The Lenoir City Panthers lost against the Oak Ridge Wildcats back in September of 2022, and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. Lenoir City took a 30-12 bruising from Oak Ridge. Lenoir City has struggled against Oak Ridge recently, as their matchup on Friday was their fifth consecutive lost matchup.
Lenoir City's loss came despite a true team effort from the offense, with many players turning in solid performance. Perhaps the best among them was Trey Wilhite, who rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown, and also threw for 107 yards and a touchdown.
De'Jauvis Dozier was his usual excellent self, rushing for 68 yards and three touchdowns.
Lenoir City's loss was their fourth straight on the road, which dropped their overall record down to 5-4. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 8-1 Sevier County and 7-3 Loudon (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 67.5% over those games). As for Oak Ridge, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 7-2 record this season.
Lenoir City is on the road again on Thursday and play against Karns at 7:00 p.m. on October 26th. As for Oak Ridge, they will stay at home for another week and welcome Campbell County at 7:00 p.m. on October 26th. Campbell County will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Tennessee Rankings (they are ranked 186th, while Oak Ridge is ranked 20th).
