Cougars Tame the Traveling Wildcats 35-0 in Season Opener

Edmonson County junior quarterback Tristen Muse (1) makes a pass down field against host Grayson County in a high school football game Friday August 23 in Leitchfield.

,Story and photos by Joseph Barkoff:
Things don’t always start out the way envisioned, and that’s what happened in the 35-0 defeat for the Edmonson County Wildcats on the road against Grayson County Friday August 24th in Leitchfield.
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Edmonson County High School’s new head coach, but not new to ECHS, Justin Vessels, was part of a 2011 squad as offensive coordinator who took the Wildcats into the second round of playoffs, bringing serious clout to the table.

Junior quarterback and linebacker transfer Tristen Muse and his father, a former local high school football head coach, now the ECHS defensive coordinator, Tommy Muse, both bring a little clout of their own as well.​

Edmonson County junior wide receiver William Saling (14) looks for room to run with a block from quarterback Tristen Muse against host Grayson County in a high school football game Friday August 23 in Leitchfield.

Edmonson County senior fullback Garrett Lyons (28) looks for room to gain yards on the sideline against host Grayson County in a high school football game Friday August 23 in Leitchfield.

“We got the first game nerves out,” Tristen Muse said after the game.

With them out of the way, putting an offensive drive together and get everything moving and then things like getting their defensive reads correctly are what the Wildcats need to do to be successful in the future, Tristen said.

After the game, Vessels spoke loud enough to hear. Not field level volume, but loud enough for his visibly frustrated team to hear on each bench occupied in the cement visiting team locker room.

There were no raised voices, and he made sure the athletes knew, none were coming. No cursing, no anger. Just acceptance that work has to be done and will be done.
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“It’s a long season,” Vessels said after the game in the locker room to his team. “We’ve got lots of games. I think we can get better. I’m not at all ready to give up on this season, Okay. So y’all don’t give up on us.”

Edmonson County junior linebacker Jake Coates (15) sacks host Grayson County quarterback Kolby Chaffins for a loss in a high school football game Friday August 23 in Leitchfield.

Edmonson County junior quarterback Colton White (8) looks for more yards down field field against host Grayson County in a high school football game Friday August 23 in Leitchfield.

There were positives on the evening.

“We had lots of kids making their first (varsity) starts tonight,” Vessels said. “We do have a little bit of experience, but we have a lot of kids who haven’t played very much, so it was good game experience for them.”

They will use this as a learning experience, Vessels said.

“I thought we were ready for this game,” Vessels said. “But we’ve got a whole lot of stuff to work on, because basic stuff we never mess up on in practice and we hadn’t messed up in the scrimmages, we were messing up tonight.”

Things like sliding protections and even basic snaps, he said.

Vessels is unsure as to why the mistakes were made, whether they were first game jitters and nerves for the new squad, but he is sure they will work to fix them in the coming week, he said.

A head coach transfer from another school, Muse felt it was bad tackles early on, and made sure the team knew they would work on it, he said after Vessels’ address of the team in the locker room after the game.

Going forward the team knows they have some work to do.

“Just do the simple stuff,” Tristen said.

“I think we’ll do a lot of good stuff this week at practice, and we got all the first game nerves out,” he said said.

He thinks it will be better and is hopeful for the upcoming game, he said.

Edmonson travels to Metcalfe County Friday Aug. 30 with a 7:00 p.m. kickoff, so stay tuned on the Voice and the Voice Live for game coverage.