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Resiliency pays off as Cane Ridge football positioned to regain top playoff seed





Cane Ridge wide receiver Mose Phillips lll (19) catches a touchdown against McGavock.Phil Stauder/Main Street Nashville

Cane Ridge wide receiver Mose Phillips lll (19) catches a touchdown against McGavock.Phil Stauder/Main Street Nashville

ANTIOCH — It took one play.

When Reggie Goodloe returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown last week against Smyrna, his Cane Ridge teammates got an immediate lift.

“We knew after Reggie took that back that we could (win),” Cane Ridge junior Mose Phillips III said. “It kind of opened the door for everything on our offense.”

The Ravens (4-3, 4-0 Region 6-6A) secured a pivotal 20-7 victory that now has them in good position to win Region 6-6A. The last thing between them and home-field advantage during the first round of the playoffs is Overton (4-2, 2-0), where Cane Ridge plays Thursday.

 

 

This is a familiar place for Cane Ridge, which won its region every year after coach Eddie Woods’ arrival in 2015 before taking a backseat in 2020.

Woods knows the work is far from done but appreciates what this particular team has done to get here. Without much of a senior nucleus, it has bounced back from lopsided losses against the likes of Pearl-Cohn, Father Ryan and Christ Presbyterian Academy.

“Usually when you lose games like that you’ve made some fundamental mistakes, because those (other teams) don’t make many,” Woods said. “We’ve just been seeing how they respond and if they’re hungry to get things back on the winning track.”

Woods has worked fundamentals hard in practice, which is one reason Goodloe’s kickoff return was a good sign. But the coach didn’t think the Ravens were too far off: They built a double-digit lead in the first quarter against CPA before things quickly went the other direction.

Senior defensive end Eric Gaston, a Memphis commitment, has watched the defense come together. Region opponents have averaged less than 10 points versus Cane Ridge.

“We’ve been slowly improving,” Gaston said. “The most important thing is getting to the playoffs where you can try to make a state run. We’ve been more disciplined, playing as a team. Going out there and giving it effort.”

Junior quarterback Shivan Abdullah is adapting in his first year as a full-time starter. He’s thrown for 874 yards and 10 touchdowns, overcoming six interceptions.

Moving past mistakes is a central theme in Cane Ridge’s season. After a preseason scrimmage at Ensworth, Woods was so upset by his team’s performance he gave them a three-minute time limit to gather their bags and board the bus home.

It’s a different group now.

Phillips, a safety/receiver who is the son of Cane Ridge defensive coordinator and former Tennessee running back Mose Phillips, believes it’s been all about details and mental toughness.

“It’s a mindset,” he said. “Coach always preaches that you never play as good as you think, you never play as bad as you think. We knew going into each week the main goal was to win. We couldn’t lose sight of that. Win or lose we had to just get better, and that’s how we approached it.”

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