Morristown West pounds Morristown East

[bigdaddy69]

Friday night at Burke-Toney Stadium, Morristown West ran their winning streak over cross-town rival Morristown East to six straight by pounding the Canes 45-7.

 

West (3-3, 2-0 IMAC) led 10-7 at the half, but Bradley James broke the game wide open by taking the opening kickoff of the second half back 96 yards for a score. The 96-yard return broke the school record for longest kick return for a score.

 

Also, the much heralded East defense was absolutely demolished by the West High running game. West ran for a school record 395 yards in the game, with James carrying the load for most of the yardage.

 

East's offense looked good in spurts, like the long touchdown pass by Jared Palazzola, but the West defense shut them down for the most part. East (4-2, 1-1 IMAC) got most of its yardage on the long touchdown, and then on the second team defense.

[HurricaneFan]

It was 7th in a row actually. We were in the game until that kickoff return, that lost all momentum. We had a to or 2 and we just couldn't stop that running back with that kind of delay pitch to the left, you gotta a big gain off of and a 3rd or 4th and short. We didn't have any kind of running game and dropped passes. To sum it all up, WE GOT SHALACKED. Hopefully the tables might turn in the near future....

[tweederol50]

by the way, it was over 400 yards rushing. cause the o line held it down!

[Footballgirl]

WOW!!!! What a game!!!Bradley James, you are AWESOME!!!!! I have never been prouder!!! East never stood a chance!! Between the kickoff return and the blocked punt and shall I say the lack of yardage put up by East!!! I guess now you East fans will stop the SMACK talking since you got SPANKED!!!! Its good to be a TROJAN fan!!!! GO TROJANS!!!!!!!!

[Sugarcane]

Congrats to West, their D is every bit as good as advertised, and the O is better than most people give credit for.

 

I thought there were several keys to the game.

 

1.The kicking game.

 

West's kicking game kept East backed up for most of the game in it's own territory. East also had a punt blocked early in the game and although West could not capitalize, it left East deep in it's own territory, and of course the kickoff return was a backbreaker.

 

East did get a 40 yard extra point, which at the time was huge, but why were they kicking from that far? There is no excuse for that type of penalty, this has plagued the Cane's all season, and shows a lack of disipline to continue to to happen every game.

 

2. The war in the trenches

 

Most games are won in the O and D lines the people that never seem to get their name in the paper but are the key to the success of any team. West won this war, they are obviously very good and very deep, but my hat is off to the Cane's line most of who play both ways. I wonder how effective West would have been in the fourth quarter if they had not gotten a rest and played the entire game? By the way, the Cane's have one senior in that group.

 

3. The ground game

 

Not much you can say here. Francisco is as good as there is in the IMAC but for most of the night he had nowhere to run. His fumble early in the game inside the 30 yard line was a big break for West, and has been somewhat of a bugaboo for him all season. Bower is a punishing blocker, and a better linebacker, but doesn't carry the ball much. Don't know why Cane's don't use Coker more, he looked good when given the opportunity against Powell.

 

West well all you got to say is almost 400 yards rushing speaks for itself. They have a good line have both speed and power and are deep. They did struggle to move the ball in the first half however even though they had great field position, and most of their yardage came in the second half against a tired and evidently dejected Cane D.

 

4. The passing game

 

When you run for 400 yards I guess you don't have to pass for much but 33 yards passing won't get it done against a team like Maryville. Looked like West has lots of speed and had people open at times but were unable to connect.

 

The Cane's inability to gain much on first down runs, and the continuing barrage of holding penalties, did not help the Cane's in this department as they were forced into many 3rd an long situations. Loosing Justin Delapp in the first quarter with an ankle injury was huge as he is the Cane's quickest WR and also leads the IMAC in td's. Palazolla's passes were for the most part on the money, and although he was under constant pressure from the West pass rush I don't remember him being sacked. He was intercepted once, but it was late in the game and had no bearing on the outcome. Simpson's pass from Palazolla was a thing of beauty, but a week of missed practices had to affect him becaused he dropped some passes that are very uncharacteristic of him.

 

5. Momentum

 

This is probably the biggest factor and the hardest to predict. Two very big plays stand out as being the biggest in a game of many. Late in the first half West is driving for their go ahead FG less than 2 minutes left in the first half. Minnich throws a pass in the flat that hits a Cane defender right in the hands with nothing but 80 yards of green in front of him and he drops it. Instead of taking a 14-7 lead and the momentun in the locker room at halftime, two plays later the Trojans hit a 40 yard FG to take a 10-7 lead in at halftime. It seemed to carry over with the backbreaker when the Trojans returned the second half KO for a TD and they were off to the races.

 

All in all West is just too strong, and too deep for East or anyone else in the IMAC. If they turn up their passing game a notch they could go very far in the playoffs.

East is getting better, but must learn how to win and not buckle when adversity strikes and in my opinion untill you look on the East sideline and see 85 players dressed out will have a hard time competing with West.

[northmemphis27]

Sugarcane west pounded east no two ways around it like i said east will keep it close in first half but west blew them away in 2nd AND what what about east's O being better than west's O i THINK not

 

I LOVE BRADLEY JAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited October 4, 2003 by northmemphis27

[WestConnoisseur]

Teams talk trash, and then they eat their words...that's how it usually goes when you play Morristown West. But hey, we like it that way right? Good job WEST I'm soooo proud of you guys! You all actually looked like a team friday night rather than a group of individuals,D each trying to be stars...

 

With that in mind, congrats to Bradley James on his new school record! But lets not forget the other ten people on the field that got him there! Great job to all West players that blocked for him time and time again. Also, I give props to the O-line, they keep looking better and better. And as always the Defense were just as good as advertized.

 

I don't know...alot of people around just the West team in their pockets and all they had to say was negative of them, but i think that these guys have heard all they want to hear about that. Never doubt a trojan because you never know what is in store for you! If these guys can gain back all the heart they once had for the team and not just for themselves then they will be unstopable!!

 

But CONGRATS TROJANS on your EAST/WEST BLOWOUT. You were everything and more of what I expected you would be!! Keep It Trojan!

[eastTNftball]

well,congrats to west,they played a good game and earned it,but now lets look at how this happened. east seemed as though they came to play, and their d played good at 1st after bein put in bad situations by the o, look at what west came away with..they were in the red zone on many occations but got 10 in the 1st half with east blocking a fg and holding them on 3rd and 4th downs...but the 2nd half opening kick off return it seemed the canes just gave up then they just crumbled. but i give props to the ones that seemed to not give up on the field for the D, #54 wilson gave a great effort all nite as well as #48 sturm who had the only sack in that game for east. just put the loss behind you and beat cherokee, you can still finish out 8-2 and thats great for you, so handle your business and go to the playoffs and be ready to meet west again when you go.

[roger]

I agree with the last statement made. East has to put this loss behind them and continue with the next game. The bottom line is that if East wins its final four games they will finish second in the conference and be a 2 seed going into the playoffs against a very weak region 1. Take care of business one game at a time starting with Cherokee and finish strong. I feel that East is better than Cherokee, Volunteer, and Crockett with Greenville and East being pretty even. I hope the Canes realize that the West game is only only game and it does not kill your season. Continue to get better and dominate the rest of your opponents