Chuckey-Doak is looking to get back on track and get back in the win column as it hosts the Johnson County Longhorns at home in an important Region 1-3A contest on Friday night in Lower Afton.
The Black Knights started hot with three-straight wins, but have gone cold since then. Chuckey-Doak has lost two-straight and have a current record of 3-2 (0-1) while Johnson County sits at 2-3 (1-0).
After spending a week outside of Region 1-3A competition, the Black Knights are set for their second conference game of the year. After losing to Unicoi County in week four, Chuckey-Doak began its conference schedule 0-1. With a win over Claiborne last week, Johnson County starts their conference schedule 1-0. With playoff aspirations in mind, the Black Knights know how valuable a win would be.
For Head Coach Billy Kaylor, this week has been spent focusing on themselves.
“This week is about being a better version of us. We started off hot and kind of missed a step against West Greene and it’s kind of built on us for the last two weeks. We’ve focused on getting back to doing what we do and doing what we do well and then let that play out on Friday night,” Kaylor stated.
Both teams are set for their 33rd meeting. Johnson County leads the all-time series with 21 wins. Johnson County has won two-straight and Chuckey-Doak’s last win came in Mountain City in 2022 with a 39-6 victory.
The Longhorns will bring an offense to the field that isn’t flashy or producing eye-popping numbers, but it is effective in what it does. They will look for senior running back Juan Mejia to carry the load.
“They’re gonna try to get the ball to (Mejia), and I would too he’s a good player, so they’ll run the ball well and push the ball vertical at times. It’s going to force us to be sound defensively,” Kaylor explained.
The Johnson County offense averages 17.4 points per game so far through five games. Their defense is allowing 30.6 points per game.
Chuckey-Doak’s offense has stalled the past few weeks and has been held in check to just 35 points the last three games after starting the season with scores of 39 and 38. The offense is averaging 23.8 points per game now and the defense is allowing 29.8 points on average after back-to-back games of allowing 40+ points.
The Black Knights have shown that they possess an offense with a two-headed attack of Brayden Greene and Marcus Britt in the backfield. The uber athletic Dom Atchison has been a playmaker in his senior campaign and sophomore quarterback Kiptyn Ball has shown a large amount of growth and development in his breakout season. Wideouts Skylar Davis and Dominic Hahnlen have proved themselves to be threats in the passing game.
“We’re going to have to be sound. We’re going to have to be better up front on both sides of the football and be sound. And obviously be sound on the back end. It’s not always fair to those big guys, but everything kind of starts and ends up front. It’s hard to get mad at the back end when the front end is bad and they’re having to make up for it. We’ve had a really good week up front in practice, so if we continue to play well up front and then the back-end guys can do their part then I think we’ll be okay,” Coach Kaylor mentioned.
Chuckey-Doak and their faithful fans don’t have to worry about traveling up to Mountain City this year and can sit in comfort knowing that home is a short trip away. Kickoff is set for 7 PM at The Black Hole on Friday night.
