Go Eagles!!   10-28-05...History Made...Eagles Get First Varsity Win!!

 All the hard work the Eagles went through in their first year in varsity competition this season paid off last Friday night. The Eagles went through the growing pains this year in many different ways. Region 6-5A is traditionally one of Tennessee’s toughest and most demanding regions in the state.  To add to the growth process, they played a tough non-region schedule with Page, Hill wood and Siegel as its opponents. Through it all the team learned valuable lessons along the way. Friday night a final lesson for the year was achieved, with a little trip south down Highway 31 to Columbia Central. It would be a night filled with drama, hard hitting and a team that played together. The moniker TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) is what the Eagles did for all four quarters to achieve its first win of the season and the first varsity win in school history! A lesson learned for the Eagles, a lesson in winning.

The Eagles struck first as the defense applied the pressure all night against the Lions. The defense forced Columbia to punt in its first possession and a high snap sailed over the head of the punter and the Eagles recovered on the three yard line. Three plays later Jeff Veres added a 21 yard field goal to put the Eagles up first 3-0. Then later on in the first quarter Emory Martin ran it in from two yards out to put the Eagles on top 9-0 as the extra point was no good.  Then the Eagles began to soar higher when sophomore quarter back Kevin Lawrence found fellow sophomore and wide receiver Isaac Baugh for a 57 yard touchdown strike and the two point conversion from Lawrence to Baugh extended the Eagles lead to 17-0. Columbia would add a touchdown with time expiring at the half to make a slight roar trailing the Eagles 17-7.

Defense was the key all night for the Eagles. The Eagles defense had its most impressive performance of the season. Coach Smith said. “I think we had four interceptions in the game and one or two fumble recoveries," he said. "The defense gave us a short field most of the night." Coach Eubanks' defense did intercepted four passes and recovered two fumbles to give the offense great field position all night. Isaac Baugh had two of those interceptions to go along with Chris Darnell and Warren Berry's one interception a piece. Baugh would get both fumble recoveries as well.

Ryan Consiglio would keep the scoring going for the Eagles in the third quarter as he plunged in from a yard out for his first of two touchdowns of the night and the two point conversion was good to extend the lead 25-7. Consiglio was the work horse for the Eagles on the ground all night; he rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns to lead Independence (1-9, 1-6 6-5A) over Columbia (3-7, 2-5) for the team's first victory of the season.
Isaac Baugh had four catches for 89 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown reception from Kevin Lawrence.

Again, the Lions gave a slight roar in the third as they were able to cut the deficit back to within 10, 25 -15. However, Consiglio added his second touchdown of the night on a 9 yard hard pounding run as he sliced through the Columbia Central defense to extend the lead to 32 - 15. Columbia would get one more touchdown to get close again, but sophomore kicker Jeff Veres hit a 28 yard field goal to complete the scoring on the night and solidify the first varsity win in school history, 35-22.

"Even though it was a 1-9 season, it was still a good season," Smith said. "This was important to us and to our kids who worked so hard. It felt so good to get a win for them. This is a good way to end the season and get us into the off-season."

The growth process has been slow at times for this young Independence team, but the Eagles grew up a lot Friday night, Smith said. He told them they could no longer consider themselves juniors, sophomores and freshmen but that they were seniors, juniors and sophomores preparing for the 2006 season.

"This has been a long time coming," he said. "We were fortunate to be in control all night. I think our kids do understand what they can accomplish if they work hard."

Final 2005 Region standings:

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