'Horns look to set the tone for
next season
By Matt Hill
STAR STAFF
mhill@starhq.com
When the Sullivan South Rebels and the Johnson
County Longhorns take the field in the regular-season finale
on Friday night at Death Valley, it will be two teams playing
for two totally different reasons.
For the Rebels, it will be a chance to possibly
improve on playoff seeding. For the Longhorns, it will be
for pride.
The Rebels are only 4-5 overall, but have a 4-2
Mountain Lakes mark. The Longhorns are now 1-8 overall and
1-5 in the Mountain Lakes.
Sullivan South will be the heavy favorite in
this one, but last week's Mountain Lakes action showed that
there are no sure wins.
Johnson County head coach Mike Atwood pointed
to Sullivan Central's shocking victory over Elizabethton last
Thursday night as one instance where the underdog won.
"Anything can happen," Atwood said. "Central's
got a good team, so it wasn't a real big surprise. But just
because you're supposed to lose doesn't mean you have to."
This game could have a big say in the Mountain
Lakes playoff race. A Johnson County upset and a Sullivan
Central victory over Daniel Boone would put Elizabethton on
the road in the first round of the TSSAA playoffs.
Sullivan South could finish as high as second
if the Rebels win and Unicoi County upsets the Cyclones.
Atwood says that the Longhorns are not concerned
with who goes where in the playoffs. Instead, they are more
worried about getting some confidence for next season.
"We're just trying to win our last game," Atwood
said. "We're not looking to hurt anybody's season, we're just
trying to help ourselves for next year."
If the Longhorn defense plays as well as it did
last week, South may have a hard time getting its overall
record to .500.
Johnson County's defense played very respectably
in a 31-0 loss to Mountain Lakes champion Tennessee High last
week. Seniors Justin Bishop and Adam Leonard really stepped
up for the Longhorns, as they tallied 14 and 10 tackles, respectively.
"We've got a great group of seniors, and they
all want to make a statement," Atwood said. "Those two especially
have been playing hard all year."
The offensive woes for the Longhorns have been
well-documented. Johnson County has only scored three touchdowns
in a game once this season, and Atwood says that has been
the biggest problem in 2002.
"We're more concerned with our offense right
now," Atwood said. "We feel like we can hold our own on defense,
but you have to score some points or it doesn't matter what
you do on defense."
The Longhorn defense will be tested by tailback
Aaron Robinette. He rushed for a school-record 290 yards and
scored four touchdowns in South's convincing 28-6 win over
Sullivan East last week in Bluff City.
"Robinette is hard to stop," Atwood said. "We
need to stop him and (wingback) Robert Davenport. He looks
pretty solid from what we've seen on film.
South runs the Wing-T, an offense that Atwood
considers to be extremely tough to stop if you can run it
well.
"We're just going to try and find a way to mess
it up a little bit," he said.
South's defense has been playing better of late.
Last year, the Rebels held the Longhorns scoreless, which
is on the mind of Atwood.
"On defense, they're basically about the same,"
Atwood said. "They'll try to do a lot of the same things.
We look for a solid defense."
The Longhorns are mostly just playing this one
for some confidence going into next season. It's been a tough
year in Mountain City, but things seem to be looking up for
the Longhorns.
Johnson County has a lot of talented young players,
so Atwood hopes that there won't be too many more 1-8 seasons.
"Our junior varsity and freshmen teams have had
good years," Atwood said. "We're looking forward to the next
few years. We feel like we're going to field a competitive
team."
But as for this group of seniors, Atwood wants
to send them out on a high note.
"It would be a big win," he said. "We feel like
we deserve a win. We're just looking to play hard and see
what happens."
Gametime is at 7:30.
