Middle ground for rivals

Published 12:38 am Saturday, August 13, 2011

Neither Murray County nor host North Murray looked particularly sharp on Friday night. At the same time, neither football team looked particularly bad.

The Mountaineers got the better of their county rivals in a preseason scrimmage, taking a 19-0 advantage after the two teams played nearly three quarters of regulation football. The two teams worked on their two-minute offenses in the final four minutes of the third quarter, and the junior varsity teams scrimmaged in the fourth.

North Murray quarterback Brady Swilling scored on runs of 1 and 26 yards and passed for 79 yards, while running back Jacob Mays scored on a 65-yard run on the Mountaineers’ first possession to account for the scoring. However, the offense was certainly in preseason form with six fumbles on center-quarterback exchanges. Swilling has been with the team for just a week after competing in the Amateur Athletic Union’s national track and field championships last week in New Orleans.

“We shot ourselves in the foot all night long with all of those fumbles, and it is hard to assess yourself when you do that,” North Murray coach Larry Cornelius said. “It is kind of hard to gauge where the offense is. We looked good at times and did some things that I liked, but it’s hard to know where we are right now.”

Defensively, the Mountaineers were aggressive and didn’t give Murray County’s pistol offense many chances to get loaded. Indians quarterback Brady Todd looked good running the newly-installed offense with seven carries for 55 yards, but the junior went down in the waning seconds of the scrimmage with what appeared to be a collarbone injury. Coach John Hammond didn’t know the severity of Todd’s injury, but said it would be evaluated today.

“Our defense was really flying around,” Cornelius said. “We just have to learn to break down and read the opposing offense a little better. We gave up a couple of big plays, but thankfully they didn’t come back to bite us. I hate that Brady got hurt there at the end, and I hope it isn’t too severe.”

Todd and senior running back Adrian Brinkman accounted for most of Murray County’s offense, with Brinkman adding 46 yards on four carries.

In the first quarter, it was the Indians’ defense that controlled the game, holding North Murray to a three-and-out with good penetration from the defensive line, but a roughing-the-kicker penalty on the punt gave the Mountaineers a second chance, and Mays took advantage. Taking an option pitch from Swilling, Mays turned the corner, made a defender miss and then outraced the Murray secondary for the long scoring run.

North Murray had fumbles ruin its next two possessions, and the Mountaineers needed a pass interference call on third-and-long to keep their first drive of the second quarter going. Swilling showed off his athleticism with a 14-yard run and a pair of 20-plus-yard completions to Jackie Abernathy before sneaking over from just outside the goal line for a 12-0 lead with 6:02 left in the half.

“We had some difficulties on the offensive line in the first half, but give Murray County and their defensive line a lot of credit because they were penetrating and creating some havoc,” Cornelius said. “We had a little heart-to-heart with the offensive line at the half, and I think we got the problems solved.”

Hammond saw bright spots for the Indians on defense, too.

“Defensively, I loved the effort,” Hammond said. “We got after it. We got a little tired on the defensive line, but a lot of those guys are having to go both ways. We will look at the film and try to come up with a better rotation to try and keep them fresh.”

Murray County opens the regular season at home on Aug. 26 against Southeast Whitfield on Aug. 26. North Murray will travel to Heritage-Catoosa on the same night.