Seymour Falls Short to Patriots

By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
The Seymour Eagles football team came up a little short last Friday night against the Jefferson County Patriots by a score of 10-0.
The game went very much as expected with the prognosticators picking the Patriots in a low scoring defensive battle. Both teams had been struggling as of late with both teams coming in with 1 and 3 records.
The tough Patriot defense stonewalled the Eagles offense the entire game.
For the second straight week, mistakes plagued the Seymour offense. Unlike last week however, the Seymour defense played tough making life miserable for the Patriot offense.
Offensive yardage didn’t come easily for Jefferson County. They were also hounded by mistakes.
The statistics were self explanatory as far as lack of offense on both sides of the ball as Jefferson County compiled a very unimpressive total offense of 184 yards while Seymour’s was virtually nothing at 76 yards. That averages out at 3.6 yards per play for the Patriots and 1.8 for Seymour.
Seymour fumbled three times as opposed to Jefferson County’s four for a total of seven fumbles. That’s a lot of mistakes. That pretty much tells the story of the game.
Both team’s punters probably woke up on Saturday with sore kicking legs as Jonathan Hurst of Seymour punted eight times and the Patriot’s punter kicked five times.
After three exchanges of possessions, Jefferson County drove down to the Seymour 30 yard line. The Eagle defense stiffened and forced the Patriots to attempt a long field goal of 47 yards. It was wide right and short. More punts were exchanged and the 1st quarter ended 0-0.
More 3 and outs followed by punts. Then late in the first half the Patriots broke the stalemate with a 42 yard touchdown run. Running back Trey Dodson took the option pitch from QB Bristoe Bible and didn’t stop running until he hit the end zone. The PAT was good and Jefferson County went into the half time break with a 7-0 lead.
Smash mouth football dominated the second half as neither team crossed the goal line.
Toward the end of the third quarter the Patriots began moving the ball with passes and mixed runs. The Eagles once again rose to the occasion and forced Jefferson County into another field goal attempt from 19 yards out. The kick was good by Esparza and the score stood 10-0 at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was scoreless and ended with a 10-0 Patriot win.
The loss makes Seymour’s record 1-1 in District 2-AAA with long time County rival the Sevier County Smoky Bears coming up next in 2 weeks after Seymour get a week off. The rest couldn’t come at a better time for a team with as little depth as the Eagles.
“If we put some points on the board, we win,” said Seymour Head Coach Jim Moore immediately after the game. “The defense played well but we have a long way to go on offense; no excuses we need to get better on offense.
“We made a lot of mistakes. Special teams played well.”
When asked if the Patriots defensive schemes were giving them any problems, Moore responded, “No, they’re just bigger, stronger and deeper than us. They put 8 or 9 in the box. Teams do it every week. They were definitely stronger inside than us.”
The Sevier County game will be at Seymour. Don’t miss it. The rivalry is always a great one. Come and support the Eagles.