OEB Law Game of the Week will Feature Coalfield at Midway

This week the OEB Law Game of the Week will come to you live from South of the River, in the Emerald Forest, better known as Midway.

These two teams are not strangers as this will be the 45th overall meeting between the two schools with the first game dating back to 1954. It was only Midway’s 7th year as a school (Midway opened in 1947) and it was it was a game that Coalfield won 14-0.

Coalfield leads the series 30-14 and have a 14-8 record in the Emerald Forest. They’ve also won the last 7 games and 8 out of the last 10 in the series. Matter of fact the Green Wave’s last win was in 2008, a 37-0 thrashing of the Yellowjackets.

Coach Ron Treadway returns a senior laden team led by All-State Quarterback, Emmett Hegland (senior), who has 674 yards passing in 4 games this season, 13 touchdowns to only 1 interception. He’s completing 66% of his passes and he has some dandy’s. First he has All-State Wide receiver, Caleb Goodman (senior), who has 205 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns. However, Midway is being led by Seth Gordon another senior wide receiver who has 296 yards receiving and 5 touchdowns, his longest was a 65 yarder. But you can’t forget Austin Cathers, who has made the best of his catches as he has 4 on the season, but 3 of those for touchdown.

And if you think offensive coordinator, Jonathan O’Strowski, only passes the ball, the Green Wave has 688 yards on the ground led by senior Ty Mason with 240 yards on 48 carries and 3 touchdowns. And Emmett Hegland is not all about sitting in the pocket and passing, you have to worry about him taking off and picking up big yards on the ground. He has carried the ball 35 times for 190 yards. Austin Cathers has 14 carries for 128 yards and 1 touchdown.

On the defensive side of the ball, Midway is led by Seth Bracket, senior linebacker, with 20.5 tackles. But the defensive line is something that the Yellowjackets will have to worry about as junior tackle, Trent Crabtree has 10.5 tackles, but 5.5 of those are sacks. Then you add in junior Chase Letner with 14 tackles, but an incredible 7 sacks. That’s 12.5 sacks by Midway’s defensive line.

But what about the Yellowjackets and their offense that is averaging 39.5 points a game, but was shut-out last week by the Gordonsville Tigers. They have 1700 yards in total offense as a team. They are coming off two straight losses, a 34-30 last second loss to Knox Carter (4A), and a 21-0 loss to #5 Gordonsville. The Yellowjackets fell out of the top 10 rankings after 28-straight-weeks, although the longest streak was 53 weeks (2011-2015).

Junior Cole Hines starts at Quarterback and is 40 of 70 on the season with 525 yards passing, with 10 touchdowns and no interceptions (sorry Cole if that jinxes you). But with some of the lopsided victories that the Jackets have had, it has allowed Junior Zach Armstrong and Freshman Luke Treece get some work in at QB as well.

On the ground, senior Landon Lowe leads the way with 257 yards on 37 carries and 5 touchdowns. But fellow senior, Canaan Bowling isn’t far behind with 207 yards on 33 carries and 4 TD’s. And like Hegland of Midway, you have to worry about Hines running the ball as well. He has 129 on 35 carries and 3 TD’s. Receivers leading the way for Coalfield is Sophomore Eli Roberts with 204 yards on 8 catches and 3 TD’s. Senior Landon Galyon has 11 catches for 194 yards and 5 TD’s.

On the defensive side of the ball, Landon Lowe leads the team with 52 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 3 sacks. Sophomore Coalton Henry has 43 tackles, 7 for loss and 2 sacks. The Yellowjackets have forced 17 turnovers and have a plus 13 turnover margin.

So the big question is this: Can Midway hand the Yellowjackets their 3rd straight loss and get back in the hunt for a region title after a 1-point upset by Oakdale in week 3? Can Coalfield keep their Region lead with their 3rd straight big game?

The answer to these questions and more can be found out when you tune in to the OEB Law Game of the Week, Friday night at 7pm for the pre-game, and 7:30pm for the kickoff. You can watch the game on Comcast Channel 12 in Anderson, Roane, parts of Morgan and Cumberland Counties, and on Channel 230 in Campbell County and Fairfield Glade.

But what if you don’t have cable? No problem. You can watch the game on our website, www.bbbtv12.com, our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bbbtv12), YouTube (www.YouTube.com/bbbtv12), Twitter (www.Twitter.com/bbbtv12), or on BoxCast (https://boxcast.tv/view/oeb-law-game-of-the-week—coalfield-at-midway-139273)

If you own a Roku, FireTV or AppleTV streaming device or TV, you can watch us by downloading the BoxCast Channel and then when you open BoxCast you will then search for BBB Communications and then you can watch not only the live game, but all of BBB TV-12’s programming. A video showing you how to do it on the Roku can be found here (https://www.facebook.com/cameraman91569/videos/10158447236889310). A video showing you how to find us on the FireTV can be found here (https://www.facebook.com/BBBTV12/videos/248611006712084).

A special thank you to Greg Addington the Sports Information Director and Historian at Coalfield and Coach Jonathan O’Strowski for the information for this article.