Sevier County survives Seymour on the leg of Velasquez, 9-7

SEVIERVILLE – Something had to be wrong. Misprint? Typo?

No way Seymour High School’s football team hasn’t won a game this season.

The Eagles battled Thursday night and came within a 43-yard field goal of pulling off a big win with bragging rights on the line.

Sevier County might have only put together a couple impressive offensive drives, but the Smoky Bears made them count. The last, which ended with 7:43 left in the game, set the table for Anthony Velasquez to connect on the 43-yarder to provide a 9-7 win over Seymour.

“This is a rivalry game,” said Sevier County coach Tony Linginfelter. “We expected a game like this. We knew Seymour would play us tough.”

The Smoky Bears’ victory allowed them to stay alive in the Region 2-5A race with a 3-1 record. They are 4-4 overall. Seymour is 0-8 (0-5).

“We’ve got a bunch of young guys who make mistakes at critical times,” said Seymour coach Jerry Cooper. “We’ve got a lot of guys who are learning.”

Seymour doesn’t have the market covered on youth. Sevier County hangs its helmet on the play of freshman Cam Burden. The 6-foot-2, 181-pound quarterback came back from a fumble on the first snap of the game to engineer two scoring drives that made the difference in the game.

The first, late in the first quarter, went 49 yards. It was highlighted by a 36-yard pass to Chase Smith, who broke three tackles en route to the 2-yard line. That set up Gustavo Osorio for the score.

“Cam had his ups and downs,” said Linginfelter. “He was better in the second half.”
“We’re taught that the next play is the most important,” Burden said of putting the fumble behind him. “It was still kind of tough. It might have been halftime before I really forgot about it.”

With a stout defense that shut the Smoky Bears down, Seymour made it interesting heading into the fourth quarter.

Sophomore running back Gabe Kitts, who rushed 19 times for 106 yards, scored from three yards out with 44 seconds left in the third quarter to give Seymour a 7-6 lead.

“Gabe’s a tough runner,” Cooper said of the 5-8, 200-pound bruiser. “He’s running behind a line of four sophomores and a freshman.”

Kitts was also a menace on defense.

Burden was effective on the Bears’ final scoring drive. He ran twice for 16 yards and hit four of five passes for 29 yards to put Velasquez in position.

“Velasquez has an outstanding leg,” Linginfelter said. “We had confidence in him. He’s an outstanding kicker.”