Indians vs Wildcats Game Recap

While the Indian’s game Friday night against the Fort Payne Wildcats was listed as a scrimmage, it was in fact, an actual scheduled game for Fort Payne. Needless to say, the AAAA Alabama team was anxious to protect their home turf and brought their vast roster and spread offense to do just that.

Since Fort Payne would be playing a full four quarters in “real game” mode, Chattooga treated the game as live action as well. Offensively, the passing game for the Wildcats is their weapon of choice. They passed the ball 32 times but the Indian’s secondary was well-prepared. Isaac Foster broke up 3 passes, included a leaping near-interception and recorded 2 tackles. Big Mike Adams picked up a devastating sack in the opening quarter and left the Fort Payne quarterback rattled all night. T.J. Adams added 3 solo tackles and kept stayed in the Wildcat backfield most of the game, scoring 5 quarterback hurries. Malachi Mack led the team with 7 tackles with Tyler Griffin adding 4 more. The Chattooga defense limited Fort Payne’s passing offense to just 11 of 32 passing attempts and only 73 yards. This was just 2.3 passing yards per attempt. Fort Payne managed just 52 yards on the ground against the Indians front four.

The Indian offense, led by Isaac Foster at quarterback rolled up 381 total yards, all on the ground. Running back, Isaiah Foster, picked up 123 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown, averaging 10 yards per carry. Isaac led the team with 172 yards on 15 carries and found the end zone 3 times.

Isaiah’s 123 yards all came in just 2 quarters of play. After tweaking his knee (an injury later to be diagnosed as an MCL sprain), Coach Charles Hammon let Isaiah take the 2nd half off and turned to show over to Tyler Griffin. Griffin picked up an additional 39 yards on 14 carries and will be expected to do most of the heavy lifting at tailback in the next two weeks as Foster rests his injury.

Cam Perry, 37 yards on 4 carries, and Quintell Price, 12 yards on 4 carries, will be on hand to share the load if needed.

Good news for the Indians came in the form of long, sustained offensive drives. Just what Coach Hammon was looking for after a lack luster performance against Trion. Chattooga’s drives included a 5-play 80 yard drive in the 1st quarter, a 12-play 81 yard drive also in the 1st quarter, a 17-play 80 yard drive in the 4th quarter and a 3-play 79 yard drive also in the final quarter. Long drives will be needed Aug 25th when the Indians travel to Cedar Bluff to take on the State Runner-Up Tigers on Thursday for Chattooga’s first official game of the season.

The 28-18 victory over Fort Payne puts Chattooga at 2-0 over the Wildcats in their last two meetings.

The Foster Twins piled up 295 yards of rushing on 27 combined carries and accounted for 4 touchdowns. In spite of Isaiah sitting out the entire 2nd half.

Coach Hammon had no second thoughts about resting Isaiah. His long term plans are focused on the region games coming the last 7 weeks of the season and he had no qualms about his ultimate goal of keeping everyone healthy for those games.

The Indians were penalized 5 times for 35 yards, and turned the ball over twice on 4 fumbles. These will be focus points for improvement during the week of practice before the Cedar Bluff game.

Mike Adams, Dustin Pope and TJ Adams all had stand out performances on the line. Strength training and overall conditioning seem to be improving as the Indians looked solid over all 4 quarters of play.