Better postseason seeds the plan for local teams

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
Crunch time is here as three of the four high school football teams in Weakley County are jockeying for higher playoff seeds with just two weeks left in the regular season.
Westview will try to find some answers and right the ship this week after being soundly beaten by Dyersburg on Saturday. The Chargers hit the road again Friday night to take on Crockett County in a District 13AA game.
A pair of county teams will face each other in District 13A when Dresden makes the short trip to Gleason. The Bulldogs are still looking for their first district win of the season and they would love to get it against the Lions.
Greenfield travels to Halls tonight and will be looking for a better performance out of its offense after a weather-shortened game against Humbodlt and the Vikings’ defense deflated the Yellowjackets.
According to this week’s TSSAA playoff predictions, the Chargers would be an 8th seed in the Class 3A playoffs in Quad Four and would play South Gibson. The Chargers are desperately in need of a win Friday night against the Cavaliers to have a chance to move up a seed and avoid playing a No. 1 seed.
The 3-4 Chargers, 2-2 in the district, will be looking to get their offense on the right track after a disappointing performance against Dyersburg. The running game, which has been the Chargers’ strength throughout the years, was manhandled by Trojans in Saturday’s 49-14 defeat. Westview was only able to gain 28 yards on the ground.
The Cavaliers have had an extra week to prepare for the Chargers with last week being an open week for them. They, too, have found themselves on the losing end recently, having lost three consecutive games after winning their first four of the season. The Cavaliers are 1-3 in the district, but will play in Class 4A in the postseason. Their last game was also against Dyersburg.
Westview was almost in the same situation last season as it is this year. Last season, the Chargers won the final three games of the season after they lost to Milan and Dyersburg. The Chargers will be facing those same three teams in the final three games this season, too. Last year the Chargers beat the Cavaliers 35-7, then beat Gibson County 56-14 and finished the season by beating South Gibson 38-27.
As of right now, both Dresden and Gleason are playoff bound, and that should add fuel to fire when the two District 13A foes meet on the football field Friday night.
Both teams are coming off wins from a week ago and both are looking to keep their momentum going.
The Lions are sitting pretty atop the district standings at 3-0 and a perfect 8-0 season record. The No. 2-ranked Lions in Class 2A have the No. 1 seed in Quad Four and would get a bye if the playoffs were to begin this week.
Even though the Bulldogs (4-3, 0-3) are without a district win, they would still be a No. 4 seed in Class 1A and would play in Quad Three and would host a first round game for the second consecutive season. That in itself should give the Bulldogs an extra incentive to play their best game of the season. Add that to the fact that a win over the undefeated Lions would give the Bulldogs huge bragging rights.
Gleason’s defense will have to play with tenacity like they have not played before to stop the Dresden running attack. Devan Raymer will no doubt be looking for any weakness in the Gleason defense and exploit it to the best of his ability. Gleason will seek to find chinks in the Dresden offensive line to get at Raymer.
The Bulldogs will also have to be wary of Torres Washington, Colter Swafford and Joey Caldwell. Any one of those three can wreak havoc on an unsuspecting defense. The Bulldogs will also have to beware of Davis Moran and his passing ability.
Gleason is not without its own offensive weapons. The Bulldogs will try to counter the Lions and their stout defense with Chase Ezell, Ian Legens, Will Clark and Chris Copeland running the ball.
Tanner Trevathan is a very capable quarterback and if he can find open receivers such as Austin Perry, then the Bulldogs will be a threat to move the ball downfield and into scoring position.
It will no doubt be a packed Dawg Pound Friday night with fans of both schools. Dresden won last year’s meeting by a score of 34-6.
Greenfield will be looking to get its first road win since the 2010 season, when the Yellowjackets travel to Halls tonight. Ironically, the last road win for ’Jackets came at Halls by a score of 37-28.
The Greenfield offense will have to vastly improve over last week’s game in order to come out with a victory.
Humboldt stymied Greenfield and held the ’Jackets to only 29 yards of total offense in the weather-shortened game that only lasted for one half.
Halls is coming off an open date last week after being defeated by Humboldt by a score of 29-14. Halls is 3-4 overall and 1-2 in District 14A. The Yellowjackets are 1-6 and 0-4 in the district.
A win at Halls will give first-year head coach Don Pitt his second win overall and first in the district. The ’Jackets are looking to play spoiler in their three remaining games and drop some potentially playoff teams down the seeding ladder. Published in The WCP 10.11.12

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