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goteam1

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  1. Backup wide receiver Thomas Wilson joins list of Navy heroes in Army-Navy series - capitalgazette.com Backup wide receiver joins list of Navy heroes in series Mids' Wilson comes up big with kick recovery By Bill Wagner, bwagner@capgaznews.com 10:27 a.m. EST, December 15, 2014 One of the biggest challenges for a player participating in the Army-Navy game is to block out all the distractions and focus only on what happens on the field. Navy's coaching staff has done a good job of preaching that mantra during the current 13-game winning streak against its archrival. In footage filmed prior to last year's Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, head coach Ken Niumatalolo can be heard imploring his troops to not get caught up in the atmosphere within the stadium. "Do your job," Niumatalolo bellowed, enunciating each word. "Don't worry about the crowd of anything else. Just do your job." Those words must have echoed inside Thomas Wilson's head on Saturday evening as he took the field along with Navy's kickoff return team. Kicker Daniel Grochowski had just booted a 52-yard field goal to pull Army within a touchdown and now Navy needed to regain possession in order to salt away the remaining time. Trailing 17-10 with 1:51 left, the Black Knights were forced to attempt an onside kick and head coach Jeff Monken sent out a specialist to perform the task. Cale Brewer had handled kickoffs for Army during the game, but Mitchell Howard has worked all season to perfect the onside kick. "He's been the guy all year. We work on it every week, a couple times a week, to prepare for that situation," Monken said. Monken served as special teams coordinator under head coach Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. "I'm very involved in the special teams and I try to cover as much as I can to make sure there are no situations that come up that we are not prepared for," he said. Monken's attention to the specialty units showed through early in the Army-Navy game when he rushed 10 men (everyone except the returner) when Navy punter Pablo Beltran was backed up on the goal line. It was a jail break with multiple Army players getting deep penetration and sophomore safety Josh Jenkins easily blocked Beltran's attempt. Sophomore wide receiver Xavier Moss grabbed the loose ball and returned it seven yards for a touchdown to give the Black Knights a 7-0 lead. Steve Johns serves as special teams coordinator for Navy, which divides the responsibility of overseeing the various units among other assistants. Danny O'Rourke is in charge of the "hands" team, which is sent out whenever an onside kick seems likely. Comprised entirely of wide receivers and slot backs, the "hands" team is responsible for manning the front line of the kickoff return unit in such situations. "We work on it every Thursday in practice. I lined up in my position and watched the ball real closely like we're taught," Wilson said. "Coach O'Rourke always tells us to expect the ball to come to you, to want the ball and to go get it." Howard certainly did his job well, delivering an absolute beauty of an onside kick. The left-footed kicker drilled the top of the football just right in order to get it bouncing off the turf at M&T Bank Stadium. "I thought he made a great kick and gave us a chance," Monken said. "We were a little bit late getting to the first guy from the sideline who recovered the ball, but I thought he did a heck of a job to give us a chance to get the ball back." Howard's kick bounced twice before traveling the mandatory 10 yards before it can be fielded. The second bounce was particularly high and that is when Wilson made his move, stepping forward and leaping to snare the ball out of midair. "Coach O'Rourke always tells us to get it on the high bounce so you don't get short-hopped," Wilson said. "I saw the ball go high so I went up and attacked it." Wilson did well to hang onto the ball as he got hit hard in the lower body by an onrushing Army defender. And with that, the backup wide receiver from Brandenburg, Kentucky etched his name into history as one of the heroes of the Army-Navy game. "It was exciting to have a role in the victory. It was a great team win. The defense played great the whole way and the offense made plays when it had to," Wilson said. "We had a special teams play go against us earlier in the game so we had to make up for that at the end."
  2. The funniest that I heard this year was during the Meade/Central Hardin regional championship game at CH. It was 3rd and long for MC and the announcer said "3rd & Brandenburg." (MC is located in Brandenburg.) I only think it is funny now because we beat the pants off of them. At the time, I thought it was a little much.
  3. Actually, everybody has to buy tickets for playoff games, even school employees.
  4. Simmer down. Deciding to sit in the MC stands so you have a place to sit is completely acceptable. MC is an awesome place to watch a football game. I think coming in and trying to "establish a Trinity section" within the home stands is another thing. If that's all you have to say to get you guys riled up, it's going to be a long week. I have stood at many a ball game because the stands were too full & didn't want to place myself within the home section and I have survived. I suggest you get there early & try to get seats in your allocated section first.
  5. The MC visitors side is small just like most HS fields. Most visiting fans have to adapt when they travel with their team. I would think that attempting to establish a Trinity section in the MC home bleachers would be in bad form in this instance. There is one HS in the county so it's kind of a big deal. Historically, MC has not had much love for the privates (to say the least) so I would doubt that the administration is going to bend over backwards to make the Trinity faithful happy. (Nor do I think they should.) Hamilton Field is an awesome place to take in a HS game in November.
  6. If that is your criteria for the "IT" factor for a team, then both Meade and Central have it.
  7. I understand how the "IT" factor might make you win American Idol or America's Got Talent or whatever, but I am having a hard time translating that into football. I have never finished watching a football game and said "XYZ won because they have the "IT" factor and had more fans there." I will give you this, though. After watching the Scott County/Meade Game on ihigh, I definitely think that Meade's qb has the "IT" factor and by "IT" factor, I mean being 5'11", 160 lbs yet breaking tackle after tackle, finding holes where they don't exist, and being incredible on defense. He very rarely left the field and played with intensity through out. I was very impressed and so were the announcers. He is a competitor for sure. (Although I am not convinced he could win American Idol.)
  8. I have been very impressed with Hardin County Preps being so complimentary of Meade on other threads in this forum. He really almost defended them when other posters were questioning their abilities. (Well, until last week and he got riled up about the strength of schedule thing.) Closer and closer to the showdown, the venom has started spewing. Instead of respecting his opponent, he is making disparaging remarks while thumping his chest. I think he is not as confident in his team as he would like us to believe. I think this game will be a dogfight between two pretty equally matched teams. Obviously, CH still has a chip on it's shoulder from being the historic little brother in the district and Meade is still smarting from the regular season loss. For sure, all the makings of an awesome HS football game are there.
  9. "Thomas Wilson completed 9-of-13 passes for 230 yards, while gaining 75 yards on 15 carries." (News-Enterprise)
  10. It was a fun night!! Watched John Hardin and Christian Co. on bbtel and Ryle/Trinity on the computer.
  11. Meade has an explosive QB as well as some good RB's. I think that they will be hard to beat at home.
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