Greg Bellamy…… Tate is 17-23 heading into his fifth year at the helm…. Jones is 7-13 in two years at Volunteer that included last year’s 5-5 mark, the first five-win season since former coach Scott Rider led the Falcons to a 6-6 record in 2007.