BRANDON TURNER LEADS THE WAY FOR TEVERRIUS JONES The fleet-footed quarterback had 109 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns against Banks. If there were any questions about how the Washington-Wilkes Tigers were going to perform under the direction of a new head coach and staff for the first time, some answers were provided last Friday night.

Despite the youth of the team and despite a week of sickness, W-W opened the 2009 season with a conventing win over AA Banks County, 34-21. Still, though he was happy to get the win, Head Coach Lee Hutto wants to do better.

"We're still making mistakes that a young football team makes. We had six penalties and two of them brought back touchdowns," Hutto said. "That was disappointing because they were penalties that were 10-15 yards behind the play and really had no bearing on the play itself," he added.

But even though the Tigers are making those mental errors, Hutto said, "We did cut back on the number of mistakes we made against Greene County and that's encouraging. We had fewer blown assignments so there was some improvement there."

DEON JACKSON MAKES A BIG GAIN FOR W-W His longest run was 51 yards and he also scored a touchdown. But probably what made it the toughest on the Tigers at Banks County was the fact that so many of the players had been sick with the flu most of the week. At one point, 17 key players were all out and unable to practice. All of the Tiger halfback and defensive backs were missing from practice at one time, according to Hutto, and many of them didn't get back until Thursday. Those players had only one shortened day of practice and then had to turn around and play a ball game on Friday after having been out all week.

"It really hurt us on Friday because so many kids just hadn't had the practice time," Hutto said. "But it says a lot for our kids that we were still able to go out and win even with all the adversity."

On the positive side, Hutto said, "We were able to run the football, which is a good thing." With 426 yards to his team's credit, that is something of an understatement. It was more than double the Leopards' rushing total and three Tiger stars shined especially brightly.

Eric Scott, Teverrius Jones, and Deon Jackson, all juniors, each had spectacular long runs of 75, 57, and 51 yards, respectively. Scott was individually responsible for a whopping 224 yards on 14 carries for an average of 16 yards per carry and one touchdown. Jones, with three touchdowns in the game, carried the ball for 109 yards in 14 attempts. Jackson averaged 8.6 yards per carry for 69 yards and one touchdown.

The Tiger passing game was almost non-existent with only three attempts. But two of those attempts connected: one to Scott was good for 20 yards and a first down; the other, a short toss to Akeimos Coleman was good for two points on a PAT.

The Tiger defense was a little surprised early in the game when the Leopards lined up on offense. "Banks did some things and gave us some different looks," Hutto explained. "We had a game plan for certain formations and they came out and did things a little bit different. We adjusted after the first couple of drives and I thought, defensively, the kids gave a good effort."

The coach said Tyrance Ashmore played well defensively and reported that freshman "Brian Hardigree started again and played exceptionally well." Hardigree had two fumble recoveries, one of which he ran back for a touchdown, only to be called back on a penalty.

"But we still gave up too many yards rushing," Hutto said. "That's something that we really need to improve on. We've got to do a better job of tackling. We've got to keep giving a good effort and keep getting better," he added.

Coming up this Friday night, the Tigers will face a familiar rival at the Brickyard in Thomson. The Bulldogs didn't play last week and the only action they've seen was in a loss to Lincoln County in their Jamboree game. No doubt, they will want to take that out on the Tigers.

"They are a typical Thomson team. They are big, and they're strong, and they're fast," Hutto reported. "The thing about Thomson is - they're going to line up and hit you," he continued.

Game time is 7:30 in Thomson and fans are encouraged to arrive early for good seating.

"When you're playing somebody like Thomson, you have to be physical because it's just going to be a physical, hard-nosed game," Hutto said. "We've got to hit them back. We can't go in there and be intimidated by them."

Thomson promises to be one of the best teams the Tigers will play all year and according to Hutto, they're better than Greene County and they're better than Banks County. "We have to play well," he said. "We can't have the mistakes because Thomson is just too good."

With an exceptional quarterback calling the signals, the Bulldogs are expected to throw the ball a little bit more than they have in the past and they have a potentially explosive offense.

"We've got to try to control the clock by getting first downs and moving the chains, keeping their offense off the field," Hutto said.

"Technically, we're not supposed to beat Thomson," the coach continued. "So we've got nothing to lose. We're going to go out there and play loose, play aggresively, have a good time, and get after them. We're not going to leave anything in the bag - we're going to throw it all out there and hopefully pull out a win."