Wayne County Outlook

Cards roll at Mercer Co. 32-13 to improve to 1-1

The Wayne County Cardinals met Mercer County, last Friday night at Mercer County High School Field.

The Cards entered the matchup with a 0-1 mark and coming off a 28-7 loss to Pulaski County, while the Scotties opened last week with an impressive 31-22 win at Monroe County. The contest marked the 8th meeting between the Class 2A schools, with the Scotties claiming a 41-27 win last season, at Jewell Field.

Senior running back Matt Goff rushed for 191 yards on 33 attempts and scored three second half touchdowns, as Wayne County used a 21-6 second half advantage to roll to a 32-13 road win.

The Cards totaled 349 yards of offense with 17 first downs, while the defense limited Mercer County to just 135 yards and 4 first downs.

“I’m so proud of our kids for their effort. This was a big win for our guys and I believe it was the result of a good week of practice. Offensively our blocking was improved and defensively our guys kept McCloud in-check with the exception of one play,” said Cards head coach Shawn Thompson.

Mercer County’s Andrew McCloud was limited to just 13 rushing yards in the first half and finished with 79 yards, on 16 attempts.

McCloud was coming off a 266 yard performance just one week earlier.

“That was a major concern going into the game and I thought our guys really focused on their assignments. McCloud has a big time speed, but we swarmed the football a lot better this week,” said Thompson.

Mercer County opened with the football and used the 61-yard kickoff return of Jordan Lyons to set up the game’s first score. Andrew McCloud capped-off a 6-play, 16 yard drive with a 1 yard touchdown run and Josh Ewing booted the extra point, to give the hosts a 7-0 lead with 9:20 left in the first period.

Wayne County answered with a score of their own on an impressive 9-play 30 yard drive. Matt Goff returned the kickoff 56 yards and the series was capped-off with a Josh Bell 1 yard touchdown run.

Ryan Steele handled a bad snap and connected with Tyler King on the conversion to give the Cards an 8-7 lead with 5:09 left in the opening quarter.

The Cardinal defensive unit forced the first turnover of the game and recovered an Andrew McCloud fumble on the first play from scrimmage.

“Defensively we want to be aggressive and make things happen and that was a big play, right after we scored to take the lead,” said Thompson.

Wayne County failed to capitalize on the miscue, but did score on their next series. After Mercer County was forced to punt, the visitors marched 30 yards, keyed by Ryan Steele’s 25 yard pass to Joe Coffey.

The offense couldn’t get another first down, but Joe Coffey booted a 25 yard field goal to give Wayne County an 11-7 lead with 1:32 left in the first quarter.

“We want to have the ability to score inside the 30 and that was a real plus. In both Joe and Josh Bell we think we have guys capable of kicking some field goals,” said Thompson.

Neither team managed to score in the second quarter as penalties and punts dominated the frame.

The Cards committed six of their 11 penalties in the second period, as Wayne County owned an 11-7 halftime edge.

“We talked as halftime that the game was ours to take, but we couldn’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot. I thought we improved in that area in the second half,” said Thompson.

Wayne County opened the second half with the football and traveled 63 yards in 9 plays to push the lead to 17-7. Matt Goff rushed six times on the drive for 35 yards and scored on a 1 yard run.

The big play of the series was Ryan Steele’s 18 yard strike to Joe Coffey. Coffey later added the extra point to leave the score at 18-7, with 7:54 left in the third quarter.

Mercer County answered back with a big play of their own and scored on Andrew McCloud’s 66 yard run. The senior All-State candidate managed just 13 yards on 11 attempts in the first half, but closed the gap to 18-13 with the score. The conversion failed leaving the score the same with 7:36 left in the quarter.

The Cards scored less than 90 seconds later on Matt Goff’s 36 yard touchdown run. Wayne County marched 94 yards on just six plays on the drive. Junior halfback Tyler King setup Goff’s score with a 34 yard run, as King finished with 72 rushing yards on 9 attempts. Wayne County finished with 286 rushing yards on the night.

“Offensively we didn’t break any big plays against Pulaski County, so this week we really worked on our downfield blocking and in this game we made some good things happen. Our backs made some excellent runs, but that only happens when everybody sticks to their blocks and opens some holes,” said Thompson.

Joe Coffey booted the extra point to push the lead to 25-13 with 6:04 left in the third quarter. The teams traded punts, before Wayne County added the final score of the night. Matt Goff finished off an 11 play drive that traveled 69 yards, on his third touchdown run of the night, this one from four yards out. Goff finished with 191 rushing yards on 33 attempts to lead all players. Joe Coffey added the extra point to push the lead to 32-13, with 6:44 left in the game.

Wayne County had another opportunity to score late, but the Cards fumbled inside the Mercer County 10-yard line with only :24 remaining in the game. The Scotties downed the football to end the game, as Wayne County improved to 1-1 with the 32-13 win. The Cards defensive unit had several solid efforts, led by the team best eight tackles of junior linebacker Ryan Steele.

Joe Coffey added 6 stops, while the duo of J.T. Dodd and Barry Cooper tallied five tackles each respectively. Sophomore Jordan Bertram added an interception, as the defense also recovered a fumble to finish with two forced turnovers.

“McCloud is so explosive and has such a quick first step, so I’m proud of all of our guys on defense. As a unit we have to continue to work to get better each and every week and every week out,” said Thompson.

Mercer County finished with only 4 first downs and 135 total yards of offense, as the hosts dropped to 1-1. The win improved Wayne County to 5-3 in the all-time series rivalry with Mercer County.

Up next for Wayne County is a Friday night home date with Monroe County. The Falcons are off to an 0-2 start and coming off a 52-6 loss to Trousdale County (TN), but have dominated the series the last three years.

Monroe County has won the past three meetings between the two schools, by a combined 77 points.

“We’ve not had a lot of success the last few times we’ve played them, so we know we have to be ready,” said Thompson.

The game is slated for 8 p.m. on Friday night at Jewell Field and is scheduled as “Youth League Night 2004” on the schedule. All youth league participants will be honored at halftime.

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