Commanders play Lincoln in home opener tonight

The Washington County High School Commander football team will play its home opener at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Lincoln County. Lincoln will try to avenge last season’s 17-16 loss to the Commanders.

Lincoln County (0-2) enters the game with two losses, but Commander head coach Eric Sagrecy said the Patriots can’t be overlooked.
“They’ve gotten beat by two very, very good teams,” he said. “Danville is going to make a run in 2A to the state championship. Anderson County has one of the best teams they’ve had in several years.”
Just like last week, the Commanders will face a big, physical team that likes to run plays out of the I-formation on offense.
“The thing about Lincoln County is they’re always physical, they’re always big and they’re coached very, very, very well,” Sagrecy said. “Mike Settles does an excellent job. He’s a good person and a good coach. His kids are always prepared.”
Lincoln, a 5A school, returns several seniors.
“They’re in no way, shape or form a team that we can take lightly at all,” Sagrecy said. “They’re going to be bigger than us. They’ve got more kids than we do. They’re not a bad football team.”
One of the standouts for Lincoln is senior running back Deon Shannon.
“He’s an athletic kid,” Sagrecy said. “He does a nice job running the ball for them. He’s shifty and he’s got some good speed.”
Senior Dylan Slone will be a big asset for Lincoln on the line at defensive end and offensive tackle.
“(He) is just an enormous kid,” Sagrecy said. “He’s 6-4, 245 pounds. He is a pretty good football player.”
Senior Vinney Morris is another big body for the Patriots.
“He’s a 6-1, 220 pound senior who played inside linebacker for them and plays some tight end,” Sagrecy said. “He’s a big kid. He leads their defense. He’s all over the field and makes a lot of plays for their defense.”
Offensively, the Patriots will look a lot like Green County.
“Scheme-wise, they’re similar to Green County,” Sagrecy said. “They like some things that Green County didn’t necessarily like to do out of the I-formation. At the same time, I fully anticipate them to run I-formation plays like we saw last week. They’ll see some things on film that hurt us and probably try to come with those things themselves.”
Defensively, Lincoln is similar to the Commanders.
“They base out of a 4-4, which is similar to ours,” Sagrecy said. “They’ll probably play a little 4-3, two high against us.”