A busy week for Mountaineer football ended Friday in Burnsville as the Mitchell Mountaineer varsity football team came up short in their bid to defeat Mtn. Heritage for the fourth consecutive meeting between these two rival schools. The Mountaineers got a wake-up call on the first play of the game as Heritage scored on a 90-yard kickoff return by Carson Jones. Matthias Newsome added the first of his four points after touchdownon the night. The Mitchell offense then took the field and capped a 10 play, 63-yard scoring drive on a 20-yard pass reception by Isaiah Turner from Caleb Cook. Chris Wences added the first of his two P.A.T’s.
Heritage scored on a 29-yard run by Carson Jones on the first play of the second quarter capping a seven play 68-yard scoring drive. At the half, Heritage led 14-7.
The Mountaineers regrouped at halftime and took the opening kickoff of the second half, and moved the ball 77 yards in 14 plays capped by a one-yard run by Caleb Cook. From that point through the remainder of the game, it was vintage Heritage football as they put together two time-consuming scoring drives of 80 and 84 yards with times of possession of 7:19 and 5:25. Brandon Quinn tossed a 19-yard pass to Carson Jones for the first touchdown and he scored on a 1-yard run for the last touchdown of the game for Heritage giving Mt. Heritage the 28-14 win.
An in-depth look at the stats reveals that this game was vintage Heritage. They gained 373 yards for the night on 50 carries. They had 16 more rushing attempts than Mitchell. Their defense limited the Mountaineer ground game to only 136 yards rushing. Heritage is to be commended; they won the game fair and square. They took the fight to Mitchell for all four quarters. They controlled the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense. The team that wins at the line of scrimmage and is more physical wins in most games. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, that was the case Friday night.
As the varsity Mountaineers continue throughout the remainder of the 2023 season, there are more goals to accomplish. If they regroup and get back on the winning track, they can finish the season 8-2 and qualify for the 2023 playoffs. Once the playoffs begin, they could advance and win additional games. The future of the 2023 season rests in the hands of the young men that comprise the current Mountaineer team. They are a super group of young men that have worked hard from the very beginning of this season. They have put in countless hours of hard work and I am confident they will regroup and move forward beginning this week.
History-making year for JV team
Over the course of this year, the Mitchell Junior Varsity team has played in relative anonymity. They got off to a great start early in the year with big non-conference wins over Murphy and Robbinsville. Those two early-season wins set the stage for a history-making year for Mountaineer football. The 2023 JV team finished the season with a perfect 8-0 record. This is a first for either a varsity or JV team in the school’s history.
It isn’t a surprise that the top JV team in the Western Highlands Conference for several years has been Heritage. In fact, they have dominated everyone in the conference in recent years. This year, the Mountaineer JV team changed the landscape in the Western Highlands Conference. On Sept. 14, they defeated the Heritage JV team 26-13. This was the first conference loss for the Heritage JV team in several years.
On Thursday, Oct. 12, these two JV teams hooked up again for the conference championship game. The Mitchell JV team prevailed again with a 48-24 victory and were the regular season and conference title game champions. So, congratulations are in order for the history-making 2023 Mountaineer JV team. With continued work in the offseason, several of the young men on the 2023 JV team will be playing and making significant contributions next fall.
The landscape for Mountaineer football is bright. The Mountaineer football family needs to continue to support these young men throughout the remainder of the 2023 season and look for exciting things to come in the future. Make plans to make the trip to Rosman this week for another important game in Western Highlands Conference action.
Go Mountaineers!