Seymour Eagles Soar Over Gatlinburg Pittman with a 48-14 Victory

Chad Wells

Aug 22

5 min read

Updated: Aug 24

In the latest chapter of the county's oldest rivalry, the Seymour Eagles seized control early, dominating the Gatlinburg Pittman Highlanders with a decisive 48-14 victory on Friday evening inside of Householder Stadium.

"I'm just so proud, happy for our kids, they've fought and clawed to get to where we are. I'm happy for this coaching staff, they've gone above and beyond, doing everything we can to get ready. I'm happy for this community, they've bought in, they love football here and they love the Eagles." Coach Caleb Olive lamented after the Eagles season-opening victory.

The Eagles struck first, with 11:05 remaining in the opening stanza as sophomore QB Levi Carlson found the Eagles sparkplug Mason Brown down the left sideline, where he would go 63 yards for the first Eagles touchdown of the year, the ensuing PAT made it 7-0, Seymour early.

Seymour forced the Highlanders to go 4-and out on their opening possession and the Eagles once again marched down the field, with Mason Davis and senior QB Brody Ferree leading the way on the ground. Davis capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run and halfway through the first quarter it was 14-0 Eagles.

The ensuing Highlanders drive would start at the 30, after Jonathan Garcia returned the kick-off 15 yards to set GP up with their best field possession of the night. Marshall Gay rattled off an 8 yard gain on the first play before Ben Seavy connected with Hayden Shultz on a 10 yard completion, to give G-P their first 1st down of the evening.

A combination of stifling defense and penalties would halt the Highlanders drive, forcing a punt on 4th down, but the Eagles Duke Delozier would get the pressure in and block the attempted punt from Shultz before Brown scooped the ball and returned it to the Highlanders 23-yard line. A penalty on the return for a horse collar tackle gave the Eagles the ball on the 13-yard line.

It was another heavy dose of Davis, as he scored his second touchdown from 2 yards out. Seymour went for 2, out of the swinging gate formation but was denied and with 2:28 remaining in the opening stanza, the Eagles led 20-0.

Jackson Kendall would boot his second kick-off for a touchback through the back of the endzone to give the Highlanders the ball at their own 20. Tripp White would blow up the first down play in the backfield for Seymour for a 2-yard loss, Zac Wood just narrowly missed an interception on 3rd down and another Highlanders punt return, set the Eagles up with possession in G-P territory yet again.

Ferree connected with Brown on the first play of the drive down the left sideline yet again, this time for a 36-yd completion. Ferree would rush for no gain on the next play, before David ripped off his 3rd touchdown of the night, this time from 12 yards out, the PAT was true and Seymour led G-P 27-0 heading into the second quarter.

Gay gave the Highlanders 12 yards in a series of runs before Seavy found Jackson Savarese on a beautiful high point catch down the left sideline for 56 yards and the opening touchdown on the Highlanders 2026 season to make it 27-7 Eagles.

Davis would return the ensuing kickoff to the Highlanders 49 yard line, giving the Eagles another drive starting inside enemy territory. Carlson connected with Adam Burdick on 2nd down for a 4-yd gain, before finding Caeden Soulages on a rollout for a 9-yd completion and an Eagles first down.

The Highlanders would jump offsides before Carlson connected with Noah Bohanan on another beautiful completion for an Eagles touchdown from 29 yards out, the PAT was once again true and with 6:42 remaining in the half, Seymour led 34-7.

Seavy found Savarese for 3-yds to open the ensuring Highlanders drive, Gay rushed for 6 yds bouncing off an Eagles defender before finally being tackled. An untimely false start, left G-P with a 3rd & 6. The Highlanders drive would stall after Corey Helton crushed Seavy in the backfield with the sack for a 10 yard loss and forcing another punt, which landed at the Highlanders 46 yd line.

Ferree hit Burdick on 1st down, for 14 on the quick screen and run. A few plays later the connection would find each other again, this time taking the Eagles down to the 10 yd line, before Davis finally punched it in for his 4th TD of the evening from 1 yd out, giving the Eagles a 41-7 heading in to the halftime break.

"Grayson Davis is a workhouse but it's the guys up front, the o-line, the tight ends, they got after people tonight. Grayson runs it so hard, he's a great teammate, he did a great job on the sidelines telling his teammates his loves them, great job right there but it was a whole team effort tonight." Olive said of Davis' performance.

The second half began with another impressive defensive stand from the Eagles with JD Cook & Bentley De La Cruz both recording sacks that ended the Highlanders opening drive of the 2nd half, before it had a chance to get rolling.

"The defense was lights out, credit to Coach Keller, Coach Grove, Coach Lauderdale, they had a great game plan and the kids executed. We can talk about it all we want but those kids have to go make the plays. We've got 11 dudes trying to get there with a bad attitude." Olive mentioned of his teams defensive performance on the evening.

Davis would rip off a 25-yd run to get the Eagles rolling in the second half on 2nd down and putting the ball into G-P territory. Davis would once again get lose and gain 28 yds through the middle of the Highlanders defense. The remainder of the drive was rinse and repeat with Davis carrying the ball before finally punching it in for his 5th and final TD of the evening from 1-yd out, giving the Eagles a 48-7 edge with 2:57 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

"It means a lot, the first thing when we got to summer practice, it was beat G-P, we've got to beat G-P and get them back for last year. It feels great to actually come out here and do what we're supposed to."

Gatlinburg Pittman would once again get on the scoreboard with 6:09 remaining in the contest after Gay busted loose and took the handoff 86 yards through the Eagles defense to bring the score to 48-14 Eagles.

"It comes down to football being a simple game sometimes. We've got to get first downs and you have to get stops on defense but unfortunately we didn't get enough of either of those tonight." G-P coach Tyler Williams stated after the Highlanders fell to Seymour to open their 2026 campaign.

Seymour will travel to Pigeon Forge on Friday for another in-county rivalry contest with the Tigers, while the Highlanders will host Cocke County. The Eagles came away with a 17-8 victory in last years contest, while GP defeated the Fighting Cocks 23-13.

"I told them we've got until midnight to enjoy this, this is great, but at midnight tonight we're on to Pigeon Forge, it's time to get on to our next opponent. We've got a long season ahead, so we've just got to get ready."

Team Stats:

First Downs: GP 6 - Seymour 21

Rushing: 18-120 - Seymour 31-216

Passing: 67 yds - Seymour 179

Penalties: GP 8/55yds - Seymour 2/25yds

Individual Performances:

Rushing: Marshall Gay (GP) - 13 carries / 137 yards / 1 TD

Grayson Davis (SEY) - 17 carries / 127 yards / 5 TD

Passing: Ben Seavy (GP): 4-8 / 67 yards / 1 TD

Levi Carlson (SEY): 4-6 / 107 yards / 2 TD

Brody Ferree (SEY): 3-3 / 72 yards

Receiving: Jackson Savarese (GP) - 3 receptions / 57 yards / 1 TD