BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Any good feelings the Tri-Cities Christian football team was holding onto after the team’s 2008 state title game appearance have disappeared.
The Eagles’ new season began on Thursday night, and they are a long way from the championship game.
TCC kicked off its third year of football by getting hammered, 47-20, at the hands of Cloudland High School at Don Martin Field.
Even though the Eagles, who typically compete in eight-man football, played up to the Highlanders’ 11-man game, it was a difficult loss for the team to take so soon after last year’s run to the state title match.
“Overall, it was kind of pathetic,” senior quarterback Cooper Singletary said. “We play 10 times better than that during practice on a bad day. [It’s disappointing] to the fans, the seniors [who graduated last year] to see what they left behind. It’s not good.”
Cloudland, out of Roan Mountain, Tenn., graduated two running backs after the 2008 season who had combined for almost 2,000 yards. Senior Tony Chambers and junior Matt Cole did all they could on Thursday to make Highlanders fans forget about the departed runners.
Cole began the route with a four-yard touchdown run and added a 25-yard scoring scamper in the second half. Chambers also scored twice, both in the fourth quarter. The first came on a 15-yarder and the second on a 30-yard run.
But Cole and Chambers were far from the only weapons the Highlanders unleashed on the Eagles.
Senior quarterback Seth Miller was 9-of-17 for 117 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Seth Houtsman. Houtsman, a senior wide receiver, finished the game with three receptions for 48 yards.
All told, Cloudland accumulated 309 team rushing yards and 426 yards in total offense.
“I knew it was going to be a daunting task for us to stop them down low with the bigger, more physical team that they have,” TCC coach Scott Allgood said. “But I really felt like we had our opportunities, we just didn’t maximize on them.”
One such opportunity came to start the second half. Although the Eagles entered intermission trailing 19-0, TCC senior running back Chris Rosenbaum slipped through several tackles on a 59-yard touchdown run to start the second half.
But the Eagles couldn’t capitalize.
Houtsma returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, and sunk TCC’s home opener.
The evening wasn’t a total failure for the Eagles.
Rosenbaum was a force on defense and finished with 71 rushing yards on four carries.
Singletary, making his first start under center after star quarterback Caleb Leuzinger graduated, survived a rough start to pass for 115 yards. His last two completions were a 55-yard touchdown strike to Drew Davenport and a 23-yard scoring pass to Landon Byron.
The senior signal caller also came up with a way the Eagles could erase their opening night disaster: “Work harder.”
Cloudland 12 7 13 15–47
TCC 0 0 7 13–20
Scoring Summary”
CL–Matt Cole 4 run (kick fail)
CL–Aaron Tolley 24 run (kick fail)
CL–Seth Houtsma 10 pass from Seth Miller (Kevin Stevens kick)
TCC–Chris Rosenbaum 59 run (Ethan Quisenberry kick)
CL–Houtsma 85 kick return (kick fail)
CL–Cole 25 run (Stevens kick)
CL–Tony Chambers 15 run (Stevens kick)
TCC–Drew Davenport 55 pass from Cooper Singletary (kick fail)
CL–Chambers 30 run (2-point good)
TCC–Landon Byron 23 pass from Singletary (Quisenberry kick)
Statistics
First downs: CL–20, TCC–7; rushes-yards: CL–37-309, TCC–18-118; passing yards: CL–117, TCC–115; comp-att-int: CL–9-17-0, TCC–8-16-0; fumbles-lost: CL-2-2; TCC-6-2.
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