Fighting Cocks upset Eagles

Seymour continues to fight injury bug, falls to 0-2 after 16-6 home loss Plagued by injuries and an inability to stop the run, the Seymour Eagles (0-2) lost their second decision in as many games, falling 16-6 to Cocke County Friday night at Benton Householder Field. The Eagles’ offense picked up just seven first downs in the contest, four coming on the final drive of the game after the visitors had already sealed the outcome. Trailing 7-6 at the start of the fourth quarter, Cocke County managed to control the ball for 10 minutes of the final period, scoring after a nine-play drive to go up 13-6. Then, after a quick Seymour turnover, The Big Red put game out of reach with a 24-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining on the clock. As was the case in their loss to Sevier County last week, the Eagles were unable to run the ball with any success. For the game, Seymour had negative 26 rushing yards compared to 267 for Cocke County. “It seemed like we just kept giving them enough yards to move the chains and make a first down,” said Eagles’ Coach Gary Householder after the game. Seymour quarterback Caleb Moore hooked up with speedy wide-out Chris Slay to put Seymour on the board first with a 6-0 lead following a missed extra-point kick. Slay, a weapon that Householder has planned on using to take some pressure off Moore and big-play receiver Michael Serafine, added to the growing Seymour disabled list when he went down with a first half leg injury. Householder said after the game that he expects Slay to be sidelined until the Rutledge game in three weeks. Cocke County senior running back Mikey Grimes gave the Fighting Cocks the lead in the second quarter on a 19-yard touchdown run. Grimes picked up where Sevier County tailback Zacc Pate left off last week. The Cocke County back rushed for 140 yards on 20 carries, wearing down the thin Seymour defensive front churning out tough yards behind a senior laden offensive line. Cocke County quarterback Darius Collins joined in on the Rooster’s rushing parade with 66 yards on 12 carries. Seymour saw their chances of a fourth quarter comeback fade a little more when Collins drew the Seymour defense in on a play action fake and lofted a touchdown pass to Blaine Harsell on fourth and 10 from the 16 with 6:51 left. “We bit on that play action on fourth down,” said Householder. “We told them (the Seymour defense) during the timeout that if they call a play action they’ll either throw a screen pass or throw it in the end zone. They just ran a good play.” Seymour’s boat completely sank on their first offensive play after the Cocke County kickoff. With just under seven minutes left and the Eagles at their own 28, the shotgun snap to the 5’9” Moore sailed over the senior quarterback’s head and was quickly pounced on by an opportunistic Fighting Cocke defender at the Seymour 13. The Big Red ran some time off the clock before Eric Schindler gave his team a 10-point lead with 1:49 left, connecting on a 24-yard field goal. The Eagles will have a week off to prepare for defending state champion Fulton on September 10. “We’ll work on getting a lot of these guys better,” said Householder on how he plans to use the open date. “We lost Daniel (Miles) last week and Slay tonight. We don’t know the extent of Kenny Wu’s injury yet.” Wu, a cog on both the Seymour offensive and defensive lines, was injured at some point in the first half and watched the remainder of the game on crutches standing on the Eagles’ sideline. The good news for the Eagles is that All-Region linebacker Andy Bass is already in mid-season form. The senior headhunter collected 18 tackles in the loss Friday night.