The undefeated Oak Ridge Wildcats play in the first round of the Class 5A football playoffs at home tonight against the Soddy-Daisy Trojans. The game starts at 7 p.m. today (Friday, November 7) at Blankenship Field in Oak Ridge.
Coach Joe Gaddis is asking for a huge, loud crowd.
“As we all know, playoff games are ‘winner take all’ in nature,” Gaddis said in a note to fans.”The winner advances, and the loser is finished for the season. It’s hard to believe but we have only had one home playoff game since 2005, and with that in mind, let’s have a HUGE and LOUD crowd Friday night! The weather is going to be cool, crisp, and beautiful…real football weather!”
The Oak Ridge Wildcats Football Boosters will have a tailgate party starting at 4:30 p.m.
“The Wildcats will arrive at the stadium at approximately 5:30 for the Walk of Champions,” the Boosters said. “Please get there in time to line up and show your support for the Wildcats as they get off the buses and enter Jack Armstrong Stadium!”
The tailgate party will include chicken or steak fajitas with rice, beans, and drink for $6.
Gaddis thanked fans for their support for the team throughout the season and said the Wildcats have consistently had more fans than their opponents, even when the team was on the road.
“The atmosphere you created at Anderson County (last Thursday) was incredible…it was ‘playoff like’ in terms of the volume of noise and intensity,” Gaddis said.
The Wildcats won the district championship last week and ended the season 10-0. They earned the Number 1 seed in Quad 2 of the Class 5A playoff bracket, “which will give us home field advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time since 2005,” Gaddis said.
“While we must take things one week at a time, it’s nice to know that as long as we play, we will never leave the confines of legendary Blankenship Field!” the coach said.
Still, Soddy-Daisy (4-6) is going to be a handful, he said. The Trojans are averaging 31 points per game, their quarterback has passed for more than 2,600 yards including 27 touchdowns, and their leading receiver has more 1,100 yards in receptions, Gaddis said.
“Let’s keep the best high school football tradition in Tennessee alive this Friday night,” he said. “It’s great to be 10-0 but the sound of 11-0 is much better!”
Here’s the playoff bracket:
The 2014 Class 5A Football Playoff Bracket, as posted on the TSSAA website.
Leave a Reply