The confidence level for the Signal Mountain football team is pretty high right now as they’re confident that the current season will be a good one.
It started out on the right foot Thursday night on the road at Central Memorial Stadium/Etter Farmer Field with a 29-0 shutout over the host Purple Pounders.
There really wasn’t anything spectacular about Thursday’s win, but Eagle coach Mark Mariakis was just glad to see his offense dominate at times while his team’s defense pitched a shutout and collected three turnovers along the way.
“Any win is a good win and I’m happy about that, but we didn’t play perfect football,” he began while his players rushed over to the stands to join the band in singing the Signal Mountain alma mater.
“I wish we could have scored more, but I really liked our defense as we challenge them to get as many turnovers as possible. That’s what we’ve been stressing all fall, but it was just a typical Signal Mountain offense where you grind and go. We knew that Central had some speed and were capable of scoring at any point, so for us to get a shutout was nice,” Mariakis nodded.
It’s a major rebuilding task for Central coach Glen Carter and his young Purple Pounders as they graduated 13 players from last year’s squad and only have six total who started a year ago. Thursday’s battle was an uphill one for the most part for the Purple Pounders.
“We knew it would be hard to stop their offense and it was. We had a few nice stops. It seemed like every time we did something good on offense, we had a turnover. We also had trouble with our blocking schemes and had a few key injuries that hurt.
“The effort was there and we didn’t roll over, but we’re rebuilding for sure. Now if we can just turn effort into technique, we’ll be headed in the right direction, but hats off to Signal as they have a fine football team,” Carter added.
Central took the opening kickoff and were forced to punt on the fourth play while the Eagles moved 65 yards in 11 plays, needing just over six minutes to take a 7-0 lead on a five-yard sweep from J.B. Zimmerman with 3:13 left in the opening quarter.
Central’s defense forced a punt in Signal’s second possession, but it was 14-0 after Eli Walker scored on a 12-yard run with 4:58 left in the half.
A big defensive stop by Julian Hammontree lost 11 yards as the Pounders went for it on fourth down, setting the stage for Signal’s third TD before intermission, quarterback Colton Johnston scoring on a keeper from the 16 with less than a minute before halftime.
Bo Cooper’s 23-yard run was the key play in the 45-yard drive.
Neither team did much offensively in the second half, but Nick Jackson was able to wrap up the scoring with a two-yard run with 2:51 to play.
The Eagles finished the game with 282 total yards, including 275 on the ground where Cooper piled up 116 yards on 15 carries while Walker added 79 on 15 attempts.
The Purple Pounders were limited to just 82 total yards, including 44 on the ground and another 38 through the air.
Quarterback Landon Varnell was the leading rusher with 23 yards on six trips while Amarion Jenkins had two catches for 22 yards.
Will Reyes had a fumble recovery and an interception for Signal, including that pick late in the game to set up the final touchdown. Levi Duffey also had an interception for the Eagles.
Freshman Brian Harris had an interception for Central.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 7 15 0 7 -- 29
CENTRAL 0 0 0 0 -- 0
SM – J.B. Zimmerman 5 run (Colton Selzer kick), 3:13 left in the first;
SM – Eli Walker 12 run (Walker run), 4:58 left in second;
SM – Colton Johnston 16 run (Selzer kick), :48.3 left in second;
SM – Nick Jackson 2 run (Selzer kick), 2:51 left in fourth.
TEAM STATS: SIGNAL MOUNTAIN CENTRAL
First Downs 15 3
Rushes-Yards 50-275 25-44
Passing Yards 7 38
Total Yards 282 82
Passes (Com-Att-Int) 1-2-1 6-13-2
Penalties-Yards 8-45 6-45
Punts-Average 1-23.0 3-27.0
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-1
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN RUSHING: Bo Cooper 15 carries for 116 yards; Eli Walker 16 for 79 with one TD; Colton Johnston 10 for 40 with one TD; Nick Jackson 6 for 28 with one TD.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN RECEIVING: Levi Duffey 1 for 7 yards.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN PASSING: Colton Johnston 1 for 2 for 7 yards and one interception.
CENTRAL RUSHING: Landon Varnell -- 6 carries for 23 yards; Kadynce Wilkerson – 5 for 14; Daniel Elve – 10 for 12.
CENTRAL RECEIVING: Amarion Jenkins – two catches for 22 yards.
CENTRAL PASSING: Landon Varnell – five for 11 for 35 yards; Karter Smith – 0 for 1 with one interception.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)