Fourth Generation Ensor to play last home game on Goddard Field

Published 3:02 pm Monday, October 24, 2022

BY C.Y. Peters

Star Correspondent

Reagan Ensor will play his final regular season game this coming Thursday night on Goddard Field when the Warriors travel up the creek to play Unaka. Reagan is the starting quarterback for Happy Valley, who finished their regular season Thursday night. Twenty-one years ago this week, his dad Ben Ensor, was the starting quarterback for Unaka and played his final game on Goddard Field in 2001. Ben played for four different coaches at Unaka and played his senior season for Unaka Principal Mike Acie Ensor.

In 1976 Ben’s dad, Charles (Happy) Ensor, played his final game on Goddard field. He played guard, tackle, and defensive end. Happy’s dad, Cobby Ensor, was a football Ranger player for Coach Lynn Goddard in 1953. Unfortunately, Cobby passed away two years ago in October. After spending twenty years in service, he coached high school football for many years and in 1994, he was named Regional Football Coach of the year through Tennessee Athletic Coaches Association.

    Reagan has scored ten touchdowns as a quarterback this year, and he scored three touchdowns in two separate games.  Last week the Warriors scored six touchdowns and held Johnson County to only seventeen yards rushing; the bad news was they lost the game. Ensor is a four-year quarterback and a two-year starter for the Warriors. Ensor has a couple of colleges looking at him and he hopes to play football in college.

  Last week the Rangers lost for the first time in five weeks after beating Happy Valley, Jellico, Claiborne, and Cosby.  The Rangers look to rebound this week and have a big game before hosting a home-field TSSAA state playoff game.

    Coach Bennett said, “It’s tough to beat a good team twice. The first game was a tough, hard-fought, defensive battle. Both teams made some big plays and costly mistakes the first time around and I’m confident Coach Jarrett and his staff have addressed and corrected those mistakes on their end. They’ll be well prepared to capitalize on any mistakes we make.

    Their offense has adapted and hit its stride in the three games since we’ve played, scoring 31 points per game. Our defense will have another big challenge ahead of them this week. We won while only scoring 16 points in the last game due to an outstanding effort on defense and we’ll need an even bigger night this time around. We’ll need to play well on special teams and be disciplined defensively to avoid providing them with short drive opportunities. Their quarterback can hurt you if you don’t stay at home. We’ll need to win on third and fourth down and avoid extending drives for them with hidden yards and penalties.

Offensively, we have to do a much better job of putting together some first downs and avoid playing from behind the chains so that we can flip the field position and try to play the game in plus territory. We’re looking to continue to develop our depth, particularly up front, as we move into the playoffs. Jake Taylor, Nathan Wilson, and TJ Thomas have stepped up in recent weeks and we look for their role to continue to grow.”

This week’s game is a Thursday night game and starts at 7:30 pm.