Oak Ridge rushing attack too much for Karns

By Ken Lay

Karns High School football coach Brad Taylor could only tip his hat to Oak Ridge Thursday night.

"They played well," Taylor said after the Wildcats defeated the Beavers 56-28 at on Senior Night at Blankenship Field. "They're a good team and they played well, particularly offensively.

"Hats off to them. They got some of their people back that have been out. They've really been banged up."

The win helped Oak Ridge (4-4 overall, 3-1 in Region 3-5A) move into sole possession of second place. It also avenged last year's loss to the Beavers (6-3, 2-2).

As the final score would indicate, the game was a wild affair. It featured an early fake punt by the Beavers. Karns also successfully executed an onside kick and the Wildcats used some trickery in making a two-point conversion.

It wasn't, however, a shootout.

Almost all the scoring came from the ground. Senior running back DeSean Bishop had another stellar performance as he rushed for 213 and four touchdowns on 28 carries. He also had two receptions for 13 yards. He had scoring scampers of 85 and 8 yards in the first half. He scored on a 43-yard run one play after the onside kick to open the second half. Bishop capped his night with a 1-yard plunge after Karns blocked a punt.

The Beavers hurt their cause with penalties. They never led and made several mistakes after they trimmed the Wildcats' advantage to one score.

"We obviously needed to make a few more plays," Taylor said. "DeSean's a competitor and he competed. We had a lot of guys who competed."

Karns, however, didn't have an answer for the Wildcats' two-headed rushing attack as DeJauvis Dozier and Jai Hundley rushed for more than 300 yards and seven rushing touchdowns.

Dozier finished the night with 16 carries, amassing 148 yards and three rushing touchdowns. He was also on the receiving end of an Ethan Garza screen pass that resulted in a 52-yard score.

Hundley, a transfer from West High, had 12 carries for 157 yards and scored four touchdowns on the ground for the Wildcats, who averaged 9.6 yards per carry en route to snapping their two-game losing streak.

"Tonight, we took a huge step forward and we took a huge step towards getting a home playoff game," Oak Ridge coach Scott Cummings said.

Karns will have an open date this week before taking on Clinton in its regular-season finale on Oct. 28.

Oak Ridge plays at Kingsport Dobyns-Bennet this week in a non-region tilt before traveling to Campbell County the following week for a showdown that could determine who gets a No. 2 seed from the region and a home game.

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