Bryan Burchfield

Sports Correspondent

Both Sweetwater and Tellico went into Friday night's game with a lot of unanswered questions. Both programs were starting the season with new head coaches, Craig Moser for Sweetwater and John Mullinax for Tellico. Both programs lost some key players to graduation a year ago. 

No one knew what to expect from either program. In a interview with Sweetwater Head Coach Craig Moser earlier in the week he expressed how he felt the senior leadership the Wildcats were bringing into the 2012 season was going to make a huge difference, specifically on the offensive and defensive lines.

That proved to be true Friday night at King Berrong Stadium, as the Sweetwater offensive line got good push upfront all night and opened up some nice holes for the Wildcat backs. 

Sweetwater finished the game with 377 yards on the ground and six touchdowns. More than 300 of those yards came by halftime as well as all of Sweetwater's scoring. 

Leading the charge carrying the football for the Wildcats was quarterback Jordan McGaughey. McGaughey lead all rushers and scorers in the game with 117 yards on eight carries and four touchdowns. 

Sweetwater also had good performances from running back Eli Arwood, who had 108 yards on 6 carries and a touchdown, as well as wide receiver Hunter Humphries who pitched in 114 yards on two carries and a touchdown. 

Sweetwater had six scoring drives in the first half. Three of those drives took 15 seconds or less. Their longest drive of the night covered only 4 minutes 49 seconds. 

Sweetwater's defense shined as well Friday night. Their new multiple 3-4 defensive scheme proved to be tough for the Bears to elude. Led by Zack Neil and Elijah Blomstrom, the Wildcat defense ended the night with four sacks, multiple tackles for loss, and only allowed the Tellico offense 111 yards on the ground with most of that yardage coming late in the second half on Tellico's two scoring drives. Both drives were capped of with 2-point conversions. 

Statistical leaders for Tellico were running back Adam Reece with 70 yards rushing and fullback Garret Reno with 44 yards on the ground. The final score was an impressive 42-16 win.