Story by Rusty Ellis
The Monterey Wildcats moved to 5-1 on the season with their 48-24 win over Tennessee Heat last Friday.
The Wildcats took control early in the game with three Mason Bowman touchdowns, allowing head coach Scott Hughes to then play his younger players and get them some much-needed experience.
“We jumped out early and got a big lead, and it was an opportunity for us to get some kids some experience on a Friday night,” Hughes said. “We want to be able to evaluate those young guys because that’s our future…we want to know exactly where they’re at. We want to know what we need to come back and work on.”
Getting off to good starts have fueled the last couple of wins for Monterey. They jumped out with three straight scoring drives two weeks ago against Rockwood, and they were able to put younger players in the game in the second quarter against Tennessee Heat.
“It’s always great to get off to a good start,” Hughes said. “When you can find a way to control the clock and manage the game, it’s always good to get a lead. Most teams play better when they get a lead…it gives you an opportunity to do more stuff. When you fall behind and you’re chasing, it can affect your play-calling.”
This week presents an interesting matchup for the Wildcats, as they welcome 3A opponent Waverly to town. It’s a game that came together in the middle of last week, as Hughes states he didn’t want to go more than a week between games this late in the season.
“Waverly is a great program, they’re currently ranked in the top-10 in 3A,” Hughes said. “We lost a game, and didn’t want to go two weeks without playing a game, because we thought that could be detrimental to the opportunities that we could have later in the season and get us completely out of rhythm…they’ve been dealt some terrible luck in losing their home field and they had to miss a game or two, so they were pursuing a game as well.”
What Hughes has seen on film is relatively simple: an offense that will provide a real challenge for the Wildcat defense.
“I’d say we’re a 14, 21-point underdog in this one if I had to take a guess,” Hughes said. “Their offense is really explosive. Their quarterback (will likely) be a Mr. Football finalist…they’re ranked in the top-10 in 3A for a reason.”
It’s a non-region game, meaning that it won’t have the implications of the Rockwood or York Institute game from earlier in the season. That doesn’t mean that Hughes doesn’t have goals that he would like for his team to accomplish in this game.
“Number one, we want to get out healthy,” Hughes said. “That’s the number one objective every Friday night…the key for us, and one of the main reasons that we took this game, is to just work to get better every day. We felt that having an opponent this week would make us better, win or lose. We have not only an opponent, but also a really good opponent.”
The two teams will square off on Friday in Monterey at 7 P.M. The game will be live-streamed on Upper Cumberland Reporter 3 on Facebook.