The Walker Valley Mustangs walked onto the field at “The MAC” looking for win No. 3 on the season in a non-region football matchup against winless Knoxville Carter. What they found when they got there was a swarm of angry Hornets who dominated the Mustangs from start to finish.
“What a poorly laid out game plan by our offensive staff. They (Carter) made some changes to what they were doing on film that really affected us,” said a subdued Mustangs head coach Drew Akins after the 14-3 loss.
“We just didn't prepare them well. It's 100% on us as coaches. There is nothing our kids did to cause this.”
“We were searching offensively. We run things because we know it's the right thing to run. Tonight it felt like we were searching. That is because we didn't prepare our guys very well offensively. It comes down to that. It's not because we moved the game up. We lost this game because we didn't have a good plan and when you don't have a good plan it's going to cost you.”
The Mustangs fell to 2-2 on the season while the Hornets are now 1-3.
The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but was moved to Thursday due to heavy rains predicted in the area.
Walker Valley's lone score came on an Eli Wilson 36-yard field goal with just over eight minutes left in the half after Carter took a 7-0 lead with a 56-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chandler Wilson to Joseph Armenta late in the first quarter.
The Hornets sealed the win with a 74-yard, 13-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter that chewed seven minutes off the clock. Wilson found a wide open Armenta in the left corner of the end zone to drive the dagger into the Mustangs.
Senior linebacker was the workhorse on defense for the Mustangs with 10 tackles. Denton is third in the country in tackles and and No. 1 in Tennessee now has 23 stops on the season.
“Our defense payed great. I'm not finding bright spots, I'm not finding silver linings, but our defense played outstanding. They gave us every opportunity to win the game. It's just offensively we couldn't find it,” said Akins.
Offensively we're so much better this year than we have been. Our players didn't get worse, we just had a bad plan. The good thing is, even with the loss it does nothing to us in the region. We're right where we want to be, we're still 1-0 in the region. We've got a game next week that's going to be physical. We've got to make sure we handle it. But, in the end we've got to put a better plan in front of our kids. That's what it comes down to.”
Walker Valley will work to regroup and prepare for their second consecutive non-region game Friday against Smith County.
SUMMARY
KNOX CARTER 7 0 0 7 — 14
wALKER VALLEY 0 3 0 0 — 3
First Quarter
CA — Joseph Armenta 56 pass from Chandler Wilson (Gavin Thomas kick), 1:42
Second Quarter
WV — Eli Wilson 36 field goal, 8:08
Fourth Quarter
CA — Armenta 5 pass from Wilson (Thomas kick), 3:33
CA STATS ` WV
14 First Downs 10
122 Rushing yards 12
176 Passing yards 147
298 Total yards 159
19-27-0 Att-Comp-Int 15-27-0
14-129 Penalties-Yards 3-15
5-28.8 Punts-Avg 3-35.7
1-0 Fumbles-Lost 1-0
Individual Stats
Rushing: Wilson 15-90 (CA); Noah Jones 12-35 (WV).
Passing: Wilson 19-27-176; Evan Schwarzl 15-27-147 (WV).
Receiving: Spencer Russell 5-38, Brody Thomas 5-49, Armenta 5-67 2TD (CA); Larkin Lewis 1-26, Tucker Ownby 6-66, Eli Denton 2-17, Noah Jones 4-21, Blaine Lowe 2-17 (WV).
Records: Carter 1-3; Walker Valley 2-2.