Finally! Whew, today was more exhausting than that
3 1/2 hour drive home last night after the game. Time with my wife is always great though.
Well, everyone knows the final score, 46-38, Armwood.
First, Armwood is the fastest high school team I've ever seen. I'm 56 and I've seen a lot of high school ball. Forget running to the outside on that defense. I don't know how many times they stretched the outside and took our RB down for a loss. That hasn't happened all season. We had 33 rushes for 104 yards. 52 of those were Nate's. They shut our running game down completely.
We'd have a receiver open for a split second and the DBs would close to knock the ball away, or, on a few throws, make the pic. One int bounced off our WR's hands and was caught by the DB. Nate had one int in the endzone, when the DB took the ball away from our WR. The other two throws, including one that he threw back across the field, well let's just say they probably shouldn't have been thrown. But on that play Nate was scrambling and trying to get a big play.
Nate was a warrior tonight. With no running game to keep the defense honest, Nate spent much of the night running and scrambling to keep plays alive. On one play he dropped back and was drilled in the back on a blind side sack. I was amazed he didn't drop the ball. Our local paper had a picture of the the hit, I'll post it later. He had 10 rushes for 52 yards. He finished 21 of 36 for 369 yds, 4 INTs and 3 TDs.
There was one scary moment when one of our TE's got flipped head over heels and his helmet flew off. He was knocked out for a little while but was able to get off the field under his own power. Poor kid had a concussion and didn't finish the game.
Our defense was on the field a lot the first half and it showed in the second. The speed of Armwood was too much. Missing one of our starting LBs due to injury didn't help, but the rest of the boys kept fighting.
I just want to say there is no quit in Nate Peterman. He kept bringing us back to get it within striking distance, and the game wasn't over until we muffed our chance to recover the onside kick with about 2 minutes left and down by 8. Oh did I mention at the start of the 4th quarter, it started to rain? Yeah...
The team never gave up and I think that's a credit to their Coach and the senior leadership on this team. They fought till the end.
I didn't mention that we were short a starting WR, RB, and Linebacker due to injury. That's not an excuse, just wanted ya'll to know how big an effort the rest of the guys put in.
Lots of tears and emotion after the game, as expected. For a lot of these kids, this is their last football game. Many will not be lucky enough to play in college, and my heart went out to them. Great young men with huge hearts. I'm proud to say they go to Bartram Trail.
I told several of the guys that taking one of the top teams in the nation down to the last minute of a game was nothing to hang their head about. Small consolation for them last night, but I hope once they can think about it, they'll be proud of what they accomplished this year.
I spoke with one of Nate's family members last night who said Nate had a great visit with Coach Dooley when he was down last week. He is looking forward to getting Nate up there and getting his future as a Vol underway.
Well, as much as I hate to say it, that's the last game update I'll have for you. I have sure enjoyed my time as your Nate reporter.
You folks have been very welcoming and I've enjoyed talking with you all. Like I said before, I'm going to hang around so I can keep tabs on Nate, so ya'll can keep
ME updated.
Thanks for all the kind words and hopefully friends that I have gained from the Recruiting Forum. Ya'll are great folks.
See ya'll around!
Dep