Powell’s Eli Owens (44) pursues a South-Doyle player during a 15-12 win in Week 11. (photo: Tanner Walker)
Eli Owens is determined to finish the football season at Powell High School.
His will and drive have been tested not once but twice this fall due to injuries.
The senior linebacker/running back had a breakout season opener Aug. 22 when Powell beat Greeneville 19-17 in a Thursday night televised game. Owens suffered a strained calf the next Friday during a 48-36 victory over Anderson County, managed to finish the game and missed the next two victories at Fulton and Karns.
He was back for the 48-7 victory over Clinton on Sept. 20 but suffered a knee injury in the game.
It was serious enough for him to miss the next game against Halls and half the next game against Campbell County.
How serious was the knee injury?
Owens has played the last four games with a tear in his ACL and will forge on as Powell (10-0) starts the Class 5A state playoffs. The Panthers open at home against Lenoir City (1-9) on Friday night.
Eli Owens of Powell. (Photo: Dave Link)
No way Owens would miss it.
“My trainer (Powell’s Chelsea Robl) has really been helping me out,” Owens said before practice Tuesday. “We’re trying to get through it. It’s my senior year and I’ll do anything for my team.”
Powell coach Matt Lowe says Owens is a difference maker on defense.
“He’s the warrior you’ve got to have at the linebacker corps patrolling the middle of the field,” Lowe said. “Against South-Doyle (a 15-12 victory last Friday) you got to see how valuable he is.”
You could see it in the season opener, too.
Lowe recalls two highlight-reel plays Owens made against the Greene Devils, who had a 30-game winning streak snapped as two-time defending champions of Class 4A.
First was a play Owens made on Greeneville’s fourth-and-1 situation when he raced off the edge from his outside linebacker spot and made a tackle for loss.
“That pretty much changed the entire momentum of the game,” Lowe said.
Eli Owens and the Powell Panthers beat the Greeneville Greene Devils 19-17 in a non-region football contest on Hayworth Field at Scarbro Stadium in Powell, Tennessee, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. (Photo by Danny Parker)
The next was a touchdown run when he bowled over a Greeneville defender near the goal line. It was his second TD run of the night.
“That electrified the team and the crowd,” Lowe said. “It was one of the biggest plays of the night.”
Then came the calf injury against AC. It was bad enough for Owens to sit two games, with sophomore Cannon Lusby taking over as a starting outside linebacker.
When Owens returned against Clinton, he was starting at middle linebacker.
“Cannon has been starting at outside linebacker and doing a great job of it,” Owens said.
Lowe says the same about the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Owens.
“He’s certainly one of our stars,” the coach says.
Even with a bum knee.
Owens manages to play despite pain in his knee from the ACL tear.
“It’s do-able pain, and I’ll keep playing through it,” he said. “Things are going good. Hopefully it will keep going that way.”
Powell will be heavily favored to beat Lenoir City, whose only victory this season was against Heritage (0-10) in the season opener.
With a win, the Panthers will face the winner of Fulton (3-7) at Rhea County (8-2) in the second round with a potential rematch against West (9-1) in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.
Powell is seeking its first state championship in football. The Panthers reached the Class 5A state championship game in 2011 during Lowe’s first stint as head coach of the program.
They want to get back.
“I think the whole team’s been working hard since January,” Owens said. “We know what’s at stake and what’s on the line. We all love the way things are going right now and hopefully they keep going the way they are.”