White Crush: White Dominates Orange in Orange and White game

KNOXVILLE- On Saturday evening, the Tennessee Volunteers showed no signs of a new coaching staff and new starting quarterback as Jonathan Crompton led the White team in a 38-16 victory in the closing scrimmage of spring practice. Crompton and the first string offense put on a show for the fans as they scored early and often in the contest. Crompton ended the game 13 of 20 for 266 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.

“I thought early, especially, we executed extremely well offensively,” head coach Phillip Fulmer said. “It was good to see Jonathan in that kind of rhythm. There were some really big plays in the passing game. I thought he had a good day except for that last ball. I don’t know his numbers, but they were outstanding the first two-thirds of the scrimmage. Generally, it was a good day for us.”

The White team scored on five of their first six possessions, including a 74 yard touchdown pass from Crompton to Denarius Moore on the first play of the game. Moore led all receivers with two catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns.

The White team also had big plays as Crompton found Josh Briscoe for a touchdown from 18 yards out, and when Lennon Creer found the end zone on a three yard run.

Briscoe had four catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns, while Creer led the way on the ground with 59 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown.

White led 35-3 at halftime as the Orange squad only mustered a 30 yard field goal from Devin Mathis.

The game was the first time most Tennessee fans saw new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson’s new system. So far, Fulmer has been pleased with his new assistant and his acclimation to the program.

“I think (it went) really well,” Fulmer said. “He’s a football junkie like I am. We had a scrimmage the other day and I had four pages of notes. There wasn’t one thing as we went through them that he took any exception to. I love that. We can sit there and discuss and argue -- there are a lot of good things to come out of that as we go along and as we continue to put this together.”

The contest also helped Crompton solidified his position on top of the depth chart at the quarterback position.

“He’s had a tremendous spring and today kind of capped it off,” Fulmer said. “I still pointed out to him that he’s got to take care of the football a little bit better than he did. It was great what he did in the early part of the scrimmage. To have that one play is kind of a downer, but he is definitely our quarterback and definitely a guy who has shown the ability to run the offense.”

While the contest was the end of spring practice for the Vols, Fulmer knows his team still has work to do.
“We’ve still got some real challenges in front of us to get through the summer,” Fulmer said. “Obviously, we hope to get some of the freshmen who can help us in the mix really quickly, whoever can give us more depth. We’re not where we need to be.”

Avery Soccer Suffers Heartbreaking OT Loss to Bearcats

In an exciting Wednesday night showdown, the fans at MacDonald Stadium in Newland were treated to a soccer match pitting two talented and exciting high school soccer teams. Although the #5 ranked Avery Lady Vikings held the lead on two separate occasions in the contest, a resilient group of Hendersonville Lady Bearcats took advantage of a key Avery injury and utilized an adept crossing game to defeat the Lady Vikings 4-2 in overtime.

Avery came into the home contest looking to avenge an embarrassing 3-0 loss in Hendersonville which saw the Lady Bearcats take advantage of the Big Red early and often in a lopsided first half. This story began differently, however, as the Lady Vikings were the girls to draw first blood, when Elyse Perry assisted on a terrific display of dribbling and shot-making by freshman Emily Banner, staking Avery to a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of the contest.

Hendersonville knotted the match at 1-1 in the 38th minute on a Carissa Jones rebound in the box and shot on goal. The tally was the last of the half as the teams went into intermission tied.

Avery was dealt a costly blow in the 52nd minute when senior starter Katie Peters suffered an ankle injury and had to be helped off the field. Peters was unable to return to the match, subtracting an experienced leader off the pitch for the Big Red.

Despite the adversity, Avery regained the lead at 2-1 when Mary Chesnut Smith was fouled in the penalty area near the Hendersonville goal and converted a successful penalty kick in the 60th minute to give the Lady Vikings a 2-1 lead. The Lady Vikings were playing with much confidence against a talented Hendersonville squad and looked poised to pull off the home victory.

Hendersonville would not lay down and quit, however, battling back to tie the match on a Sam Reeves follow goal to tie the match at 2-2 in the 68th minute. The two teams continued to compete through the remainder of regulation, with goalkeeper Cailan Calloway fending off a couple of late Lady Bearcat scoring attempts to keep the contest tied at 2 goals apiece and force the match into two-10 minute overtime sessions.

In the third minute of the first overtime session the Lady Bearcats tallied a second goal from Reeves to give the Lady Bearcats their first lead at 3-2. Despite playing five freshmen and three sophomores for much of the contest, the Lady Vikings continued to stand up to a physical and, at times, downright rough playing Lady Bearcats team. The first session ended with Hendersonville holding the one-goal advantage.

Hendersonville added a much-needed insurance goal three minutes into the second session of overtime, with Jones adding a second goal for a 4-2 edge in what proved to be the final margin of the match.

"I think the biggest turning factor of the match was losing Katie. She's a key player and it put pressure on our bench which plays well, but doesn't have a lot of experience. Without her as a threat up front, we had to juggle our lineup with positions that affect us down the road," Avery coach Tom Evaul said after the match. "The girls played hard and we're proud of them. I think the fans enjoyed this game more than they enjoyed the one where we won 7-1 because this is good soccer and two good teams who went head-to-head. We had three mental breakdowns, and Hendersonville scored goals on them and also got lucky."

Avery falls to 12-3-2 on the season and now takes a few days off to heal up before returning to the pitch to take on Mountain Heritage on April 28th.

Tennessee's Orange and White Game

The Tennessee Vols Football team ends their spring practice on Saturday with the annual Orange and White game. If all goes as planned, I will be in Knoxville to cover the game. Here is a video I made to get introduce it. All photos used in the video are mine and the music is of course Rocky Top!