This week marks round three in the TSSAA Tennessee High School football playoffs and two local teams remain in the running for a shot at their turn in the BlueCross Bowl in a few weeks at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.
Last week, the Class 1A South Pittsburg Pirates knocked Oliver Springs out of the race with a 49-0 routing at Beene Stadium. The Pirates return to action this week against Clay County, who’ll be traveling down to duke it out in Pirate territory. The Pirates enter the game suffering only one loss in the first week of the season to Silverdale Academy. Clay County has the same record, 11-1, suffering their only loss this season also in their first week to Glasgow High School out of Kentucky.
Game time at Beene Stadium is 7:00 PM CST. Tickets will be available at the gate. If you can’t attend, you can listen to all of the action live on 104.9 FM The River WEPG, 910 AM, online at theriver1049.com, and on SVEConnect Channel 4. Pregame starts at 6:30 PM with kickoff following with Sean Dunwoody and Jeremy Jackson, provided by the Nickajack Radio Network and WEPG.
In 2A, we saw the Grundy County Yellowjackets’ historic season come to a close after a 17-6 upset by Eagleton Academy out of Maryville, finishing their season 8-4 overall. Eagleton will travel to Pikeville to face the Bledsoe County Warriors this week. Bledsoe is now 10-2 after defeating Happy Valley last week on the road. Bledsoe has only suffered a loss to neighboring rival Sequatchie County (3A) and just one region loss this year to another major team that’s still in the playoffs–the defending Class 2A State Champion Marion County Warriors.
The Warriors, much like their one-time in-county rival, the South Pittsburg Pirates, have had a very good season. And while they might not have seen some of the “basketball scores” like the 1A Pirates, there’s no doubt that they’re a team to be reckoned with — especially in region play.
Suffering only one loss this season to non-region opponent, Chattanooga Prep (3A), the defending State Champs came into the season swinging. And while there were a few games that challenged Coach Tim Starkey and his team, it was nothing they couldn’t turn into an all gas–no brakes situation and win. This week will prove to be one of the bigger challenges for Marion County as they host the Gordonsville Tigers at Jasper’s Bill Baxter Stadium.
Gordonsville comes into Friday night’s game undefeated (12-0), after knocking off York Institute in round one and Oneida last week in round two. Arguably, the closest game for the Tigers so far this season was in week one on the road against Coalfield, where they knocked the Yellow Jackets off by just a field goal, finishing 21-18. In the games that followed, Gordonsville upended their remaining opponents by at least a touchdown if not a total shut-out.
Both teams are very well coached, very methodical in their attack both on defense and offense, and will be one of the major games to watch Friday night not only in 2A, but in the state. Gordonsville at Marion and Eagleton at Bledsoe will be two key games to keep an eye on as we look ahead at who’s going to be playing not only with a full belly next week after Thanksgiving against either Eagleton or Bledsoe — but will have a major effect on who’s playing for the 2A “gold ball” at Finley on December 6th.
Game time at Bill Baxter Stadium is 7:00 PM CST. Tickets will be available at the gate. If you can’t attend, you can listen to live game coverage on the Nickajack Radio Network and WEPG with Dave Daffron and Heath Thacker. Listen live on the Warriors Radio player at theriver1049.com. Pregame coverage begins at 6:30 PM CST with kickoff following provided by the Nickajack Radio Network and WEPG on the live stream.
Finishing in Class 3A, the Sequatchie County Indians were taken down after a successful season last week in round two. Meigs County defeated the Indians 49-19. Meigs now advances to round three traveling east to face Gatlinburg-Pittman this week. The winner of that game will face the winner of Tyner/Giles County next week.
It’s another exciting week for football, and with two teams in our county still in action, it’ll be a great night to get out and enjoy a game in-person, or as always stream the live coverage online with WEPG The River 104.9 at theriver1049.com with the Nickajack Radio Network crew.
