Rosman and teams from Yancey County have been playing football ever since Rosman Football began back in the fall of 1959, and the rivalry has been a good one thru the years with each team winning there fair share of the games played between the two communities....
Rosman's first-ever football game was played at South Broad Field in Brevard(Current-day Library location), and that team was the Rebels of Cane River who shutout the Tigers 18-0 in that first-ever Rosman Varsity football game.....Later that same season, Rosman traveled to Yancey County for the first time, and came away with a tie, and scored their first-ever rushing TD as Sonny Sigmon galloped 87yds to paydirt...
Rosman would record their first victory and shutout over a Yancey County team in 1961 when the Tigers beat Cane River 19-0....6 years later, the Tigers would beat both East Yancey(21-13) and Cane River(26-7) in the same season for the first time, and it would also be the final season that the Tigers would play a team from Yancey County in football, until the 80's.....Both Cane River and East Yancey would merge during the 70's to form Mountain Heritage High School....
The Tigers began playing Mountain Heritage in 1981, and Rosman won that first game with the Cougars 27-8...The two teams would meet again in 82', and the Tigers would once again prevail, and would record their first shutout(26-0) against the Cougars...
The two teams would not meet again until the mid 1990's with Mountain Heritage picking-up their first victory against the Tigers when the series resumed in 1995, beating Rosman 22-14....Tigers would bounce back in 96' with a 31-8 win before the teams stopped playing until after the new Millineum.....Beginning in 2001, Rosman and Mountain Heritage have played every season... Rosman won that 2001 matchup with a 27-7 victory....
In the all time series between Mountain Heritage and Rosman, the two teams have played 18 games against each other, and the Cougars hold a 10-8 edge in the series, having won the last 2 games, including last year's 41-12 victory in Burnsville.....
In a Conversation that I had with Coach Fox several years back when these two teams began playing each other, he told me then that he really liked Coach Joey Robinson, and thought that he was going to do a great job at Mountain Heritage.....Fast forward nearly 15 years from that conversation that I had with Coach Fox, and it seems that Coach's instincts back then were as sharp as his namesake as Coach Robinson has built a very respectable football program from the ground up, and the Cougar fans should be very proud of where the program has come, and is under his leadership...
As for the game this friday in Tigertown, it's going to be a great atmosphere unlike anything that we've seen in quite a few years during the regular season in Rosman....The Cougars are coming off a very impressive road win at 3A North Buncombe as Sophomore QB Trey Robinson used his versatility to run, pass and terriorize the 3A Blackhawks last night in Weaverville....With a talented and tall WR(6'2") in Junior Cole Burleson, Trey Robinson has a big go-to target that is going to be hard to stop, but he also spreads the ball around quiet a bit if you look at the stats from the North Buncombe game....MIx with that, Robinson's ability to run the ball, and you have a very potent team offensively....The Cougars have already faced a team with a lot of team speed in Erwin, which I'm sure helped them against North Buncombe last night, so the Tiger defense will face a tremendous challenge this coming friday against the Cougars....
As for the Tigers, they are off to their best start since 2001 when the team began the season 4-0 after beating Hendersonville on the road that season.....Folks outside the program might scoff and say that the Tigers really haven't played anybody yet, and it's hard to deny that assertion since the 3 teams the Tigers have played, have yet to win a game this season, but you play who you play, and let the chips fall where they may as they say....
Rosman's first team defense has given up 1 TD on the season, and the offense is averaging over 40pts per game, led by a bunch of Seniors....Two of whom are among the top rushers in WNC as Seniors' Gage Orr and Tanner Green have been great this season behind a veteran OL, and were once again last night as Orr caught a TD, threw for a TD and rushed for a couple TD against Madison, while Green caught a TD pass, Blocked a Punt to set up another score, rushed for 2 TDs, and recorded 5 Sacks, giving the Senior 8 on the season....
The team as a whole just seems to have the type of chemistry and hunger that has been absent most years since that last great team in 2001 that narrowly missed playing for a state title....That team in 2001 was a very physical football team, and this team has a lot of those same characteristics with Senior Leadership, Experience and Talent.....
Can the Tigers beat a Mountain Heritage team that handily beat the Tigers last year, and is one of the WHC favorites this season?
It;s a lot to ask of this year's team, but we will find out this coming friday when the Cougars come to Tigertown!
Roar Tigers Roar!
