Story by Rusty Ellis
The Livingston Academy Wildcats got their season off to a rocky start last Friday, as they suffered a 40-0 defeat at the hands of White County.
The Wildcats held White County scoreless until late in the first quarter, but the floodgates opened in the second as the Warriors scored 21 unanswered points to take a 27-0 lead into halftime. Even with the deficit, LA head coach Dale Flatt says he believes the score was misleading.
“The score didn’t really tell how we played,” Flatt said. “I think we played well up to a point, but when they scored on us, we let down…our kids still fought hard. I thought we got better on offense as the game went on, but because they didn’t score, the defense crumbled a little bit.”
The Wildcat defense managed some success early on in the game in forcing the Sparta offense off the field, something Flatt attributes to their pregame focus on keeping White County’s playmakers from getting out into space.
“Our biggest thing was to keep them between the tackles, and we did that,” Flatt said. “It’s hard to do that time and time again on defense when you don’t score. I think because of that, the momentum of the game changed to White County instead of us.”
One of the biggest storylines for Livingston as the season progresses will be the development of Brodey Coffee. While the sophomore quarterback didn’t put any points on the board, Flatt says he still liked a lot of what he saw from the young signal-caller.
“I think he did a great job for what he had to go through,” Flatt said. “He spent most of the time running, and he did a fine job…he made some good throws and some good runs. I think he did a good job.”
Livingston’s week two matchup features two teams in very similar places, as they take on the Cookeville Cavaliers. Like the Wildcats, the Cavaliers are young team replacing several key cogs from a year ago. They have a quarterback with one game of experience under his belt in Mace Thomsen, and like Coffee, he had to face a seasoned defense in the Upperman Bees in week one.
Flatt says that the thing that sticks out most to him about the Cavaliers is the depth they possess as a bigger school.
“They’ve got a lot of kids to choose from,” Flatt said. “You have to take into account that most of their players are going one-way, while most of ours are going both ways…I think we’re in the same boat with (experience), and I think it’s a pretty close matchup.”
The offensive lines are another similarity between the two teams. Cookeville returns a single starter from 2020, while Flatt has several underclassmen manning his line. For the Wildcats to have a chance to win this week, he says that both the defense and offensive line will need to be better.
“Our biggest thing we’re working on is our offensive line,” Flatt said. “Most of them have never played (the position), and that was their first game last week…the other focus is just tackling. At first, we did that (against White County), but we let down from that as the game went along.”
Livingston Academy battles Cookeville in Tennessee Tech’s Tucker Stadium this Friday at 7 P.M. The game will be live-streamed on Upper Cumberland Reporter 2 on Facebook.