Unaka will try to take the sting from Yellow Jackets

Published 1:13 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2022

STAR CORRESPONDENT

After winning the first playoff game in school history, the Unaka Rangers will take on the tall task of taking down one of the top teams in 1A as they travel to Coalfield for a second-round playoff game with the Yellow Jackets.

Coalfield (10-1 overall) boasts a prolific offense as they score on average 45.0 points per game with senior quarterback Cole Hines manning the controls. The Jackets are equally dominant on defense as they give up a measly 8.6 points per game and have four shutouts and had three more games where they gave up just six points.

“Our win last week was big for our team and our community,” Rangers head coach O’Brien Bennett said. “It was a long time coming and Landon Ramsey had a huge game with 170 yards rushing and over 130 passing yards. We are looking forward to and are excited to still be playing. We are not satisfied with winning one game. We are not done.”

The Rangers (7-4 overall) defeated Greenback 44-20 in round one with Ramsey throwing for two scores to Joe-Z Blamo and running for three more as Unaka made school history. The Yellow Jackets come off an easy 56-6 thrashing of North Greene in their round one contest and appear as strong an opponent as anyone.

“Coalfield has a lot of good athletes,” Bennett said. “They are a traditionally strong program and we respect that. They have always been a 1A roadblock for teams East of them. Cloudland broke through last year against them and we hope to be the next one to do that. We look at them – and we have played some very tough teams this year like Hampton – and we learned a lot from playing teams like that.”

The Rangers are playing as well defensively as they are on the offensive side of the ball with three takeaways against Greenback with Johnny Douglas, Blamo and Isaiah White all having interceptions and Bennett thinks that his defense can have an impact against Coalfield.

“Our goal all season has been to get better each week,” Bennett said. “We have had a great in-season weightlifting program that the kids have bought into and we are getting better as the season progresses. We are not satisfied to have a one win playoff and go home. There are bigger goals that we are striving for.”

The Yellow Jackets are strong on the ground with junior RB Coalton Henry, sophomore Eli Justice and senior A.J. Henry and have a strong anchor on the offensive line in Brayden Burgess who stands 6’3” and goes 260 pounds but Unaka has the size to match with Marcus Shomaker who comes back from injury and fellow junior Braydon Powell.

“A lot of teams in Tennessee are done playing and we are still here,” Bennett said. “We have some things to clean up but what I would like to see is a Carter County clash for the quarterfinals.”

Game time is 7 pm.