A pair of teams with momentum will square off on Friday night in MacDonald Stadium as the Avery Vikings (3-6, 2-2 WHC) host the Mountain Heritage Cougars (3-6, 1-3 WHC). It will be the final home game for a number of seniors who have been witness to some of the highest points in the history of Big Red football.
A season ago the Vikings rolled through Heritage in a rare Monday night game by a 55-6 final score. The last time the teams met in Newland was a convincing win for Avery, a 49-28 victory over their Yancey County opponent.
Avery defeated Madison 30-6 in action last Friday night, while the Cougars upset the Mitchell Mountaineers 22-14 in Burnsville last week.
Scouting the Cougars:
The Mountain Heritage Cougars are coached by Joey Robinson and return 29 lettermen from a team that finished with a winless mark of 0-11 in 2006. The team remains one of the youngest squads in the Western Highlands Conference, with only ten seniors anchoring the squad. However, youth should not be mistaken for inexperience, as ten starters returned this season on both sides of the football from a year ago.
Heritage employs a spread offensive formation and will base its defensive packages primarily off the 4-3 scheme. The squad has greatly improved in areas of speed and depth from previous seasons, as evidenced by their increased victory total this season.
The undisputed leader on the field for Heritage is junior quarterback Kirk Burnette. The 5’11”, 170 pound signal-caller has taken control of the Cougar offense and has emerged as an offensive threat with 758 yards passing and 9 touchdown passes on the season. Helping Burnette in the backfield is junior RB Jessie Ballew (94 rushes, 283 yards, 3 TD this season), with Dylan McMahan (6’0, 155 lb. junior) serving as wide receiver and key passing target. Anchoring the defense for the Cougars is 6’3”, 210 lb. lineman Sean Swick, who is a potential college prospect.
The Low Down:
Avery came off the deck Friday night thanks in large part to a ball-hawking defense that turned in one of its best performances of the year last week. With several forced fumbles and a defensive touchdown to its credit in last Friday’s win, the defense will again have to stand tall, as it will be tested early and often by a Mountain Heritage running game that dominated the line of scrimmage last week against Mitchell.
Speaking of Mountain Heritage, the Cougars’ might be able to fly to Newland, considering the high they are on following last week’s huge upset over the Mountaineers. For a repeat performance, the Cougars will have to find a way to slow down Avery junior QB Adam Pate, who ran and threw for over 100 yards last week.
For Avery to win, they will have to slow the Cougars offense down beginning with the source, last week’s Asheville Citizen-Times Player of the Week Kirk Burnette. They must also keep their emotions in check and distractions to a minimum as they deal with the festivities surrounding Senior Night this week.
A win for the Vikings this week would set up an interesting encounter with the Mitchell Mountaineers next Friday night in Ledger.
By The Numbers:
0 – passing yards allowed by Avery’s defense in last week’s win over Madison.
4 – total possessions allowed by the Mountain Heritage Cougars to their opponent Mitchell last week, holding the Mountaineer offense to only 14 points.
5- turnovers forced by the Big Red defense in defeating the Patriots 30-6 last Friday night.
68- yardage total in Avery’s defensive touchdown last week, a fumble return by Hunter Robbins.
205- yards gained by Avery QB Adam Pate (combined rushing and passing) in last week’s win.
228 – yards of total offense from Mountain Heritage QB Kirk Burnette in last week’s victory over Mitchell.
644- yards of total offense rolled up by Avery in last year’s 55-6 win over Mountain Heritage.
