B

Football is a sport of peaks and valleys; luckily for the Morristown East, they’re trending in the right direction as the season approaches.

The ‘Canes headed to Carson-Newman University to face off against Christian Academy of Knoxville and Grace Christian in their jamboree on Thursday night.

First up was the East defense against CAK’s offense.

The ‘Canes played well on first and second down the entire way but struggled at times to stand their ground on third. The Warriors’ high-tempo spread offense tested all three levels of the defense.

“We’re excited about the physicality, but once again we just have to continue to be more consistent there,” East head coach Dallas Kuykendall said. “We’re really good on first and second down, but then on third down we let them run around the edge. We’ve got to be able to get off the field on third down and bring more of that consistency with us; if we do that I think we’ll be in good shape.”

At corner, Will Hemminger’s side was targeted often, but he held up well, including a pass breakup on that first drive. On the same set of downs, Max Baker picked up one of his two sacks on the day, and CAK was faced with its second fourth down of the day, which they would convert.

As the Warriors marched their way closer to the end zone, swaths of ‘Canes players began swarming to the ball to make each tackle, with Baker, Seth Southard, Kade Denton and Jamarriel Hines being some of the names repeatedly called by the PA announcer.

Lucas Johns made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 2-yard line, and the Warriors committed a false start on third down and were forced to settle for a field goal.

The offense got off to a slower start. On their first snap of the day, there was miscommunication on a handoff between Caleb Billings and Easton Woody, causing a fumble recovered by CAK.

On the ensuing defensive drive, the secondary continued to hold up, and Baker’s second sack of the day on third down forced a three-and-out.

Kuykendall liked what he saw from his guys against the passing game.

“We’re older in the backend; AB (Austin Brannan) does a good job of getting people lined up and knowing where they’ve got to go,” Kuykendall said. “We kept it simple, with it being a jamboree we don’t have film, but sometimes simple is good. We’re excited about how those guys competed tonight.”

On offense, the slow start continued. A scramble from Billings, a couple of runs for no gain and an incompletion resulted in a turnover on downs.

Defensively, Southard picked up a huge tackle for loss on first down, Baker knocked down a pass at the line on second and Carter Gilliam picked off the Warriors’ heave on third to give the East offense one more opportunity to get things going against the Warriors.

With limited time on the clock, the ‘Canes picked up the tempo. Billings connected with Austin Brannan on a 35-yarder that gave East a shot at the end zone. With one last shot at six, Billings launched another one to Brannan, this time just out of reach; but the offense had momentum to carry into their matchup with Grace Christian.

Against Grace, it was the offense who took the field first. They got things started off with a 17-yard completion from Billings to Gilliam.

On the following set of downs, Billings picked up the first on a huge scramble on fourth and long, putting even more wind into the sails of the offense. Woody had a couple of hard-nose carries himself, but the drive ultimately ended in a turnover on downs.

There was a different feeling as the offense headed to the sideline this time, however. A feeling that they had found something. An air of confidence coming from Billings that the ‘Canes coaching staff had been waiting to see.

“Everyday and every week he becomes more confident. He had a good two days of practice this week, so we were kind of expecting him to do what he did tonight,” said Kuykendall. “I’m proud of the way he competed tonight, he’s starting to understand what being a quarterback means. He’s doing a great job of taking on that role, and we’re proud of where he’s at, but more so where he’s going to go.”

Defensively, Grace provided a lot for the ‘Canes defense to handle. They spread the defense out, and pieced together a long drive; dinking and dunking, scrambling when they needed to and eventually busting a 35-yard touchdown up the left side.

The offense then took the field with unfinished business. Woody got things started by running with a purpose. He hurdled defenders, made them miss, put his shoulder down and fought for extra yardage. With more on the clock the ‘Canes would’ve continued to feed him, but with time dwindling they went back to the passing game.

They ran a play action on first down: incomplete.

They went to a fade up the right sideline on second: incomplete.

That brought up third down. Five seconds on the clock, one shot at the end zone. Billings dropped back, got the ball out and as the ball landed in Brannan’s hands and he ran it in for six, time appeared to stop for a moment.

“It’s good to see; a lot of hard work has gone in, we haven’t been in the end zone a whole lot this fall, so it’s really good to see that reward at the end of the tunnel,” Kuydendall said. “Hopefully it builds confidence moving forward into that matchup against West.”

That matchup will fall next Friday at 7:00 at Burke-Toney in the Citizen Tribune Kickoff Classic.

“When you play a big rivalry game, you’ve got to focus on the little things. You’ve got to learn to control your emotions, because in a rivalry game you can kind of throw stats and everything out the window,” Kuykendall said. “So that’s what we’re really going to harp on this week, focus on us, let it be about us, prepare the right way and put us in a good spot come Friday to go out there, compete and let the chips fall how they fall.”