Dixie dominated South in all facets of the game on opening night of the high school football season.  The host team had home field advantage and every other advantage as they cruised to a 48-0 win.  The amazing thing is that all of the damage was done in the first half.  The team scored 14 points in the first quarter and an astounding 34 points in the second quarter .   That was plenty enough offense for the night.  And the defense was stifling – not allowing South to sniff midfield in the first half.   South did manage to get into the redzone thanks to a botched punt attempt by Dixie in the second half.  But the defense kept them out of the endzone to maintain the shutout.

Ryan Jordan had a stellar night breaking not one, but two school records.  He broke his own single game rushing record with 306 yards.  Even more remarkable when you find that he was pulled out of the offense for the entire second half.  He also set a single game scoring record with 6 touchdowns.  Again all done in 2 quarters of work.  South just could not find an answer for his combination of speed and strength.   

Defensively Matt Isaacs, who only played linebacker for one half, lead the way with 5 tackles with 2 of those for loss.  Travis Wright had an interception.  Chuck Lockheart had a fumble recovery.  Those two turnovers put Dixie up plus 2 in the turnover department as Dixie did not have any turnovers on the night. 

And what a way for coach Tom Watson to begin his career as a head coach.  Anytime there is a change at the top, you have to wonder how the team will react and there will always be differences in technique,  philosophy of offense/defense, and just the style of coaching.  The Dixie players obviously adapted well.  Coach Watson was asked how it felt to get the first game out of the way. “I am happy and excited – it could not have happened without those kids.  They played hard and busted their butts – I am very proud of all of my players.”

On the game, “Ryan Jordan had a monster day. The offensive line did an awesome job blocking for Ryan Jordan, he could not have set those records without them.  Even our wide receivers did an awesome job blocking for him.  We only threw the ball twice – Luke Bowling was 2 for 2. The receivers know that they wouldn’t touch the ball very much with Ryan running like that, but they did an excellent job of being team players and blocking to open a hole for him.  It was overall a great first game for us as a team. We are sacrificing ourselves for each other and I couldn’t be any more prouder.  Our defense was outstanding, anytime you get a shutout it is a good game.“

On hosting Valley View next Friday night, “They have a great team and a great tradition – I know what they are about.  Coach Ketron is an excellent coach with experience and they are going back to their old ways with the run and shoot.  They are very good team and I think it is going to be a dog fight.  But we are renewing that old rivalry that went back into the 80’s and 90’s.  And we are trying to snap a 27 year losing streak.  But I am telling my team it only takes one game to erase that 27 years.”

One good thing about Dixie being able to dominate on the ground, they did not have to open up their playbook very much.  So there is not much of the Dixie offense that Valley View was able to scout.  Meanwhile, Valley View had a much tougher opening game in their loss to Dunbar and so they had to open up and show a lot more to the Dixie scouts.

There were some bright spots for South.  Jesse Wysong had an average of 28 yards per return and was second on the team in tackles.  James Cottingim was the team leader in tackles.  Jarad Kirkpatrick, a freshman, lead the team in rushing with 10 rushes for 52 yards.  But unfortunately Kirkpatrick was injured and will not play in next week’s game.

Coach Engleka from TVS was asked to comment after the game: “They were bigger, faster, stronger, and tougher than what we were and 10 times out of 10 tries they are going to win the game.  We knew going in that they were a good team. “

On next week’s game against National Trail, “They are a mirror image of us with the exact same offense and the exact same defense.  The team that goes out and executes the best,0 that is the team that is going to win.  They played against Ponitz Tech and got a win, so they are feeling good about themselves.  Our team has to come back from playing a good team and got manhandled by Dixie. So their kids are on a high and our kids we need to pick up and get ready to go for next week.  They know what we are doing, we know what they are doing – whoever executes wins.