cneagles13

Betsy has a solid team. They play disciplined, mistake-free football and run the football fairly well. That being said, they are going to have to make major defensive adjustments this week to keep this game respectable. GP ran the ball at will on their 3-4. They seemed to especially have trouble with GP's biggest back who is in the 6'2" 210 range. He probably had 75 or 80 yards after contact. Betsy just couldn't bring him down. I would imagine that Warren and Tyson would present the same problem for them, not to mention that Alcoa's line is substantially larger than GP's. Good luck to both teams.

As Burt Reynold's old college roommate would say, Not so fast my friend. Against five common opponents, GP posted a higher score against four of them. The other game, AE, both teams scored the same number of offensive points. They also gave up fewer points to three of the five teams. In the other two games, AE scored one more point while Erwin scored one more TD against the jayvee during garbage time. With all that said, I think these two teams are extremely evenly matched. I'll be shocked if either team wins by 17 point margin. As a result, I'm going to give the edge to the home team that doesn't have a two hour bus ride. GP - 20 Elizabethton - 14

As someone said earlier, 33 is the most Alcoa's given up since 2007. That year they gave up 42 to Maryville and 36 to GP. Prior to that, Huntingdon scored 41 in the 2004 title game.

Can't wait for the game. I'm expecting a slugfest. Hope to see a good crowd from Betsy. I know of few better places in East Tennessee to watch a game than the Mountain Thicket, but I am a little biased. For a great experience, I would suggest getting to Gatlinburg early to eat at Best Italian in Elks Plaza on the upper end of the strip or at Parton's Deli on 321 coming into town across from the Rocky Waters Inn (bring cash, Henry doesn't take plastic lol!). Safe travels for all coming our way. Hopefully classes will allow me to to do a little research and provide a more in depth analysis later this week.

I agree. I keep thinking that Fulton will recover or Red Bank will get back to where they were about a decade ago. Those are really the only other 4A teams in the east with a history of success. I'm a little confused though. What exactly does any of this have to do with Betsy at GP this Friday?

I agree. I was personally expecting a squib quick, but prior to that return, he had been pinned inside the 15 thrice including twice inside the ten. My guess, is Coach Hammonds saw the first TD return as the outlier in that set.

So there's no such thing as busted coverage. Your superior skilled team was also outgained by over 200 yards. Happy Valley is a solid team and provided a stiff test, but claiming you are the better team in a loss when you are statistically dominated in every category except kick returns makes you look out of touch. There comes a point in time when you must accept the outcome and move forward. I'm not trying to take anything away Happy Valley. This is the eighth season in a row that GP has played you, and this is one of the best teams I've seen. Congratulations on a good season. I'd love to see y'all added to our schedule as a nonconference game to keep this budding rivalry going.

Ya, a team giving up back to back kick off returns for TDs, which account for half of the opposition's points, isn't really a big mistake at all. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

Should be a really good battle. I'm going to wait a few days and do a little research before I predict a final score.

Both teams played a hard nosed game. Both teams also made plenty of mistakes. Tonight GP happened to come out on top.How about we just leave it at that instead of making excuses that detract from the effort set forth by teams.

That's one of the funniest things I've read on this board in a long time!

GP actually beat Happy Valley 17-7 in the first round of last year's playoffs. However, Happy Valley did win the last regular season meeting between the two in 2008.

AE with to much speed for the Buffs. I expect them two win by a score around 28-7.

GP leads the all-time series 6-2 dating back to the days of the old Appalachian Conference while each team has played a similarly weak schedule this season. GP and North have two common opponents this year in Erwin and East. In those two games, GP's margin of victory is twice that of Sullivan North's. The defenses are nearly statistically identical with each allowing around 17 points per game. However, GP's offense has been more prolific, averaging nearly 10 points per game more than SN. Like any GP team, this one loves to run the ball, averaging over 200 ypg on the ground. Senior tailback Walter Barber is over 1000 yards on the season at over 8 yards per carry. However, this team has been more willing to throw the ball with Senior QB Tye Marshall and the Senior receiving corps of Ron Durbin, Jeremy Hibbard, and Ryan Taylor. The passing game has also averaged over 100 yards per game with Marshall and Durbin hooking up 11 TDs on the season. I was unable to find complete statistics for the Raiders for comparisons, but their total points would indicate that they prefer a more grind it out approach. The stats would suggest a two possession victory for GP. However, the vast majority of previous games have been decided by a single possession. I think the big play capabilities of GP's skill positions, namely Barber and Durbin, will be too much for the North defense. Final Score GP 28 SN 18

If PF and Johnson County were both to get in (a big if), my understanding is that AE and PF would be the two teams that would move into Quad 2 because GP is located farther east than PF. Of course, that is contingent of TSSAA using the same criteria for drawing the Quads as they did last year so who knows.