Oak Ridge 46, South-Doyle 20: "It's just unreal"
Oak Ridge took down South-Doyle on the road to open the 2022 football season.
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You’ve likely heard the expression that “winning cures everything” from somebody involved with sports at one point or another. The expression, of course, is not so. Winning does not, in fact, cure everything because games, and human beings, are more complicated than that. There is more to the games than that. Sure, winning will always feel better than losing, but not all victories feel the same. Kirby Smart winning the National Championship by defeating Alabama and his old mentor Nick Saban in the process feels different than defeating UAB on the first Saturday of September. Winning cures some things, but not everything.
Oak Ridge head football coach Scott Cummings picked up his first victory as the new head football coach of the Wildcats on Friday night at South-Doyle. The ‘Cats took care of the South-Doyle Cherokees with relative ease in what turned into a major route for Oak Ridge in a hurry in the second quarter following a lengthy lightning delay. Winning the game did not, in fact, cure everything for Coach Cummings in his Oak Ridge debut, however.
That final tally of 46-20 in favor of the Wildcats does not tell the whole story.
I caught up with Coach Cummings after the game and asked him about how it felt to notch win No. 1 in his Oak Ridge tenure Friday night. He told me, “You know, like they always say, winning is better than losing. Extremely frustrating, though, obviously.” It’s not often that a coach is that frustrated after a victory in which his team was up by so much at halftime that a running clock was added in the second half of the contest to get the game over with sooner rather than later.
You had to be there, though.
It was apparent early on that the penalty flags would be flying in this one. On the opening drive for both teams, there was a block in the back on the kickoff return, a holding call on Oak Ridge, and a delay of game for Oak Ridge. It was the first game of the season for both schools, so committing more penalties than usual is to be expected this early in the season.
It was the second drive of the evening for Oak Ridge, though, where the story of the game unfolded. After a muffed punt deep in their own territory by the Cherokees, Oak Ridge was ready to strike for their first score of the evening. The Wildcats then had a touchdown called back on a holding call. Then came an illegal procedure call to push them back to 2 & 26. However, the Wildcats broke one open on the left side with a long touchdown run to put them up 6-0. Oak Ridge would then go for 2 and get it to put them up 8-0 early.
The Wildcats would never trail in this game.
The rhythm offensively just wasn’t there early for Oak Ridge, though. Their third drive had a long punt return negated by an illegal block. Then came an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Wildcats were forced to punt.
Those offensive frustrations dissipated after the hour-plus lightening delay as the Wildcats’ plethora of offensive playmakers in Jai Hundley, Brandon Heyward, Elijah Rogers and De’Jauvis Dozier made play after play in the second quarter to put the Wildcats up 46-7 at halftime. Rogers, and his three interceptions in the game, were a big reason why the the ‘Cats put it on the Cherokees in a hurry in the first half.
But even with the offensive explosion by Oak Ridge, the penalty flags were still flying in this one. There were several unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on the Wildcats, two of which resulted in star wideout Heyward being ejected from the game. Heyward’s helmet was ripped off after Rogers converted on another Oak Ridge two-point try in the second quarter.
Cummings said after the game, “Brandon Heyward gets his helmet ripped off his head, kid rips his helmet off and throws it and then Brandon says something and he gets another unsportsmanlike.” Cummings made it clear that his players should never talk to officials.
However, he was perplexed as to how no official saw what started the chain of events that led to Heyward’s ejection. “You would like to think that somebody in the striped shirts might see him get his helmet ripped off, you know, but there’s no ownership in that.” With the ejection, Heyward is likely to not be available for the Wildcats’ next game on the road against Bearden.
The Wildcats got the win against South-Doyle on Friday night, but it did not cure all. “It was so incredibly frustrating,” Cummings said after the game in regards to the penalties that interfered with the Wildcats’ offensive rhythm early. “That’s about as nitpicky of stuff as I’ve ever seen in my whole career,” Cummings concluded.
However, Cummings was pleased with the play of his team overall on the evening. “There’s a lot of really good things. Obviously, Elijah Rogers is a dude.” Cummings complemented the play of his dominant defense as a whole that stiffled the Cherokees for the majority of the night. Offensively, Cummings said, “It was good to see after the break us come out and execute.” Cummings was also happy to see the Wildcats get everyone involved in the run game from Rogers to Dozier to Almani Rembert.
Next Friday, the Wildcats travel to Bearden to take on the Bulldogs at 7:00 PM.
You can watch the game here on Prep Radio’s YouTube channel.
Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.