Bulldogs Work to Make Improvements From Last Week

By Brandon Stephens

(Murphy) – – The Murphy Bulldogs (1-and-1) are working to make improvements from week to week as the competition is building up each game.  The meeting with Heard County’s Braves (2-and-1) Friday night was celebrated as a 29-to-27 win, but some glaring work is still needed to polish Murphy’s performance.  The Murphy Bulldogs will tell you work is needed to improve and meet some of the next opponents like West Henderson and Smoky Mountain in the next couple of weeks.  Suppositions or suspicions of the opponent being in a rebuilding seasons or being a little weaker, have been proven wrong by many teams throughout the Smoky Mountain Conference.

Penalties continue to plague the Murphy performance.  Almost a dozen penalties halted offensive momentum for the Bulldogs with holding.  The Murphy defense gave up more free yards with encroachment calls.

The Murphy offense relied on a mix of players to get to Touchdown Town.  Sophomore running back Cameron Clem had 22 carries for 85 yards and four touchdowns.  In a few scoring drives either Junior quarterback Brady Grant or Senior running back Kadence Leatherwood set the stage for Clem to break the end zone plane for six points.  Leatherwood had 10 carries for 95 yards.  With 5:28 remaining in the first quarter, Leather wood had two successful carries to set Clem up for the first Murphy score.  Grant called his own number three times for 43 yards with a  37 yard carry to one again set Clem up to score at the end of the third quarter.  Senior running back Will Shore also added 61 rushing yards on 8 carries.

Defense was key in the first half.  Will Shore, Jude Pinkerton, Adam Cook, and Aayden Williams are the team leaders for defense.  Some of the more noticeable and memorable stops and defensive plays were made by Brody Orton, Kadence Leatherwood, and Charlie Graves.  Late in the fourth quarter Graves recovered a fumble in Murphy territory and was headed for the end zone until he was stopped at the Braves 44.  The defensive effort set up Cameron Clem to make Murphy’s final touchdown.

Leading the game was tough to maintain.  Murphy led at the halftime break 14-to-7.  Heard County outscored Murphy 20-to-15 in the second half.  The Braves missed a point-after-touchdown field goal and the Bulldogs made a two-point conversion with Cameron Clem to hold onto a two-point lead and eventual win.  The win will help build confidence and spirit needed to meet up with West Henderson this week according to quarterback Brady Grant.

Murphy Head Coach Joseph Watson says there is work to be done to help correct some mistakes. Coach Watson says the film shows some promise for the team to improve.

This week the Murphy Bulldogs will travel to Mills River to take on the West Henderson Falcons.  Based on the Murphy football history, this week’s meeting will be the second in school history.  Murphy lost to West Henderson 22 years ago in 2002 14-to-17.  After the West Henderson game, Murphy went on a 7 game winning streak to finish out with a 38-to-12 loss in the play-offs to Starmount.  This week the Murphy Bulldog defense will need to keep eyes on Zane McCraw who leads the team in rushing with almost 200 yards per game.  Jackson Mills is the teams leading tackler with 10 stops per game (average).