Linemen take a stand as Harris wins

Harris Middle running back Marquis Morton rushed for a pair of touchdowns and 140 yards in the Eagles' win over Coffee County Tuesday night. (T-G Photo by Gary Johnson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Harris Middle owned the line of scrimmage Tuesday afternoon in a game that really shouldn't have been as close as the final score indicates.

The Eagles (2-0, 2-0 CTC) claimed a 14-8 win over visiting Coffee County in a Central Tennessee Conference matchup in their home opener.

"It's always nice to get a conference win," Eagle coach Jim Dougherty said. "I really hate having to play Coffee County after the horse show break because they are really physical and we always have a number of players that miss practice during the horse show.

"On average we only had about half our kids during the horse show and a number of those are starters and that really made it tough on us."

The Eagles totally dominated the first half, holding the Red Raiders to only 19 yards over the first two quarters while Harris running back Marquis Morton rushed for 115 of his 140 yards in the first half.

Morton scored the first touchdown when he raced 20 yards to the endzone at the 3:11 mark of the opening quarter. Harris failed on the two-point conversion attempt.

After recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, the Eagles marched down field on a 10-play drive capped off by a 2-yard run by Morton with 6:49 left in the half. Jordan Beavers ran for the two-pointer and 14-0 advantage.

Coffee County's lone TD came with just under three minutes left to play when Logan Baumstein scored on a 13-yard run off left tackle. Jesse Brown connected with Baumstein for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 14-8.

The game got a little interesting after Coffee County fell on the ensuing onside kick. Morton intercepted a pass at the Eagle 1-yard line to prevent the possible game-tying score.

It got even more interesting after Harris fumbled the ball back to Coffee County with 0:53 left in play at the Eagles' 4. Brown carried down to the 1, the Eagle defense made a huge stop on second down and with no timeouts, the time clicked off the clock before Coffee County could get another play off.

"We're trying to become a more physical football team and we've been really working hard at practice and it showed in this game," Dougherty said. "We held them down there late in the game I'm very proud of this team's effort."

Harris finished with 182 yards of total offense while the Eagle defense allowed only 94 yards. Beavers had a huge defensive game from his middle linebacker position, collecting three sacks and recovered a fumble.

The Eagles host conference foe Warren County Tuesday night at 6:30.

* Harris lost at Tullahoma in the opening game of the season but the Wildcats played an ineligible player and forfeited the win to the Eagles. That game also counts toward the conference record.