Bruins visit undefeated Gallatin; Raptors host once-beaten Siegel on homecoming
By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
One week after Brentwood High routed crosstown rival Ravenwood, both coaches believe their teams have put the game behind them to face big challenges outside District 11-AAA this Friday night.
BHS, above .500 for the first time since its opening win, travels to unbeaten 9-AAA leader Gallatin for a tough test. And RHS welcomes in a once-beaten Siegel team from powerful 7-AAA, certainly not a patsy for the Raptors' homecoming night.
"All I can judge it by is that we practiced well on Tuesday," Bruins Coach Ron Crawford said prior to Wednesday's workout. "... And now we're getting a little bit better practice habits.
"So I think they're pretty realistic. We had to forget a bad loss to Independence; we've got to forget this one. And really, when we put the Gallatin film on, I think that erases this pretty quick."
Ravenwood, which had a brief two-game win streak halted, has tried to put the 41-0 defeat in their rear-view mirror as well.
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| Brentwood, with Austin Winfree (11) directing the triple-option, has outscored its last two opponents 89-0. (Photos by Peg Fredi) |
New RHS coach Joe Rietveld had already told the team before the first game, that win or lose they forget about Friday night on Saturday morning.
"It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I mean Friday night, it was bad," Rietveld said. "I was expecting a little bit more of a contest, and it just didn't turn out that way. It's amazing how quickly things snowballed and got out of hand.
"There was not a whole lot of positives from that game, but we'll try and learn from it anything that we could, and the kids moved forward and we've moved forward."
Here's a look at both teams' games (Brentwood Academy has an open date this week):
Brentwood (3-2) at Gallatin (5-0), 7:30 p.m.
Like Brentwood, the Green Wave are also coming off a one-sided victory over the crosstown team. Gallatin came up with three fumble recoveries and an interception in its 30-7 win against Station Camp.
In the previous game, the Green Wave also defeated 7-AAA's Oakland 31-29 on two TD passes by Clay Carnes, one on a 63-yard pass play to D'onte Manning. Running back Maurice Box rolled up 141 yards against Station Camp on 24 rushes for a 5.9 average per carry.
"I think this group of kids, most of them played a bunch as sophomores, started as juniors, and they're back for their senior year. So I think there expectations are high with this bunch," Crawford said.
Offensively, Gallatin will "run the football at you" out of their two-back/tight-end look, and then primarily use play-action passes out of the spread, according to Crawford.
"When they get in their spread formations, it's 95 percent pass and a lot of shots deep," the BHS coach said.
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| BHS senior Austin Sanders scored a 70-yard touchdown on a punt return against RHS and added another rushing TD. |
The Green Wave defense mostly uses an even, 8-man front, but mixing in another front unlike in their matchup last season, he said.
"It's been hard to tell the last couple of weeks, but we feel like we've gotten better," Crawford said. "I'm anxious and our staff is anxious to see how we respond to this challenge."
Brentwood's booster club is encouraging Bruins fans to arrive at Green Wave Stadium early to get good seats, even on the visiting side.
"It is pretty neat environment. Unfortunately our band's not going, so it'll be a big time Gallatin environment, and we hope we get some fans to go on the road with us," Crawford said.
Bruins senior Chudi Echetebu has 470 yards rushing and 6 TDs on 89 carries, for a 5.28-yard average. Austin Sanders has a 6.32-yard average with 139 yards rushing, is the team's second-leading receiver, and broke a 70-yard punt return for a TD last week.
Junior quarterback Austin Winfree directs the spread option, passing for 336 yards on 23 of 56 (41.1%) and rushing for 216 yards (5.40 average). He has four TD passes and four interceptions.
"We did a great job of blocking on our perimeters -- I think that's why we were able to get some big plays in the run game," Crawford said about last Friday.
Leading receiver Kyle Burke (7 catches, 86 yards) should be back closer to full speed after coming back from injury to play last week.
On defense, Adam Thetford has 44 total tackles for Brentwood, while Truett Harris and Demetrics Brown have 34 total stops. Junior linebacker Sam Mullaney, a JV player last year who was injured a lot, has 3 sacks, 2 interceptions and 29 total tackles.
"He was one of those guys we had high hopes for as far being able to fill a role for us. ... And he's just gotten better and better each week," Crawford said. "... He's made some big plays for us."
Ravenwood (2-2) vs. Siegel (4-1), 7:30 p.m.
Siegel was off to its best start at 4-0 before losing at undefeated Riverdale 21-15 last week. Entering the game, the Stars were averaging 40.5 points and 432 yards total offense a game after changing to the spread this season.
"We didn't pick easy for anything," Rietveld noted about the homecoming opponent. "Siegel is a very good football team. They played Riverdale close, and we know Riverdale is a powerhouse.
"Siegel is physical & fast, and they're coached well. They do a lot of things that kind of put you in a bind. We're definitely going to have to be disciplined on defense. And we're going to have to maintain some type of running game on offense if we're going to be at all successful."
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| Raptors defenders wrap up a Bruins ball carrier. |
Sophomore running back Denzel Harding has had a super season so far for Siegel, scoring 5 TDs and rushing for 189 yards in a win over Blackman earlier.
The Stars usually alternate quarterbacks Treyton Harris and Brent Stockstill, but Stockstill was knocked out of last Friday's game and was on crutches with an ankle brace. A junior and son of the MTSU football coach, Stockstill was 4 of 6 passing for 55 yards and had 44 yards rushing against Riverdale. Harris, a senior, finished 4 of 7 passing for 27 yards with 104 yards rushing.
Siegel also had three others out with injuries last week: cornerback Lamar Brown, safety Keenan Jackson and wide receiver/safety Tae Martin.
"It doesn't get any easier. Our kids have accepted that, it's not going to change," Rietveld said. "We didn't maintain last week. I think we took a step backward but hopefully we can take two steps forward this week and get better and compete and have a chance to win this football game."
Rietveld said he told the Raptors after last Friday's defeat that he took responsibility for the team getting "outcoached."
"They're all coachable kids. They're trying to execute what we're trying to accomplish to the best of their ability," the RHS coach said. "It was definitely an all-round team loss. ... We're in this all together and a lot of it had to do somewhat with the coaching staff. I took full responsibility for that.
"... I didn't put them in as good a position as I have the first three games or I will this Friday to be successful."
Ravenwood, giving up an average of over 150 yards rushing a game, has 5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks from D-lineman Adarius Davis and 2 TFLs and 1 sack each from Anthony Jones and Cameron Brown. Grant Jones leads the team in tackles with 16.
On offense, junior quarterback Andrew Radford has completed 58% of his passes for 346 yards with 2 TDs and 4 pickoffs. Senior Omar Joseph leads the rushing attack with 175 yards and a score on 39 carries, and Ryan Butler has 126 yards and 3 TDs on 30 rushes.
Receivers Tevin Hill (14 catches, 174 yards) and Jalyen McGriff (10 receptions, 85 yards) are the Raptors' top targets.
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