The easy part is out of the way for Southmont football. The now 7-3 Mounties cruised to a dominating 31-0 win over North Knox in last week’s Class 2A Sectional 37 opener. Now the real test is here, but the Mounties aren’t backing down from it. With a berth in sectional championship game on the line, Southmont now squares off against the No. 1 team in Class 2A in the 10-0 Linton-Stockton Miners.
The Miners have been a powerhouse om the southern part of the state the past 20 years with just a single losing season dating back to 2000 including an undefeated 15-0 season back in 2016 when they won the state title.
With all of the pedigree of the Miners, Southmont isn’t backing down from the challenge that faces them as they’ll have to make the nearly two hour trip down to Linton on Friday. Southmont as they have for the last several years traveled down to Linton over the summer to scrimmage the Miners, something that longtime Southmont coach Desson Hannum says does pay off.
“It gives us a little bit of an idea and a frame of reference of what they’re going to run when you see them over the summer,” Hannum said. “We’ve been able to see film on them and have seen the adjustments that they’ve made throughout the year. They’ve been a traditional power over the last several years and you can tell they’re a well coached.”
The Miners have dominated most of their opposition this season as their offense is scoring right at 49 points per game while their defense is surrendering just 15 a contest. They’re led on offense by do-it-all senior quarterback Hunter Gennicks. Gennicks on the season has thrown for 1,209 yards and 16 touchdowns. What’s more impressive however is what Gennicks has done on the ground. He’s rushed for exactly 1,300 yards on 117 carries and 23 touchdowns. As a team the Miners have ran for over 3,000 yards on the season.
“You know that he’s (Gennicks) is going to have the ball in his hands every single play,” Hannum said. “Tackling will be the most important thing for us then after that we have to make sure we’re lined up correctly and hopefully that might be able to limit what he can do. He’s going to dictate a lot of what’s going on so we have to make sure we can contain him.”
Southmont’s defense can be just as harassing as the Miners. They only give up 17 points per game and their sideline to sideline speed and athleticism is one of the main reasons for their success. Seth Tolliver leads the team with 10 sacks on the season and Dylan Howell has eight of his own as the Mounties collectively have tallied 28 sacks as well as coming away with six interceptions.
“Our defense has played well for a majority of the season,” Hannum said. “Friday will be a little different than what we’ve seen during conference play with them being a run-heavy team. If we’re able to tackle well that will go a long way in helping us compete and hopefully win the game.”
On the flip side for South, they have the style of offense to keep a high-scoring team like the Miners off of the field. Junior fullback Wyatt Woodall has 878 yards on the season and 12 touchdowns while Carson Chadd is the other half of the two-headed rushing attack as he’s totaled 660 yards on just 80 carries (8.3 yards per carry) with another six scores. While it’s a ground heavy attack for Southmont, senior quarterback Nick Scott a week ago against North Knox had one of the better passing performances of his career going 12-20 for 254 yards and three touchdowns.
“If we’re able to sustain our drives like we’re able to, that is a great way to help out our defense,” Hannum said. “The biggest question on that side of the ball I think will be can we run the ball effectively and continue to move the chains. Both teams really want to run the football and it’s going to come down to who can stop the other from doing it.”
At this point in th season the saying that Hannum loves to use is that his team is ‘playing for the your pads’. The work that the Mounties put into the off-season is for a situation like this. Playing the No. 1 ranked team in the their class is a daunting task, but one the Mounties won’t be shying away from.
“At this point against a team like this, you’re going to have to play your best football of the year,” Hannum said. “We have that mindset going in and our guys know they have to be able to handle a long road trip and come out and have good energy to begin the game. They’re going to be at home and wanting to send a message and we have to be ready to handle that.”
The winner between the Mounties and the Miners will play the winner of the other semi-final between Cascade and Sullivan next Friday for the sectional title. The game on Friday gets started at 7 pm from Linton and you can catch a live broadcast of the game on True Country 106.3 beginning at 6:30 as Jared McMurry and Billy R will have the call. JR_Sports on twitter will also be providing video highlights and scoring updates throughout the game.
