Vikes trip to Music City in 'W' search

Fullback Tavarice Moore looks for the end zone in the opening game in Unionville. (T-G Photo by Jimmy Jones) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Community Vikings undertake their first road trip to battle Region 5-A foe Nashville Christian on the heels of an outstanding, yet conversely, disappointing outing in their home opener one-point loss to Cornersville.

The Purple and Gold started fast by scoring 19 points in the first half, but failed to complete their mission in what would have been a historical win for their program.

"We regressed a bit from last season in our opening game," Community coach Johnnie Frost said. "Last year we always seemed to get a real slow start and then close out the second half like gang busters.

"We worked extremely hard on getting out to a quick start and were very successful in the first 16 minutes. Then we seemed to forget how to finish it out."

The Viking offense proved to be very potent with a litany of talented athletes to handle the ball in Sean Grigoruk, Corey Coppes, Zach Haynes, Tavarice Moore and Jacob Cowell, who rolled up huge chunks of yardage in their first time out.

Their defense held the opponent to under 200 yards but they will be sorely tested by the Eagles on their home turf.

Nashville Christian (1-0) was having some success of their own on opening night as they scored 47 points out of their wing base offense behind the running of Dallas Slater and Michael Gray, while allowing only six points defensively to Scottsboro (Ala.) Christian.

Community looks for another great defensive effort led by senior linebacker Jared Bennett and end Stevie Allen to slow the Eagle rushing attack and prevent them from controlling time of possession.

The Vikings hurt their overall effort in the opener with 17 penalties for 135 yards.

It is part of the game to expect that each team of referees will have varying interpretations of the rules and how they should be applied, but that number is unacceptable by anyone's standards.

"We as a staff have to do a better job of coaching the technical aspects of the game to help prevent some of the mistakes that led to the flags," Frost said. "We have to be able to adjust to the game environment on a series-by-series basis if need be, and we didn't do that very well the first time out.

"Our guys certainly played well enough to win the game without the mistakes.

"We learned a lot from that game and it should make us a better team in the long run."

The Vikings enter the contest with just the normal bumps and bruises on their injury report. Every player on their roster should be available for the contest.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30.