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RUTLEDGE – Grainger looks to move on from a tough game from last week as they prepare to take on Pigeon Forge’s stingy defense on Friday.

The Tigers opened the season with a huge 24-14 road win over traditional 2-A power Hampton but have seen their offense sputter in the last two games as they dropped games to Northview Academy and Unicoi County. Grainger head coach Michael Manis said one reason for the Pigeon Forge offensive woes has been their youth and inexperience. “From the film, you can tell they are a really young football team. On offense, they have just had some miscues on snap exchanges and ball security. They are young on the offensive line but they have a senior running back who is really good football player and their sophomore quarterback started every game last year so he has some experience.”

Whatever the Tigers may lack on offense, they more than make up for on defense as they held Unicoi County to only 11 points last week. “Defensively, Pigeon Forge has been really stout all season.” Manis said. “They only gave up 11 last week and in week one they played at Hampton who is a powerhouse and went up there to get a big win for their program. For us this week, we have to protect the football and take care of opportunities when they arise.”

The Grizzlies look to put last week’s loss to Elizabethton behind them while taking some positives from the game against the Cyclones. The good news is Grainger scored as many points against Elizabethton (14) as Science Hill and Morristown West did combined in the first two games. The bad news was the Cyclones’ offense was just too much to overcome as they scored 65 points. Manis said he thinks his team has done a good job in practice this week of focusing on going forward. “We hit the reset button for our guys. With it being Labor Day weekend, we gave our guys the day off on Monday since we had some guys banged and bruised up from the Elizabethton game. We watched film for about 45 minutes to an hour on some things where we had some busts on the o-line or at receiver or at quarterback and defensively, we had some good coaching points for corrections and then we moved on to Pigeon Forge. As a staff we watched the Elizabethton game once and then moved on. I hate for it to be that way sometimes but we have a lot of football left. These next four weeks will be huge for our program and we are trying to get some guys back from injury and hopefully that will make us better.”

Jace Robinson was the star of the game last week for the Grizzlies as he returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. Ashton Taylor provided the second score for Grainger against Betsy as the backup quarterback ran 37 yards for a touchdown. The Grizzlies’ pass defense continues to impress as opponents are averaging only 57.7 yards through the air per game through the first three contests of the season.

Pigeon Forge leads the series 7-4 with the last game coming in 2020 when the Tigers won in Rutledge 19-12 to avenge the year before where the Grizzlies won big 38-19. Pigeon Forge is the first of two games against teams from Sevier County this season as the Grizzlies will host Northview Academy in two weeks.

Kickoff between the Tigers and Grizzlies is set for 7 p.m. in Pigeon Forge on Friday.