The Cumberland County High School Lady Jets opened their flag football season on a high note by rolling over Rhea County by a score of 21-0.
“It felt good to get a win in our first game,” said Cumberland County Coach Andrew Phipps. “It’s a testament to how hard the girls have worked.
“We had a good turnout when we started practice in February. They’ve worked extremely hard and they’ve taken a lot of coaching. I say it all the time, take the drills that we do in practice and take those to the field in a game scenario. And they executed our game plan really, really well. They executed on offense, defense and on special teams.”
Phipps said he believes one of the Lady Jets’ strengths this year is that many of the players are familiar with the game of football. Many of the girls, he added, have a work ethic to learn more about football each day.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Phipps said.
Cumberland County, which held Rhea County on the first possession of the contest, jumped out on top early when Olivia Futrell scrambled in the pocket before ripping off a 40-yard touchdown run. Scout England ran the ball in on the conversion to put CCHS out in front 7-0.
“We called a pass play, but Olivia kind of got flushed from the pocket. She made a couple of girls miss and ran it in for the touchdown,” Phipps said. “Then we came back out and played well defensively.”
Keira Pauley picked up the second touchdown early in the third period. The Lady Jets used a “special” play, that Phipps didn’t want to talk about, to get Pauly open for the 23-yard touchdown run. England scored the conversion to make it 14-0.
“I don’t know if I want to talk too much about it, but we had been kind of saving it all night,” Phipps said. “Keira made an unbelievable play on fourth down when we absolutely had to have it. We kind of put an exclamation point on the night.”
Cumberland County’s defense was stellar as the Lady Jets had four big interceptions. Marly Elliott had one, Pauley had two, and Carley Turner closed things out with a late interception in the end zone.
Futrell got the clincher late in the fourth period to put things on ice. The conversion, a pinpoint pass to Sadie Swafford, was good and CCHS took the 21-0 victory.
“Defensively, we were able to able to get that shutout. It was actually our first shutout in program history,” Phipps said.
“Scout ran the ball really hard all night, kept the chains moving for us consistently. Brookelyn Wyllins is another kid that I want to make sure I give a shout out to offensively. She had a good night and was responsible for a couple of huge third down conversions when we absolutely needed them down the stretch.”
Cumberland County also won the junior varsity game by a 14-0 score.
“Our top offensive performer was Madison Stone. She had two rushing touchdowns and she got one of the one of the conversions,” Phipps said. “The other conversion was Kloey Moomey on a pass in the back of the end zone.”
Zoie Sims led the way at quarterback for CCHS. Brynlee Singer played well for the Lady Jets, as did Realynn Dyer. Phipps also mentioned the play of Kamara Cruz, Anayeli Horsley, Aubrey Conner and Moomey.