donathan5507

Coach Gonyea, All of us at Independence are currently scheming to get past this Smyrna defense, but we realize that we probably have no chance at beating 12 men! Oh well, it makes for a good excuse if we fail to get it done on the field. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

You weren't kidding when you say Millington gets no respect. Several players on the team told me that Knowlton was the fastest football player they've ever seen and that Simpson was a faster version of Chris Jordan. All in all, they said that Millington was "the fastest team on the planet."

I really have no clue what's going to happen this Saturday. Indy appears to be playing the role Smyrna was playing last year but Smyrna is also playing with a chip on its shoulder because of a perceived lack of respect, which is mostly justified. First, nobody gives them a chance to repeat at the start of the season. Then they get Wilson Central and everybody picks them to lose because WC beat Riverdale. When the Bulldogs handle their business, everybody says they were lucky to not face Riverdale. Then everybody says they have no shot against Bearden. Again, Smyrna takes care of business and yet there are tons of people who say that either A) they paid the refs, /cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="B)" border="0" alt="cool.gif" /> they don't deserve to be here, or C) they're still lucky not to face Riverdale. All of that is ridiculous if you asked me. Last I checked, the gold ball still resides with the purple and gold and they deserve a lot more love than they've received all year. Meanwhile, Indy hasn't gotten many props either. After the 1-3 start, most people wrote them off. They were "lucky" against Dickson, Ravenwood, and Brentwood. Despite winning their first two playoff games, people picked Franklin because "Indy again got lucky by drawing easy teams." Franklin people discredited our 17-14 victory by saying that we, too paid the officials and that we were clearly NOT the better team. All week long nobody gave us a shot at Millington and even when we did win, people say that Memphis football is weak. I think this is about as even a matchup as you can get. This could be an all-time classic in 5A. Regardless of what happens, both teams should be proud of their accomplishments to get here. Don't forget that this Saturday marks the last time that the seniors for either team will play high school football.

Really? I could've sworn that Ravenwood's players were on the visiting sideline...I guess I may have been looking at it from a weird angle.

Sonny Gray is the real deal. He's such a competitor and a great leader...some of the plays he made against Ravenwood last year were just amazing. Question: Although Ravenwood was the 'home' team last year, they used the visitors sideline. Was that just because they had won the game from the visitors' sideline the previous season? I also think it's cool that he is the lead in the school play...I thought it was kinda weird that Kreager wrote about it, but it's good to see these young men (11 football players, including Wilks, I believe) excelling in other areas.

Shook, there was a reason for that. You talked about it all week. You know those UNBELIEVABLY FAST players you have on your team? Yeah, that's a possible explanation for the lack of deep kicks. Veres can boot it through the uprights on kickoffs, but why chance a short kick going to one of the return guys that can score before you blink? I doubt Wilks will see the ball on a deep kickoff this week--it's his own fault. He shouldn't be so darn good! Plus, I think he showed everybody in the state final last year that kicking to him is just a terrible idea all around.

The stats don't add up. The Commercial Appeal article lists him at 22-33 for 339 yards, which sounds a bit more accurate...if you add up the IHS receivers' totals, he has 21 completions for 340 yards. Not that it matters, but just pointing out to everybody that the stats I posted may be slightly inaccurate. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/...one-point-short There's the link.

The stats are currently being entered on Tennessean.com, but here's what we have so far TEAM STATS: FIRST DOWNS: Indy 25, Millington 17 RUSHING: Indy 39 carries for 143, Millington 34 for 310 PASSING: Indy 24-35 for 287 and an INT, Millington 3-9 for 127 yards and 2 INT FUMBLES: Indy 2 (lost 1), Millington 3 (lost 1) PENALTIES: Indy 9 for 79, Millington 13 for 105 INDIVIDUAL RUSHING: Indy: Pettigrew 23 carries, 82 yards, 1 TD Alex Heckman 12 carries, 46 yards, 2 TD Ryan Consiglio 4 carries, 15 yards Millington: Travis Simpson 15 carries, 136 yards, 1 TD Eric Knowlton 9 carries, 101 yards, 1 TD Tyshaun Holmes 8 carries, 46 yards, 1 TD INDIVIDUAL PASSING: Independence: Alex Heckman 24-35, 287 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING Independence: Isaac Baugh 6 catches, 100 yards Alex Reese 6 catches, 98 yards Jeff Veres 6 catches, 93 yards, 1 TD Ben Parker 2 catches, 38 yards Scott Pettigrew 1 catch, 11 yards Again, I know some stats are missing because they have not been entered yet but once they are, I'll update this post.

Like I said to mtrojan18..You have nothing to be ashamed of! If I'm looking at the roster correctly, you burned us on your first serious from scrimmage for an 87-yard TD. Not too shabby for a kid who's got another year left to play. Remember how this stings and use it to motivate you in the offseason as you prepare for your senior season. Best of luck to you!

Hold your head up, young man. You had a great season and you guys left it all on the field tonight. Neither team deserved to lose this game and it's unfortunate that such a great season can come to such a disappointing end. Good luck in the future and congratulations on a wonderful four years.

Hville, we need you. You might be the only non-Wilco person on our bandwagon! Don't leave!

You might've been better suited staying in your corner crying. Great display of sportsmanship. Way to make your team look classless.

WE GOIN' TO DA 'SHIP! Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. GO EAGLES!

I have created a topic in the 'Game Night Scores' board and I will be giving updates for each score and at the end of each quarter.

Today is the day. We've talked all week about this and that, but it comes down to four quarters tonight. No matter what happens, this group of seniors has united Independence High School and they have made everyone in the community proud. There is no shame in losing at this point. I'm sure the same can be said for the Millington kids. To the Eagles, a quote from Kurt Russel as Herb Brooks in Miracle. "This is YOUR time. Now go out there and take it." I hope everyone has a safe trip out to Millington. Let's hope for great weather and a clean game. Independence 24 Millington 21

Is this game going to be broadcast on any radio stations (in either team's local area)?

Destiny doesn't win you football games. Football players win you football games. Destiny is a nice thing to bring up from Saturday-Thursday, but it's the young men that strap up the pads on Friday nights that win football games by making plays.

Drew Kelly might score 80 points against Indy this year.

Good guess, but no. He's not the announcer. And will you Franklin fans just move on? Sheesh.

Haha I hope you judge Indy off of that East game. In fact, I hope your team does the same. To say this is a completely different team that you'll be facing is a massive understatement. Just look at our results the week before that East game...41-16 loss to Franklin. We beat Franklin 17-14 last week. That game was just awful. It was at halftime of that game that we made the switch to the kid that's our current quarterback, and even then we basically just ran the ball the whole game. It wasn't until the Ravenwood game that he really got comfortable with the passing game, as evidenced by his huge performance (including the game-winning TD with 1:05 left). I mean, the D dominated East (as well they should have), giving up four first downs and 5 yards rushing. The only points came when Nick Smith (now our backup QB) threw a pick on a screen pass that was returned the distance.

That's the problem with the Wing-T...spying it doesn't work, especially not with backs this fast. The misdirection and ball concealment makes it almost impossible to tell who has the ball at first. If you react to your initial read, they can BURN you on the outside. If you're hesitant to react, they'll BURN you outside. The only real way to play it is to study the film time and again and try to understand each coach's tendencies and figure out where the ball is going before it gets there. Even then, you're going to give up yards because these backs are too good to be stopped. Plus, double coverage would be a stupid idea, especially because you figure the Eagles will go seven or eight in the box on each play. So if you double one receiver with the safety and the corner and run man on the opposite side, you'll have an MCHS running back matched up against an IHS linebacker in pass coverage...goodbye, touchdown Millington. Plus, you leave nobody over the top in case the tight end (whom they throw to) runs down the seam. If I were you, I'd let Coach Bobby handle the defensive scheme. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours of film the coaches and players have watched this week in an attempt to devise a gameplan for Friday.

The crowd won't affect Indy at all. Region 6 games consistently draw big crowds.

No, we didn't. That "fumble" occurred on 3rd down and 6. It was initially 3rd and 1 but we got a delay of game call. The play was a screen pass with options of passing to either Consiglio or Pettigrew. Heckman chose neither, attempted to run, got hit and went down. The ball squirted out, but the referees determined that it wasn't a fumble. Then, we punted on 4th down. You got the ball back and went 3 and out, punted to us with a minute left, and THEN we got the game winning field goal.

Sorry, but your idiocy has brought me back to this thread. You would have recovered the "fumble" on your own 40. Easy scoring range? I guess that's why you got no points out of the interception that was made AT THE SAME SPOT. Or maybe, after we didn't get any points out of the "fumble," you could've scored on that ensuing possession? But no, you didn't. Face it, you're playing an absurd game of what-if and it doesn't matter because your team still had chances to win and they didn't capitalize. Oh, and considering that we're graduating 27 seniors, I'd love to see us again next year as well if I were you. Thanks for the heart, by the way.

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