Football season is here and the first high school games across the Midstate are kicking off this weekend. Each week this Fall we will have a Source Game of The Week, where we will be on location covering the biggest matchups all season long.
This weekend, for the first stop on our tour of Middle Tennessee football, we are headed to Wilson County for Cane Ridge at Mount Juliet for a Thursday night under the lights.
Cane Ridge Ravens
MaxPreps Tennessee Rank: 20
Head Coach: Eddie Woods
2023 Record: 0-0
2022 Record: 11-2, Lost to Beech in the playoff quarterfinals.
Last season, Cane Ridge averaged 33 points per game while only allowing 14 per game. A point differential like that is going to win you some football games. After some key players graduated this offseason, can they keep that kind of success going or will there be a regression?
Mount Juliet Golden Bears
MaxPreps Tennessee Rank: 83
Head Coach: Trey Perry
2023 Record: 0-0
2022 Record: 9-3, Lost to Page in the second round of the playoffs.
While MaxPreps doesn’t have the Golden Bears ranked very high compared to Cane Ridge, Mount Juliet will have home field advantage in week one where anything and everything can and will happen. Not only that, but last year losing in just the second round with a team that had potential MUST be motivating this Bears team that has to be itching to hit the field.
Final Thoughts
Both are very good teams with very good seasons that didn’t end the way they thought or planned they would last year. Both teams will look different this year, but the expectations remain the same. These are two extremely solid programs and watching if/how they bounce back this season will be fascinating, and we will have answers early on as we see both teams in week one. An early challenge in a non-district game (with two teams that went undefeated in their respective districts last year) is only going to help your team. Competition breeds success and this game should be hard fought at the very least with these two schools that should both have a good shot at winning their regions again this year.
Prediction: Cane Ridge 27 | Mount Juliet 28
