Freshmen blanked at home
Tullahoma’s freshman football team put a damper on Pedro Paz’s return to the gridiron Thursday night.
The Wildcats dominated the line of scrimmage in the first half, rolling to a 20-0 halftime edge and holding on to hand the freshman Pioneers a 27-0 loss at Nunley Stadium.
The game marked the return to the coaching ranks for Paz, who served as the high school head coach in the early ’70s and volunteered to come back and begin working with the freshman program last week.
Strong play up front on both sides of the football keyed Tullahoma’s success Thursday night. While the Wildcats’ offensive line cleared the way for a ground game that amassed over 200 yards, the defensive front stopped the Pioneers cold for the entire first half.
At the intermission, WCHS actually had a negative number of offensive yards, as sacks and stops in the backfield prevented the Pioneers for putting anything together offensively. The team’s normal main weapon, tailback Jevon Ramsey, carried the ball seven times for minus-nine yards in the first half, while Jacob Bratcher was the only Pioneer with positive numbers before the break, with three carries for 11 yards.
Tullahoma got on the board on its first possession, when George Childress went in from the 10. Early in the second period, Matt Thurman rushed for the first of his three TDs on the night, going in from the 3 to put Tullahoma on top 14-0.
Thurman struck again on the team’s next possession, going up the middle five straight times to conclude a successful 43-yard drive and send his squad into halftime up 20-0.
While the Pioneers turned up their intensity offensively in the second half, they were unable to find the end zone, as three of their four second-half drives ended with a turnover on downs.
Tullahoma posted its final score late in the third, when Thurman scored on a counter from the 3-yard line. He finished with 75 yards on 11 carries, while Childress had 76 yards on 10 attempts.
Despite his slow start, Ramsey finished with 46 yards on 19 carries after breaking off several good runs in the second half. But the Pioneers continued to struggle through the air, finishing with no pass completions through six attempts.