Slow Start Defeats Eagles

By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
‘Remember this your whole life through, tomorrow there will be more to do, and failure waits for those who stay, with some success made yesterday. Tomorrow you must try once more and even harder than before’ – John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach.
Coach Wooden won 10 out of 11 NCAA Championships.
The Seymour Eagles football team might do well to read and adhere to Coach Wooden’s poem.
Seymour came out unfocused and mistake prone against the White County Warriors last Friday and went down in defeat by a score of 48 to 38.
That was not the homecoming Seymour Head Coach Jim Moore was looking for on White County Alumni Night.
Sixteen years ago, Moore was the Warrior’s head football coach. He returned last Friday with his Eagles coming off a big opening season win over Campbell County.
The first half of the game it seemed the team was still focused on that win instead of the task at hand as the Warriors dismantled the Eagles.
White County moved the ball at will with a dominant and powerful offensive line scoring touchdowns their first four possessions while Seymour could only manage 10 points.
“The first half was a complete disaster,” said Moore. “Sometimes it’s easier when you’ve lost a game to go in there with a better focus. We didn’t have good practices this week.”
Whatever Moore said to his Eagles at the break worked – almost. They came out second half focused and played with a sense of purpose, coming from a 35-10 deficit to leading 38-35 with only four minutes to go in the game.
However, the dye had already been cast. Six turnovers and nine penalties were too much to overcome as the Warriors prevailed.
The Eagles were led by Nick Sexton, Corbin Ogle, Corey Todd, Chris Grimo, Taylor Overton and D.J. Griffin as the offense piled up over 500 yards of total offense.
Even though Seymour made a lot of turnovers which helped White County, 48 points can’t reflect well on a defense. The Eagle defense did make some key stops in the second half however which initiated the blue and gold comeback.
Coach Moore also made a brilliant strategical decision to kick an onside kick which led to Seymour’s go ahead score on a 36 yard run by Overton.
Seymour’s J. J. Jerman kicked the ball to the far sideline and Jerrod Newberry recovered the kick before it went out of bounds.
The lead was short lived however as the Warrior’s powerful running game took over once again and regained the lead for good.
Even in a loss there were a few bright spots.
The Eagles showed just how explosive their offense can be both passing and running.
Their defense did stiffen when it had to.
The most important intangible was they never gave up. The score stood 28-10 at the half and 35-10 in the third quarter but the Eagles never gave up. A team just can’t dig itself a hole what deep and expect to come out on top.
Individual standouts for Seymour were running back Corey Todd with 135 yards rushing on 15 carries for an average of 9 yards per carry; Taylor Overton 113 yards on 7 carries for a 16 yard average and J. J. Griffin with 7 receptions for a 14 yard average.
Corey Heard led the defense with 7 tackles and 2 assists.
Next up for the Eagles will be at home against Cocke County which will be their first district game. There should be no focus problem this week.