The Newport Plain Talk

NEWPORT-The tenth-ranked Morristown West Trojans defense is as advertised: Dominant.

The Trojans, who are the Inter Mountain Athletic Conference's (District 2-AAA) top-ranked defensive unit, held the Cocke County Fighting Cocks to 55 yards of total offense on Friday night.

The defensive performance powered the Trojans to a 49-0 victory at Hedrick Field. The loss eliminated the Fighting Cocks from post-season contention in playoff subdivision Class 5A.

"We knew coming in how good they were (defensively)," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "We knew what our limitations were going to be.

"Obviously we could not execute much of what we needed to tonight against a very strong offensive and defensive unit."

Already down its starting quarterback entering the game, the Fighting Cocks (2-7, 1-5) struggles continued offensively when junior quarterback Jared McGaha broke his collarbone in the game's first quarter. McGaha continued to play until telling the coaching staff of the injury at halftime.

"Jared broke his collarbone in the first quarter but was too tough a kid just how bad he was hurting, which very much limited his ability to make plays that he normally would and can make," Kelley said. "He told me he didn't want to disappoint me because he knew the team was riding on him to execute our offense. I love him to death and I'm heartbroken for him as much as I am proud of him."

McGaha had replaced starting quarterback Casey Ragan, who sat out the game after sustaining a Grade III concussion last week. Ragan's absence was figured to be a big blow, having accounted for nearly 70 percent of the team's total offense through the first eight games of the season.

Despite a poor start, which saw the Trojans (7-2, 5-1, No. 10 AP, Class 5A) score on their opening possession and their own offense endure four first quarter three-and-outs, the Fighting Cocks trailed only 7-0 at the end of the opening quarter. Cocke County forced a fumble by Morristown West and then held the Trojans to a 31-yard field goal attempt which was wide right.

The Trojans however broke the game open with a 28-point second quarter, taking advantage of two Cocke County turnovers deep in their own territory.

The Trojans drove 65 yards in six plays and scored with a four-yard run by Chad Brooks to extend their lead to 14-0 with 8:07 left in the half. After a fumble, the Trojans Wesley Goins scored on a 13-yard run with 7:10 remaining.

Morristown West then went to the air, as Justin Everhart hauled in a 20-yard pass from Andrew Lee with 4:00 to play. Then the four-touchdown barrage was capped off by an 11-yard fourth-down conversion from Patrick Ashford to KJ Kelley with 1:08 to play in the half.

Cocke County's injury-plagued team then again struggled in the second half, with each team only having three possessions due to a continuously running clock. The Fighting Cocks were unable to take advantage of a Trojans fumble to open the half. After punting back to West, the Trojans had a seven-play, 78-yard drive, capped off by a 26-yard run by Goins with 2:31 to play in the quarter.

Cocke County's next possession was their longest of the night, spanning 53 yards and picking up the only two first downs of the night.

Brandon Davis' five-yard run picked up the initial first down of the night for the Fighting Cocks late in the third period and then third-string quarterback Taylor Hawk hit Zac Holt down the sideline for a 38-yard pass to get into the opponents territory for the first time in the game.

The pass was into a darkened end of the field, as one bank of lights went out during the game leaving one section of the field unlit. However the game was not stopped due to the outage.

A Cocke County fumble ended the drive and then the Trojans marched 73 yards in nine plays to add their final touchdown of the night. Tyler Brooks got the score from five yards out to make the score 49-0 with 2:59 to play in the game.

The game left the Fighting Cocks with numerous injuries and personnel decisions to be made headed into the final game of the year against Cherokee next Friday (7:30 p.m., Radio: WLIK 1270-AM). The team had already sustained injuries headed into the game and was without several starters due to the flu.

"We're not deep enough and strong enough yet as a program to be able to rebound from injuries and lack of designated starters," Kelley said. "We have to regroup next week and maybe shuffle some people around to start executing our offense and defense better.

"We're going to have to study where we are as a football team in terms of personnel and try to get our people in the right spot."

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