The culture has completely changed at Independence since John H. Lilly took over.
Look no further than the fact the Patriots will play in their fourth consecutive Class AA semifinal game, hoping for their third trip to the title game in four seasons.
Standing in the way of that aspiration is a familiar foe, one the Patriots have dashed repeatedly in their rise to the top.
For the second consecutive season the Patriots will head north for a playoff showdown with Roane County at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Last year Independence won 54-21 in the first round of the playoffs at Roane as the No. 14 seed, upsetting the Raiders who were the No. 3 seed. The history extends back to 2021 when the Patriots avoided an upset of their own in a 22-8 quarterfinal win over the Raiders.
With that familiarity, Indy head coach John H. Lilly has a good idea of what to expect. Slowing it down is another issue.
“This year they kind of know who they are and they’re playing to their strengths,” Lilly said. “They’ve got one of the top double-A players in the state if not the top double-A player in the state and some really good pieces around him. They’re a solid senior team and they’ve been in the battles their sophomore, junior and senior years so they’re a very talented, experienced football team.”
The top weapon that worries Lilly is senior Lane Watson, a bruising back capable of playing any skill position. He rushed for 1,634 yards and 23 touchdowns in the regular season, adding 208 receiving yards and four touchdowns on just eight receptions. He leads the charge for a ground-oriented attack.
Clay Walker usually leads the way for Watson but runs well when called upon, having piled up 675 yards and 12 touchdowns. He’s also a force at linebacker.
The Patriots will want to start fast in an effort to take the Raiders out of their offensive system as they did a year ago. It would also be a nice change of pace for an Indy team that’s started slow the last two games. The Patriots fell behind 17-14 at halftime in the playoff opener against James Monroe and trailed Philip Barbour 10-0 early. Both times they adjusted and exploded for multi-score victories.
“Well, I gotta give a lot of credit to our offensive coordinator Max Lilly,” Lilly said. ‘He does a good job of making adjustments and Scotty (Cuthbert) on defense does a really good job and Scotty’s been in big game so he don’t panic. Both of them have been in big games so they don’t panic real easy. I think that has lots to do with it but like I said earlier in the year, we were trying to establish what our identity was and every team every year has a different identity but for the previous three years, you know we have pretty much been in the same groove even though we lost a lot of people last year. We still had remnants of the state championship team back. I think they’ve created their identity and you know they’re tough-minded kids. They’re coal camp tough kids. They fight through adversity and they’ve been dealt their fair share. That’s for sure.”
Lilly doesn’t think the decisive victory his squad earned a year ago will lead to any arrogance from his team. They’ve spent enough time in preparation to understand this is a different and desperate team.
“I think they seen enough film figure out this is a pretty good football team,” Lilly said. “They know that we played against them and I don’t think our kids have a big head. I think they know they’ve got a senior-dominated team that is in its their window of opportunity. We’ve learned whoever has homefield has a huge advantage in the playoffs so we know they got it you know we got a big task ahead of us.”
The Patriot offense has been versatile and multiple this season.
Sylas Nelson has rushed for 1,773 yards and 28 touchdowns to lead the charge while QB Brock Green has thrown for 1,882 yards with 13 touchdown passes. Explosive receiver Christian Linksweiler leads the aerial assault with 785 yards and six touchdown receptions.
On defense the Patriots have been relentless, led by a daunting pass rush. Isiah Conley has 14 sacks while Landon Riddle led them in tackles with 108 and seven sacks to boot. The Patriots will need their stars to be at the top of their game to avoid the turnovers and early miscues that have plagued them over the last two weeks.
“I think honestly execution is so vital this time of year,” Lilly said. “Practice time gets limited because of weather and it gets darker earlier. We’re practicing deep into December as opposed to finishing up right at the beginning of December. Monday was the two year anniversary of us winning the state championship and now we’re playing in a semifinal a week later than that. Just keeping up focus is important. When you make it this far you’ve been fighting for five months now and that’s a long time to keep your teams focused. It’s so vital and it’s so hard to do.”
