Final

I hope Russell can get Landon Duvall back next week, we missed his speed tonight big time.

Final.

Waggener/Russell Updates

Congratulations Devils!

TJ said Landon Duvall could have played tonight but didn't feel explosivness so he decided to sit out and rehab another week. We will see if he plays next week.

 

Also he said Ethan Sanders tore a ligament in his elbow. My guess is he will play next week and have surgery after the season.

This was kind of a funky game.

 

- There were lot of flags. Waggener, especially, was penalized a bunch.

 

- Waggener attempted a halfback pass that was tipped multiple times before being corralled by the receiver and taken to the house from roughly 80 yards out.

 

- Russell had an extra point deflect off of a helmet and wobble through the uprights.

 

- Someone from the Waggener sideline was escorted from the premises by the police.

 

It would have been nice to see Russell put the game away after going up 23-7. Waggener immediately struck right back, aided by two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties by Russell on the same play, giving the Wildcats the ball deep in Russell territory. It's hard to complain about a playoff win, though. Conley and Anderson ran hard tonight, and often. Usually the carries are more evenly distributed, but I think those two had by far the most carries they've ever had in a single game.

The 2, 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct put Waggener at the Russell 10.

I think Russell should have passed more, they were moving the ball real well and gashing Waggener in the 1st quarter with it.

I think Russell should have passed more, they were moving the ball real well and gashing Waggener in the 1st quarter with it.

 

They'll have to be more balanced next week if they hope to have any kind of success moving the ball versus Central.

It was definitely a weird game. I hate to criticize officiating, but my goodness that crew was bad. Their penalty enforcement was awful. Waggener was called for intentional grounding and they marked it off 5 yards from the line of scrimmage instead of the spot of the grounding. Another time Russell had the ball on their own 8 yard line and was called for holding. Instead of marking it off half the distance to the 4 they moved the ball all the way back to the 2 yard line. In the 4th quarter after a Waggener score the ball was kicked into the endzone but the official didn't blow the ball dead until the ball had completely rolled out of the back of the endzone. After taking over at the 20 yard line after the touchback Russell was awarded a first down with the ball on the 29 yard line. There were several times after penalty enforcement that the white hat should have wound the clock after whistling the ball read for play, but failed to do so. They honestly looked like a bunch of 1st year officials officiating a JFL game. And then there was the Waggener player that got into it with his own player, and was yelling at cursing his own teammate. The player even put his hands on the official and shoved him away as the official tried to get him to calm down, and it wasn't until the player was walking to the sideline and took off his helmet and threw it to the ground that he was whistled for an unsportsmanlike penalty. Congrats to Russell on the win, and good luck next weekend against Central.

I read in the Ashland paper that Waggener's head coach didn't make the trip. Anyone know why? Hope all is well.

I read in the Ashland paper that Waggener's head coach didn't make the trip. Anyone know why? Hope all is well.

 

I read that as well. Coach Johnson is pretty regular on Twitter and he hasn't posted in a few days. Not sure what's up there. I definitely hope all is well.