Red Hot Highlanders look to remain undefeated

The 4-0 Highlanders look to continue their winning ways By Rusty Odom rusty@theheraldnewspapers.com Gatlinburg-Pittman controls their own destiny once again in Region 1AA. After a 4-7 season last year, (3-3 in region play) the Highlanders have risen to the top of their region with a 4-0 (2-0) start. Long time head coach Benny Hammonds relies heavily on the multi-faceted rushing attack his system has produced for many years. This year though, GP’s ground game has been especially productive. Although the Highlanders have yet to suffer a blemish on their record, coach Hammonds isn’t convinced that his team is playing their best ball. In the first home game of the season versus Happy Valley, GP won by a single score last Friday and failed to capitalize on a couple of scoring opportunities. “You have to work hard every play to create momentum. We had a little increase in penalties last week, that’s something we need to work on,” stated Hammonds. “We still make enough mistakes to have plenty to work on in practice. We just completed two passes last week. And we should have gotten another touchdown when we were in the red zone.” The Highlanders are led by Dusty Dodgen who has accumulated 580 yards rushing on 77 attempts. But the ground game extends much further. Five of Gatlinburg-Pittman’s running backs are averaging an astounding 6.5 yards per carry or better. This week against Greenback, they hope to continue to pound it out in front of only their second home crowd of the year. “This is only our second game at home this season. We don’t think we played very well last week. We would like to play a lot better in front of our own fans this week,” said Hammonds. Although Greenback comes in winless, Hammonds exemplified the importance of his team being ready to play. “Greenback has played a tough schedule. There’s no doubt that they have good team speed, and they execute. We’ve been impressed with them on film. We’ve played them for the past few years, and every time it’s a really close game whether it be a junior varsity game or varsity; two overtimes, three overtimes, it’s always close.” A win against Greenback solidifies the ‘Landers intentions of making a deep playoff run. The Highlanders have possibly already played the steepest competition until playoff time in the 06’ campaign, but Coach Hammonds spoke about the remainder of the schedule. “South Greene will be big. There’s no question that South Greene will be a tough challenge for us. They always are.”