Eagles take on neighbors tonight

Shelbyville Central returns to action after a week off when the Golden Eagles face rival Tullahoma in a key District 8-AAA matchup tonight at Tullahoma's new stadium.

The Wildcats were idle last week as well, so both teams should be well prepared after two weeks' preparation.

"I've really enjoyed having the bye week since it was put in play and having that bye in week seven is about as good as it you can ask far," Shelbyville coach Jason Hardy said. "We've had a lot of illness and injures and the bye week really helped us in that aspect as well. We took this time to work on ourselves and clean up a few things but we've also added a few things as well."

The Eagles (4-3, 1-2 8-AAA) enter the game as healthy as they've been all season.

It's a huge game for both teams as the Eagles need to win out in hopes for a wild card bid into the state playoffs while the Wildcats are still in the running for one of the two guaranteed spots.

"We know what's at stake if we can win the next three games and if we can take care of business I think we'll be rewarded for it, but we're going to take it one game at a time and that all starts with Tullahoma," Hardy said.

Tullahoma (3-4, 2-1) has improved as the season has progressed.

The Wildcats started the season 0-3 against tough opponents like Blackman, Cookeville and Columbia.

"Tullahoma is a fine football team," Hardy said. "They lost a lot of skill players from last year and opened up with a challenging schedule. Their young players have really improved and they are playing well right now. I think they are very good up front on both sides of the ball and they have a very talented tailback that really makes them go. They're very well coached and they had a lot of success over the years."

Senior tailback Zach Bryson leads the Tullahoma offense with 718 yards on 106 carries and five touchdowns.

The Wildcats like to spread the defense out and sophomore quarterback Jared Davis has thrown for 835 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions.

He counts on three receivers to help move the ball down the field.

Shane Hagen has 17 catches for 249 yards, Chad Bond follows with 16 catches totaling 238 yards while Jacob Honea has hauled in 20 receptions for 212 yards.

Defensively, Tullahoma gives up an average of 33.3 points a game but that figure can be deceiving.

"Sometimes looking at the scoreboard can be misleading. I think Tullahoma's defense is a lot better than whatever point average they're giving up," Hardy said. "I know they will play hard and we're going to have to play smart and take care of the football."

Shelbyville enters the game scoring an average of 16 points a game while allowing 25 points an outing.

"Anytime Shelbyville and Tullahoma face one another in any sport it's exciting and I expect the same for this game as well," Hardy said.

Kickoff is at 7.