Mavericks win district title 19-6 as Wildcats struggle on offense

With a chance at a district championship hanging in the balance, the Oak Ridge Wildcats fell to the Anderson County Mavericks 19-6 on Blankenship Field on Thursday.

The Wildcats (7-3, 6-2 District 3) struggled offensively throughout the night, recording only 239 yards of total offense, 58 of which came from a single deep ball from Jaylin Henderson to Jiminquas Johnson late in the fourth quarter.

The offensive woes, however, did more than just keep Oak Ridge—who also saw their three-game district winning streak come to an end with the loss—off the scoreboard as they kept the defense out on the field and in tough situations for most of the game.

“We just didn’t get it done on the offensive side. If we do anything offensively, they probably don’t score 19 points, but we kept giving back to them over and over,” Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis said. “Our defense played pretty well, giving up 19 points while having to play defense all night long. I think their defense and our offense was the biggest key of the ball game.”

The key factor for the offense’s inability to move the football was their inefficiency on third downs as the Wildcats only converted on two of the 12 third downs they faced on the night.

“I would say we didn’t do good on first down or second down, but third downs are critical and we just didn’t get the job done,” Gaddis said.

The Wildcats went into halftime down 13-6, and managed to keep the Mavericks (9-1, 7-1 District 3) from tacking on to their lead, but a big 92-yard touchdown on fourth down by Anderson County’s Matt Fox to end the third quarter seemed to be the finishing blow.

“That hurt us because of our inability to do anything on the offensive side,” Gaddis said. “A ballgame comes down to a few key plays, and they made them all.”

Fox, a junior running back, finished the night with more than 250 yards and three touchdowns, including a 15-yard run in the first quarter and a nine-yard run in the second.

Oak Ridge’s one touchdown came on a 22-yard pass from Henderson, a senior quarterback, to wide receiver Blake Goins with 3:01 left in the first quarter.

Although the Wildcats weren’t able to come through, Gaddis believes his team will get over the loss and bounce back to prepare for next week’s matchup in the first round of the playoffs.

“I’m sure it’s hard, but they are resilient; they will be ready to go on Monday,” Gaddis said. “They didn’t want to lose this game for sure because it’s Anderson County plus we had the possibility of a district championship.”

The victory for Anderson County clinched them the Class AAA, District 3 Championship, while the loss for the Wildcats means there will be no home playoff games in Oak Ridge.

The playoff bracket for the state tournament will be posted on the TSSAA website at 11 a.m. EST Saturday.

See the preliminary stats from Thursday night’s game, courtesy of Mark Haste: Oak Ridge Wildcats and Anderson County Mavericks Preliminary Stats.

About the author: Troy Provost-Heron is a freelance writer and assistant sports editor at The Daily Beacon at the University of Tennessee.

Note: This story was last updated at 2:40 a.m.