Loss at Grainger Begins Off-Season for Falcons

Week 10 article by VSN

Rutledge- As the final week came and went, the Falcons unfortunately could not find themselves in the win column this season with a week 10 loss to Grainger County 33-14 to end the 2023 campaign at 0-10. Obviously not the year anyone in this program wanted, but that’s the nature of things in arguably the hardest district of football in East Tennessee.

Grainger is a team known for being able to hold the ball for long possessions. They dominate that category most games, but during their matchup with the Falcons, they were mostly bottled up by this scrappy defense led by star linebacker Owen Fleenor and his just as polarizing OLB/DE Grant Winegar and DB CJ Fraysier. Grainger is also known for running the football with great efficiency. That also was not mostly the case as the defense held and forced the Grizzlies to throw more than they usually do. Unfortunately, those throws worked tonight as Grainger Co. was able to score multiple passing touchdowns bringing their own season to an end with a win.

Now that the dust has settled on a whirlwind of a season in this conference of Region 1- 4A, we at VSN would like to take a look back and give our thoughts on this year as a whole. Hit on some key moments, players, and how we think this team showed a lot of resilience and how they will definitely be better next season.

The year started out interesting as myself; Frank Sorah, Josh Sawyer, and his wife Hannah Sawyer, took full control of the Volunteer Sports Network. As alumni and football players of Volunteer, Josh and I were extremely excited to be around Falcon football once again. During week one we went down to watch practice and found out that not only were they going to start one Freshman. They planned on starting two freshmen with one of them being Quarterback Jameson Mowell alongside his former middle school teammate, Owen Fleenor at middle linebacker.

Not only were we very intrigued by these moves we were curious to see how it would work out. Fast forward to week one against West Ridge, and we saw exactly why Coach McMillan made those decisions. Simply put, Owen Fleenor is a beast. He was born to play middle linebacker. Jameson Mowell was without a doubt ready to start varsity football. Showed plenty of maturity and had full control of his team at all times. While mistakes are made, everyone knows that those things will happen. We know that the future of bright for both of these young men.

Looking at some of the upperclassmen, the Falcons were quite happy with their Senior core with the help of key Juniors and Sophomores. Both of these talented players were also all around the football, and could never be stopped. But that is the beauty of football, it is not a one-man show and all of the seniors leaned on some big plays from their Juniors and Sophomores. The main two of those players are running backs Caden LaFollette and Keelin Releford.

Both LaFollette and Releford have incredible years out of the backfield, sadly marked by a season-ending injury to LaFollette against David Crockett. These two were definitely thunder and lightning and I know the entire Falcon community is excited to see what this duo can produce next year. Austin Glass was the silver lining in Caden going down, but he too suffered a season-ending injury. We wish both of them full recovery and know that they will work hard to get healthy. Keelin Releford was the star of this offense racking up over 1000 total yards of offense and 7 touchdowns. Aden Parsons was the main receiver hauling in a good amount of receptions and 3 touchdowns on the year.

The season started with plenty of things to look forward to, but injury issues, tough scheduling, and some wild calls led to a not-so-stellar year. In my opinion, this team will be very capable next season. Obviously, the loss of key seniors will hurt, but there is a lot of talent still on this roster that will get much better. We at VSN want to thank everyone for all their support this season and can’t wait for next season!

Go Falcons!