Witten says team is playing best football of season heading to Anderson Co.

Published 11:14 am Tuesday, November 8, 2022

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Just like the great heavyweight rematches between boxing greats Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier along with  Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, Friday night in Clinton renews yet another classic rematch between two great high school football teams in the Class 4A ranks in Tennessee when the Elizabethton Cyclones look to keep their focus on winning football games all the way to the state championship in Chattanooga in December.

It was the first contest against Anderson County, a 35-34 overtime defeat, that seemed to turn the ship for the Cyclones as after being left for dead to start the season, the Cyclones have gone on a run that has landed them another step closer to reaching their goal when the season began as they are now playing some of their best football.

Cyclone head coach Shawn Witten believes that the early lessons that his team learned, many the hard way, have shaped his team and they are now ready to take on all challenges.

“Our football team has done a magnificent job of getting ourselves back to this point,” Witten said. “We regrouped and learned our lessons and answered the questions that have gotten us here. A lot of respect for Anderson County – they are a good team and are well coached with good schemes. Nothing is any different this time than when we went down last time. Last week was a good product of our preparation matching our execution on Friday.”

Although it was a heartbreaking loss in the first meeting, the loss may play more in favor of the Cyclones as now the Mavericks know they are playing a team that went from that one-point overtime loss to a team that is clicking on every cylinder both offensively and defensively with the emergence of Nate Stephens running the football and the passing game. The defense has been stellar all season but with Mason Ball coming back last week, that just puts an added pressure on the Maverick line to stop the defense front led by Ball, Brad Cannon, Eli Guess, and Ben Adams.

“We would rather win this second one than the first one,” said Witten. “It gives us confidence that we know we can play. We missed out on some plays but they are good offensively and we have to match it and not give up any big plays. We made them work for it. Where they are really good is down in the red zone. I think that you can’t go in and expect the same results. You have to execute. We battled and got a lead and knew they were going to make a run at it. This one is going to be a four-quarter game.”

One of the areas that have really shown immense improvement from the first four games is the offensive line. The unit has come together and meshed in such a way as to provide quarterback Dalton Mitchell the opportunity to find open receivers and create gapping holes that Stephens has been able to explode through for big gains and put the ball into the end zone.

“Our O-line is the key to giving Dalton the protection to get comfortable,” Witten said. “We have to get Nate going there. We have to be able to hit some receivers on some big plays. They do a really good job of coverage. The offensive line has been really good. You can’t be one-dimensional in the playoffs. You have to be balanced. We did a good job and played our game and we have to do it again.

“The biggest thing is we are where we need to be and we are playing our best football and that’s all you can ask for. Six weeks ago our motto was we have got to make it happen and here we are.”

Kickoff will be at 7 pm.