Max Meadows…Coming off a bye from last week, the Fort Chiswell Pioneers will be back in action this Friday as they play host to the Auburn Eagles. It will be homecoming for the Pioneers, and they’ve had over a week to to get over their loss to Floyd Co. The Eagles head coach is Cam Akers who is in his second year and has a record of 5-10. His defensive coordinator is Zane Quesenberry in his first year at Auburn. Both Akers and Quesenberry are former Pulaski Co. Cougars. They return six starters on offense and six on defense from last season when they finished with a 3-7 record.
The Pioneers (3-1) are averaging 25 points a game while surrendering 14.5 per game. Auburn will come into the contest with a 2-3 record. They are scoring just under 12 points a game and giving up just over 19 per contest. The Eagles have wins over Craig Co. and Eastern Montgomery. The losses are to Narrows, Floyd Co. and last Friday to George Wythe 34-14. The loss to Floyd was 21-0.
Fort Chiswell lost to Floyd 21-14 on a late interception that the Buffaloes turned into the winning score. The Pioneers beat the Maroons of George Wythe 14-7. Floyd and George Wythe are the two common opponents for the two teams this season.
Auburn players to watch will be running backs Cameron Chestnutt, Tristan Perry and Carter Brockman. The best lineman are Cody Harris a 6-3, 210 senior, Adam Chapman 6-1, 220 senior and Drew Hill a junior who is 6-0, 200. Hunter Keith is a wide receiver to look for and the tight end is Carson East. The Eagles will use Malachi Spencer, Perry and Payson Kelley at quarterback at different times. Kelley, a freshman, will see the most action at QB. On defense Chestnut was an all-conference player last year at safety. Richie Romo, a junior, was one of the best place-kickers in the region. Hill, Harris and Chapman will see lots of action on the defensive line and at linebacker for the Eagles.
Fort Chiswell head coach Todd Tiller said, ”Auburn likes to run the option out of double wing sets. They run the inside veer as well. They will go under center then show motion. They don’t or haven’t thrown that much in the film that we have seen on them.” Coach then added, “Defensively they will run 4-4-3 scheme. They haven’t blitzed that much so far in their five games. The secondary is zone and man to man as well. It depends on the situation for them.“ When asked about the health of his Pioneers after an off week coach replied, “We are in good shape. We hit the weights some on our off week and ran through drills on basic things we do for two-three days last week.“
The Pioneers on offense will start with Brody Crockett at quarterback, Sean Morgan and Tyler Jakubiak will be the running backs. The wide outs will be Tanner Bailey and Aaron Crawford with Anthony Morris at tight end. The center is Logan Smith with Billy Shrewsberry and Jon Gregory at guards. The tackles are Ethan Hawks and Jonah “Loopie” Turpin. Ethan Woods, Zach Johnson and Logan Newman will see action on that side of the ball as well. Defensively Fort Chiswell will go with Shrewsberry, Gregory and Garrett Chrisley upfront. The linebackers will be Bailey, Crawford, Hawks, Woods and Jon Poole. The secondary will consist of Logan Newman, Sean Morgan and Anthony Morris. Zach Johnson and Jakubiak will also play some on defense. Tyler Dunford will be the place-kicker with Dylan Bailey doing the holding and the center will be Tanner Bailey. Tanner Bailey will do the punting as Sean Morgan does the snapping.
Kick-off for the homecoming game at C F McKinney Field at Fort Chiswell High School is 7:00 pm this Friday night.