DII-A West 2010

[DIVISIONII]

You can say Webb would be the favorite in the East/Middle but DA, DCA and possibly FRA are right there too. It's true Webb beat Maryville in a scrimmage 4 scores to 2 but it was a scrimmage. Obviously impressive but not a real indication of how a real game would end up. Webb is dressing 40 players after graduating a huge senior class from last year and their depth is razor thin so injuries to key positions would really change things for them. They had an impressive win last night invoking the mercy rule on 5A Knox Halls early in the 3rd quarter. They have FRA this week at Webb which will be a tough game based on what I'm hearing about FRA's team this year.

 

goodluck to everyone...

 

DII

Edited September 12, 2010 by DIVISIONII

[Trojan Fan]

First- Mods feel free to combine this post with the other long DII-A post out there...won't offend me at all. If that's not possible, that's fine, too. I like those longer, ongoing threads.

 

Big night in the West. ECS has a non-district game to regroup after a 1 pt. loss in a mild upset to St. George's.

 

The Gryphons look to build on that win with easily the biggest in-district game of the year so far in the West as they take on preseason favorite USJ. The winner would seem to have the inside track to the West 2 division title. The ball should be in the air a LOT w/ USJ rolling out their typical wide open offense and SGIS spreading things out this year. You can't go wrong w/ this one if you're looking for a fun football game tonight. Jackson Christian and Tipton Rosemark go at it in one that has to favor JCS. Fayette Academy and Rossville Christian face off in what could and should be a very entertaining battle. Get out and see this game if you're close by. USJ and SGIS should be playing an absolute humdinger but the Fayette and Rossville folks know they need to win this one if they have playoff aspirations out of West 2.

 

West 1 has two matchups with SBEC travelling to Bishop Byrne. Both have losses already (SBEC to ECS and Byrne to FACS). To be blunt, both need this game badly to have realistic playoff aspirations. This series is one I have always enjoyed back when the two schools were playing in the state championship games for a handful of years when there were 3 divisions in DII. Byrne has fallen on hard times in football recently and the Trojans are clearly down this year from recent years. It won't be for all the marbles but you'll likely see an entertaining and energetic fight to the finish from these two old rivals. I suspect coach Jack Grannan isn't going to know what to do when he looks across the field and doesn't see Butch Veazey coaching SBEC. They had some great and fierce battles, those two, in our little classification. Live goes on. Good luck tonight to both but especially Coach Carter at SBEC starting off this "new" rivalry the right way.

 

Harding and FACS battle for playoff pecking order as well. The winner here would certainly have a leg up on what figures to be a battle for the 2nd and 3rd playoff spots from West 1 assuming ECS can win this district. Any real opposition ECS may have for the #1 spot would have to come from the Harding/FACS winner...so a big game indeed for both.

Edited September 17, 2010 by Trojan Fan

[Trojan Fan]

Big win for St. George's who is, at this point, the class of the West in DII-A...albeit by a slim margin. A 1 pt win over West 1 favorite ECS last week coupled with last night's 23-17 come from behind win over USJ, the West 2 preseason favorite, on the road in Jackson puts them in the driver's seat to win the district and garner a #1 seed. Coach Ken Netherland tied the state record with his 355th coaching win in the Gryphon victory. Jackson Christian beat TRA pretty handily and coasted for an Eagles victory in district play. Fayette Academy got their first win of the year over Rossville Christian 20-0. Nice win for the Vikings.

 

West 2

St. George's 2-0 (TRA,USJ)

Jackson Christian 2-0(Rossville,TRA)

University School of Jackson 1-1 (Fayette)

Fayette Academy 1-1 (Rossville)

Tipton Rosemark 0-2

Rossville Christian 0-2

 

ECS rolled against county school Bolton 45-6. The Harding Lions took a pivotal win against First Assembly Christian School 34-27. I haven't found any details but I expected a competitive game and apparently it was...and likely entertaining with all the points scored. Harding took what was likely a very big step towards securing a playoff spot. SBEC got up and rolled over Bishop Byrne 45-8 in a must win for both squads. Don't be surprised if the SBEC/FACS end of the season matchup is for a playoff spot. The SBEC/Harding matchup on Oct. 1st looms large for both teams.

 

West 1

ECS 1-0 (SBEC)

Harding 1-0 (FACS)

FACS 1-1 (Byrne)

SBEC 1-1 (Byrne)

Bishop Byrne (0-2)

[westtnman]

Congrats to St. George on big win at USJ Friday. They are tough and have a passing game this year to match their running game, and very hard to defend. Score was actually 20-17, and an on-side kick from getting really interesting. USJ is young at a lot of spots and hopefully will grow a little from this game. The next two weeks (ECS and JCS) will go a long way in determining the season.

 

Playoffs should be fun with St. George, USJ, JCS, ECS looking like the main contenders. We will see, but with the close games between St. George and ECS and then USJ and St. George, anything can happen - gotta love this time of the year!

[Trojan Fan]

No division games this week but lots of compelling inter-division games that added to the "what do we know" category.

 

USJ took on ECS in a matchup of preseason division favorites that have both lost very close, hotly contested matchups against St. George's in what was easily the most interesting West II-A matchup of the weekend. UM baseball commit Jake Overbey had a big game at QB (we're all kind of used to that by know, aren't we?) accounting for 320 total yards and 3 TDs leading USJ to the win. ECS was at the USJ 6 yd line...6 yds from paydirt and a likely win but a timely takeaway by USJ ended the threat. What did we learn? USJ and ECS are both very fine football teams and it's still probably a toss up b/w these two and St. George's as to who leads the way in the West. The healthiest of the 3 when the playoffs roll around may be the one that has the best chance to end up as the best in the West and go the furthest in the playoffs.

 

St. George's at SBEC. Coach Ken Netherland became the winningest HC in TSSAA history w/ his team's victory over the Trojans. How he got it was interesting. The Gryphons, coming off 2 big, big wins got far more than they bargained for. SBEC outgained a banged up Gryphon squad by ~80 yards and took the game to overtime. Down 16-10, SGIS forced a fumble at their 1 yd line ending the game and SBEC's chance to win it with 1 more yard and an extra point. What did we learn? Probably the St. George's has a fine football squad but they aren't unbeatable. SBEC might be better than initially thought, and when not completely outsized, can matchup against a good team. I suspect we'll see SGIS get their feet back under them and relax a bit more now that Coach Ken got his win and they're through a pretty tough stretch of schedule. The confidence gained by the Trojans on both sides of the ball has to help.

 

Harding rolled over Rossville Christian 38-6 as expected.

Fayette Academy got a nice win over Bishop Byrne 47-16.

FACS over a salty Tipton Rosemark bunch 33-19.

Undefeated Crockett County took a 47-39 win over Jackson Christian, as the Eagles had a furious rally to cut a 4 TD deficit to 1. Both teams rolled up ridiculous amounts of yardage (923 total) in what had to be a very entertaining game for any non-partisans. This guy thinks the Eagles will have something to say about the West 2 division before it's all said and done. Don't force me into saying what that role will be, though. Not just yet. What did we learn? I honestly don't know. Clearly this team can score some points. I don't know much about Crockett County other than they've not lost yet. Somebody else chime in.

 

Next week's big games?

Harding @ SBEC- big matchup in West 1- A win for either goes a LONG way towards nailing down a playoff berth. Harding, for all practical purposes, would be in with a win and would have a very likely playoff hosting berth locked up.

 

USJ @ JCS- Big, big game for these two rivals in West 2- A win gives either a HUGE leg up on hosting a first round playoff game. Rest assured St. George's will be watching this matchup very closely. With a win in their pocket vs. USJ, they know JCS still poses a threat and a loss to the Eagles could throw the whole division into a big, fat, and immensely entertaining mess.

[Gocart]

 

USJ @ JCS- Big, big game for these two rivals in West 2- A win gives either a HUGE leg up on hosting a first round playoff game. Rest assured St. George's will be watching this matchup very closely. With a win in their pocket vs. USJ, they know JCS still poses a threat and a loss to the Eagles could throw the whole division into a big, fat, and immensely entertaining mess.

 

What would that mess look like if JCS happened to slip past both USJ and St. Georges? That would take some really good play by the Eagles, but these guys have a lot of confidence right now, even with two losses (the two losses came to DI schools that are triple the size of JCS). The team is still trying to learn a new system from a brand new coaching staff at JCS, and it looks like they make progress every week.

 

We're hoping for a great game Friday in Jackson. The two teams know each other well and have produced some great football in the past.

 

Come early if you want a good parking spot, and carpool if you can!

[PowerSweep]

...The team is still trying to learn a new system from a brand new coaching staff at JCS...

Gocart, what kind of offense does JCS run? This past spring when Webb played them in the state final in baseball I was impressed with the amount of athletes they had on the baseball team. If that was any indication of athletes in the school then I can imagine the football team is well stocked too.

[Gocart]

Gocart, what kind of offense does JCS run? This past spring when Webb played them in the state final in baseball I was impressed with the amount of athletes they had on the baseball team. If that was any indication of athletes in the school then I can imagine the football team is well stocked too.

 

JC runs some version of the spread. We throw it a lot, mixing in the run as we can.

 

 

We have some skilled players, but like most small schools, we need more depth. Biggest strength is passing and receiving. Our quarterback, who played shortstop in baseball last year, earned over 500 total yards last week against Crockett County, with around 85 of that being his rushing (not scrambling). We have 5-6 legit receivers, a couple of whom are special.

 

Our defensive line play has gotten better every week, and we held Trinity Christian in the second half, getting into the backfield quite a bit.

 

Our next two games are a couple of real challenges in our DII season in facing USJ and St. Georges. It will be fun to watch it unfold. Maybe we'll see you in the post season - good luck.

[PowerSweep]

JC runs some version of the spread. We throw it a lot, mixing in the run as we can.

 

 

We have some skilled players, but like most small schools, we need more depth. Biggest strength is passing and receiving. Our quarterback, who played shortstop in baseball last year, earned over 500 total yards last week against Crockett County, with around 85 of that being his rushing (not scrambling). We have 5-6 legit receivers, a couple of whom are special.

 

Our defensive line play has gotten better every week, and we held Trinity Christian in the second half, getting into the backfield quite a bit.

 

Our next two games are a couple of real challenges in our DII season in facing USJ and St. Georges. It will be fun to watch it unfold. Maybe we'll see you in the post season - good luck.

Good luck to you as well... the next couple of months should be interesting! Also, does the Haggard kid play football? He was very impressive as a baseball player and could really run.

[Gocart]

Good luck to you as well... the next couple of months should be interesting! Also, does the Haggard kid play football? He was very impressive as a baseball player and could really run.

 

He's baseball only. Already committed to MTSU.

[Trojan Fan]

In the spotlight game of the week, USJ left no doubt they belong in the top 2 of West 2 with a convincing win over rival Jackson Christian. They must have seen something on film from Crockett County's big game running the ball against JCS. The Bruins scored literally on every possession but the one that ended the game rolling up 282 yards to go with 197 through the air in the 52-23 win. JCS will need to recover and get their banged up players healthy again to finish the season as they still have an opportunity against SGIS and a big game against Fayette to end the season and likely determine a playoff spot.

St. George's took a solid 34-13 win against Fayette winning this one a little more comfortably than the nailbiters of the last 3 weeks. They picked it up in the run game this week as Ryan Doolin had 147 yards and a couple of TDs.

TRA and Rossville Christian played yet another classic garnering the win 24-20. Seems like the Rosemark Rebels have won the last 3 in this series and all were exciting, down to the wire affairs. I bet it was a fun one to watch. TRA rolled up over 200 yards on the ground in this one w/ a fumble recovery TD providing the margin.

 

West 2

St. George's 3-0 (TRA,USJ,Fayette)

USJ 2-1 (Fayette)

Jackson Christian 2-1(Rossville,TRA)

Fayette Academy 1-2 (Rossville)

Tipton Rosemark 1-2 (Rossville)

Rossville Christian 0-3

 

The ECS Eagles rolled as expected 50-0 over Bishop Byrne and worked on the passing game a bit garnering 3 passing TDs out of QB Brent Rooker getting some game time to add to their QB experience along w/ the Jamison cousins. Big games down the road against Harding and FACS await.

SBEC moved into 2nd place in a scintillating offensive matchup vs. Harding as they took the 40-28 win. Big night for Jr QB Josh Kimberlin w/ 271 yds through the air and 139 on the ground. Coach Carter has really made great use of his quick backs and big receivers to offset the lack of line size and the new offense seems to be rounding into shape. 241 receiving yards from Lions receiver Matt Brown kept this one interesting as Harding had their own offensive fireworks. FACS, who was off, still has to deal with ECS, but the annual season closer against SBEC now looms larger than ever as it likely affects the 2nd and 3rd place playoff spots in a big way.

Those non-district games begin to loom larger as the potential tiebreaker of overall record comes into play.

 

West 1

ECS 2-0 (SBEC,Byrne)

SBEC 2-1 (Byrne,Harding)

Harding 1-1 (FACS)

FACS 1-1 (Byrne)

Bishop Byrne (0-3)

Edited October 2, 2010 by Trojan Fan

[westtnman]

Trojan - always enjoy your posts and your insights.

 

What happens in the West if JCS happens to get by St. George's and a three way tie ?

Non-district Div II games only or all non district games? That would seem to penalize JCS by playing the big boys - Milan and Crockett.