Acumen

I think the coaches and the players of SH have great respect for the Maryville program. In my opinion the program mirrors the basketball dynasty built by John Wooden at UCLA. Everyone new exactly what you would get year in and year out with a Wooden coached team. He just plugged in new players and did it the way they had always done. They had a very basic offense and defense and they executed to perfection. I think those are the comparisons you are seeing out of the SH staff and players. Team first wins championships and certainly that is what you want to achieve in any team sport. When you walk into the complex you will see a new field house named "Topper Nation Center of Excellence". That center says everything about what SH football aspires to become and the community expects from our football program. We respect our opponent but there will never be fear in our eyes or quit in our spirit and the Toppers will leave it all on the field. Go Toppers!

We have three entrances with ticket booths at the stadium. The visitors side is closest to the school buildings. You also have one located at the end zone near the new field house and the home side near the baseball fields. Should be no problem getting into the stadium using any of those locations. Look forward to seeing the Maryville fans for the first time in JC. Go Toppers!

The SH Hilltoppers are looking forward to welcoming the team from Maryville and its fans Friday evening. I believe we have some of the best football facilities in the state and the community is proud of what we are building on the football field by coaching up these young men. Healthy respect for the Rebels but no fear just excitement as we prepare this week to take on the challenge. Looking forward to a full stadium and a great game. Go Toppers!

You are certainly a class act. I have a son on the football team at SH and I live in Johnson City. Both my son and I respect the people of Kingsport and the athletes of DB and making a racial/ethnic/sexual slur is not how we conduct ourselves and certainly is not the "Johnson City Way". However if making that kind of statement about the young men that play football at SH somehow makes you feel better about yourself perhaps you should spend more time looking in the mirror and less time typing derogatory comments on this site. Perhaps if you do that you can figure out why you turned out they way you have instead of someone your parents and community could be proud of. Go Toppers!

Well a 45-0 throttling is still fresh in my mind not even 10 months ago. Our QB is banged up and our O line hasn't found a way to block so the run and pass game has been searching for a rhythm Defense is our strength so the front seven need to lead the way and create some turnovers. Hopefully we can find the Brentwood second time around magic and make it a game. One thing for sure there is no quit in the kids from SH so they will bring the fight for 48 minutes. Go Toppers!

According to the Johnson City Press the thieves were identified Friday night. Hopefully they will recover the kids items. http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/law-enforcement/2015/09/08/Science-Hill-football-players-have-money-belongings-stolen-during-game-against-Bradley.html

It was very sad for our players, coaches and parents. The typical phones, headsets and what little cash the kids had was stolen but the real sad thing is many kids lost the clothes they were going to ride home in. We were scrambling to get kids clothes so they wouldn't have to ride three hours on the bus in their sweaty uniforms. Also someone stole a citation pad from the police and were putting tickets on the cars with Washington County tags. I am positive this is not representative of the BC staff but still it was not a favorable impression of our first visit to Cleveland.

Great thing about Hudl film is every play is on the internet now so we can see the play results. It was a safety but given how the refs were spotting the ball no surprise on the call. In any event great effort by both teams. Also sad that out locker room was broken into during the game. Filled a duffle bag up full of our kids stuff. Good news is the have the kids on video that did it so hopefully our kids will get their valuables back.

It is tough to judge a team unless your butt is in the stands because scores are misleading. Elizabethton is 37-14 except for 4 misques by special teams. Last night we held a high powered offense to 60 yards rushing and 100 passing. Not saying it wasn't a hard fought game but a large number of zebras running on the turf did everything they could to keep us from winning. Like I said October 9th at our house we will find out if your assessment of SH being second class to DB and Maryville is true. Look forward to hosting you on up in JC.

Since my stratum corneum is on a normal 28 day exfoliation cycle I would not know much about the hyperkeratotic condition he is talking about. However football I understand. Go Toppers!

I think you left SH out of that heads and shoulders. Come on up October 9th to SH and see if you are correct! Go Toppers!

I agree they were awful all night and you would hope post game you wouldn't have the officials part of post game recap. The reality is we had the first down by a good two yards and we should have been taking a knee then the same guy calls illegal procedure and we haven't even set the line. Watched the film...both of his calls with 48 seconds left were criminal plain and simple. Having that behind us. BC played with heart and your defense had us trying hard to get it figured out. Our QB was running for his life most the night. You guys will win a lot of games this year! Best of luck the rest of the way!

Glad to be back home with a win. Tough fought game with as bad as officiating as I have ever seen. The spots were atrocious. Film showed we have the first down by a full two yards on the last drive. Sad that that crew actually officiates games and gets paid for their incompetence. Great win through adversity! Go Toppers!

Really glad to hear about the facilities, we play in a great home complex as the community has spent over $5m on the football field and field-house. So great to know we will be playing in another great facility. I think the travel can be used more as a crutch for some teams. This group has made the 5 hour drives to Nashville the last two season and purposely took scrimmages this year at Lenoir City and Knox Catholic just to get ready for the travel. If we play poorly (which I don't believe we will) it won't be because we are new to three hour bus rides. Excited about the game and should be a nice match up between the QBs, our QB put up 150 yards rushing and three touchdowns against BC last year in the playoffs from the RB position. I believe he verbally committed to Cornell prior to start of season to play D-1 in the Ivy League. So certainly not Power 5 Conference but he can run and throw the football and D-1 scholarships don't grow on trees. We have three other kids with D-1 offers so we have a talented group of juniors and seniors to carry the load. As I said if we can get our special team issues cleaned up we should be a very good football team on both sides of the ball. Thanks for the safe travel wishes...I just hope traffic is friendly Friday afternoon! Go Toppers!

I really like our defense this year. The linebackers are very fast to the ball and hit like a freight train. If BCs line is suspect that will be an advantage we can exploit because we also have a quick defensive line as well. Should be a good test for them.

I agree with game management on offense but the special teams is what almost did us in. The INT's were tipped balls except for the last one which was a poor game management decision. Tuck the ball gain 10 yards on the run and it is 4th and 2 and the clock is running. The special teams killed us. 9 points lost on the missed FGs and the snap over the punter's head gives them first and goal from the three and leads to 7 more points. That is a 16 point swing and the game turns into a nail bitter because of it. I think the offense will be fine. I am thinking it sure would have been nice in those games last year when we were blowing people out to have had our current #11 play a lot more QB early in the games to give him a chance to throw the ball when it counted. When he did play QB last year after game #2 it was to hand the ball off to the third string running backs so they could get some carries. It will take a little time to get used to making the QB decisions which is more about game management and not always about putting the team on your back like they asked at RB last year. There is a ton of speed and power in the backfield and on the edges and I know the game plan is to get the ball in their hands and use #11's arm to do so. If we can get the special teams on track I think we will be in good shape. Defense this week will need to get pressure on their very good QB and to cover some very tall and athletic receivers and on offense we need to use a good balanced attack and stay with it through the red zone. Go Toppers!

SH has 8 starters back on defense and 7 on offense but of course no more Malik McGue. The senior class is full of three year varsity starters so hopefully the travel and atmosphere will not be an issue for this group. The defense has very solid front seven and the defensive backs didn't really face a throwing team week one but did handle Knox Catholic in a scrimmage by getting three picks against their first group. It was just a scrimmage however. The offense moved the ball between the 20s in game one and has a very talented mix of speed and power. However 6 trips in the red zone and points only on one of them will not get it done in 6 A football. Three missed FGs and two picks. SH needs to continue to pound the run and throw the ball when the box is full. I expect they should improve over week one but for almost all the teams this is new conference territory so I see this first year of play hard to predict accurately. As crazy as it sounds I am looking forward to the three hour drive and a visit to BC. Excited to get the conference season started. Go Toppers!

Will the Hilltoppers make the improvement good teams make from game 1 to game 2?

Overall I give SH a C- and the Cyclones a B+. 5 trips to the red zone and 0 points. Three missed FGs that would have picked up the red zone mistakes would have helped. We really missed Mr. automatic as our kicker (Alex). The three picks were tough with two coming in red zone. One hits the receiver in the chest and bounces straight up and the other was under thrown but he should of just tucked it and ran and kept the clock moving. Those are things that will come with time under center. Still the QB had 98 yards rushing and threw for 248 yards and two TDs with a third called back by penalty. Defense played well. Elizabethton basically didn't throw a pass in the 2nd or 3rd Qtr. One TD was caused by a bad snap and gave them ball first and goal on the three and one was a pick 6 on a LB tip when the receiver ran the wrong route. Otherwise the defense only gave up one long sustained drive. I think they played well. SH special teams need to be better and the offense needs to keep doing what gets them to the red zone in the red zone. We only punted once all night and that was the snap issue. We moved the ball at will between the 20s just need to shore things up. No one more disappointed than the kids at SH but there is much to like especially if they can get a couple things fixed. Go Toppers!!

Not sure of the score but I know SH is ready to tighten the chin strap and get to work. Going to be a fun season. Hoping both teams stay healthy and move into conference schedules with a great opportunity for success! Go Toppers!

I'm glad you think so and yes Malik was very talented. I guess in November we can check back and either you will be correct or I will. The offensive line is the biggest concern the skill positions everyone is back except Malik and I believe that we will just get the same thing done in a different way. Numbers and win/loss record will be the ultimate judge of my statement.

SH is a much better team on the defensive side of the ball this year. The group of linebackers are very good. If everyone in the defensive backfield can stay healthy it will be hard to throw. On offense SH will throw the ball more frequently than last year as the QB has a rocket for an arm. The addition of the transfer RB will only be great if the O line gets better on run blocking than they have shown in preseason scrimmages. The receivers are basically the same group as last year plus the addition of Jaylen Adams. All of them can fly. If everyone stays healthy this years team should be just as talented as last year on offense but will get it down in the air and on defense they are stronger. Looking forward to a fun year. Go Toppers!

The 2nd QB as of now is Ben Wooten #19 a junior. Jaylen scored from 60 yards out on his first play at QB but they had already turned the scoreboard off. He is in the rotation at the wideouts so he will help us some this year for sure. He had a couple drops on passes last night but when he does catch it he can motor. Reminds me a lot of Malik when he was a sophomore. Russell played and scored one of the three touchdowns with the 1s. He will be a big help in the backfield for sure. Carried the ball about 10 times and is still picking up the offense. I think it will help that our QB played running back last year and will be able to sit back there with him and make sure he is locked in on the play. Overall I left last night pretty impressed with the progress of SH. Now just ready for the season to start.

I was at the scrimmage and SH looked good on offense. They should have been up at half. 6 possessions 3 TD and all they moved the ball well but had drives stalled in the red zone on poor snaps and poor run blocking. Defense played decent but didn't wrap upon some tackles but did have two picks Overall a very good tune up for the season. All of the ones were done before 1st half ended and the JV played entire second half. They need to fix a few things but they looked again much better than last week so each week showed improvement.