Sometimes, the numbers on the scoreboard don’t always tell the true story of how the sporting event went. There is a lot going on during an athletic contest.
Such was the case last week when the Cumberland County Jets fell 36-0 to White County in middle school football action in Sparta.
“The game was a lot closer, but it was very difficult to take on White County,” said Cumberland County Coach Travis Ragan. “They had three linemen that looked like they were juniors in high school. They were huge.
“White County was really well coached. They had great athletes and their program is growing. They’re the best team we’ve played all year.”
Ragan said he went into the game coaching his kids to just worry about beating the man across from you.
“We wanted them to focus on doing their jobs,” the coach said. “We wanted them to keep fighting. And, to our kids’ credit, they did just that play after play after play. There wasn’t one kid not working hard on every play.”
The game was scoreless after the first period. Cumberland County’s defense was containing the Warriors’ offense.
“We never really could get anything going offensively all night, mainly because their defensive line was just so elite and huge,” Ragan said. “We got a couple of good pass catches there early on in the first half. Defensively, it was just hard because they run a power read, and their quarterback and running back are both really good athletes.
“After some time, their size and talent kind of takes over, We got a little overwhelmed, and then we played better in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, we kind of ran out of gas.”
Ragan said he saw a lot of good things from his players, building blocks to help the Jets keep moving forward.
“I think the player of the game was Judah Hayes,” Ragan said. “He plays cornerback and wide receiver. He tackled the best I have seen him tackle. He had a lot of good hits on defense.
“Offensively, Logan Ragan plays tight end for us. He had some very timely catches, and has been able to get us big first downs when we needed them.”
Cumberland County will be back in action Sept. 17 when the Jets visit Avery Trace. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
“Right now, we’re really just kind of concentrating on ending the season strong,” Ragan said. “These last few games are very winnable games for us. The key for us is sticking to the fundamentals. Many of the games we’ve lost have been because we did not execute fundamentally.
“We’ve just kind of shot ourselves in the foot a lot. So, if we can cut that out these last few weeks and perform to the best of our abilities, I think we have a good chance of finishing the season strong.”