B

RUTLEDGE – Grainger and Lakeway Christian Academy faced off Friday in the final pre-season football matchup before the regular season opens next week.

The Lions won 16-6 in the two quarters that featured the varsity and the junior varsity teams. LCA’s defense was stout in the varsity quarter as the Lions thwarted several drives by the Grizzlies. Grainger drove to midfield and faced a fourth-and-one but quarterback Carter Williams came through with a six-yard keeper to keep the chains going. After Williams picked up 24 yards on the next play, the drive later stalled at the 13 when the Lions stopped Grainger on a fourth down play. Shajai Jackson scored on a seven-yard touchdown for LCA as they got on the scoreboard first. The Grizzlies once again faced a key fourth down play at the 50-yard line and once again, the LCA defense answered the call with the stop. Riley Martin booted through a 48-yard field goal with 15.9 seconds remaining in the quarter to put the Lions ahead 10-0 and that would be how the varsity score ended.

Mason Payne caught a 10-yard pass for the Lions in the junior varsity quarter but the conversion failed. Grainger got on the board with a 10-yard rushing touchdown by Noah Larrance. The conversion was no good and that was how things would end between the two squads.

“We stayed healthy and that’s what you are looking for in this kind of scrimmage,” Lions head coach Thad Wells said. “We are trying to shore up a couple of things, stay away from penalties and get conditioned a little bit more but overall, I was pretty happy and I was excited to see our JV guys play well. In camp, when you put pads on, you start to find where to place everyone. We have a lot of great kids here and now we ware trying to find their home for the season and we feel we are closer to that. It’s those who can adjust who are the ones who are typically the most successful. We found some guys who are physical and we are tackling so much better this year.”

Grainger head coach Michael Manis had mixed emotions about what he saw against the Lions. “We did a really good job of running the football but we are going to have to find a way to get the ball to the perimeter a little bit more. That has been an issue for us all pre-season. Defensively, I didn’t think we were ready to come out and we were unsure how to play LCA with all the funky little formations they do. We will use this as an extra scrimmage and another opportunity to learn. We need to be ready to move on to next week.”

The Grizzlies open the season next Friday as they host Claiborne. LCA travels to Knoxville to take on Catholic.

Grainger did their Friday night event a bit different as the junior varsity and varsity teams played after the Grasscutters, Super Grass Cutters, Pee Wee and Middle School teams took the field. In the first contest of the afternoon, Reid Gilliam had a 55-yard touchdown run for the Grainger Grizzly Grasscutters to down White Pine 6-0. In the Super Grasscutters game, Griffin Ridenour had the highlight of the day with an 85-yard yard touchdown run for White Pine. Major Bullard scored on the conversion to give the Cyclones an 8-0 victory. M.J. Witt connected with Maddox Dixon for a 24-yard touchdown throw and catch as White Pine won 6-0. In the middle school quarters, Rutledge hosted Claiborne and edged by the Bulldogs 12-8. Ayden Vineyard had a 27-yard scoring play to Caden Robinson and then Vineyard later ran in from 15 yards out for the Grizzlies. Claiborne made things interesting when Nathaniel Carmack scored on a 10-yard touchdown and then Colton Brewer was true on the conversion to make it 12-8 but that’s how things ended with Rutledge picking up the win.