Moving on.
Ooltewah’s streaking Owls, unleashing a punishing attack on the legs of Desmond Pittman, the arm of Bradley Stephens and a bone-jarring defensive effort, rolled over visiting Shelbyville Central, 42-20, in the first round of the TSSAA Division Class 5A state playoffs Friday night at James Monroe Stadium.
The Owls (8-3), who reached the semifinals in 2008 and lost in the first round the following year, advanced to the second round and will face undefeated Powell (11-0) on Friday in Knoxville. Powell thumped Anderson County, 54-12.
“Powell is one of the best,” Owls coach Shannon Williams said, “and we have to go up there. I haven’t seen them but I hear they have a great running back and they’re a great team. And they’re kicking everybody they play.”
The Golden Eagles finish 7-4 and have lost in the first round in eight of their last nine playoff appearances.
“We’re real happy to be playing another week,” said Stephens, the Owls' quarterback who completed 12 of 14 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns. “We go to Powell (on Friday), but I know if we practice well this week we can compete with them.”
Normally, the Owls use the pass to open up the run game, but against the Golden Eagles it was just the reverse.
Pittman, a bruising tailback with surprising speed, rushed 26 times for 200 yards with touchdown runs of 3 and 27 yards, helping the Owls amass 490 total yards, 285 coming on the ground.
“It’s usually the opposite,” Stephens said. “Most games we pass to open up the run, but Des was inhuman and our offensive linemen were blocking their butts off. It feels really good to look up there (scoreboard) and see that score.”
The 42 points Ooltewah scored came against a defense that yielded on average 23.2 points per game during the season. The Owls had 28 at halftime, and 21 came in a wild second quarter when the teams combined for 34 points, all coming in the final 6:50 before halftime.
That scoring outburst surprised neither team.
Through 10 games, Shelbyville scored 143 points in the second quarter, outdistancing their opponents by 73 points. Ooltewah, which started the game’s scoring with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Stephens to Mikhail Creech with 3:25 left in the first quarter, outscored its 10 regular-season foes, 133-61, in the second quarter.
However, after their second-quarter onslaught, the Owls took the kickoff to start the third quarter and drove 67 yards in eight plays – Pittman scored on a 27-yard run – and grabbed a 35-13 lead to put the Golden Eagles in a stranglehold.
“They really studied film well,” Golden Eagles tailback Marquis Morton said. “When we lined up they knew exactly what we were doing. That was by far the best defense we’ve played.”
Morton, who rushed for 100 yards seven times this season and came the playoffs with 1,122 yards and 15 rushing touchdowns, managed just 46 yards on 17 carries, a meager 2.7-yards per attempt, against the hard-hitting Owls defense.
“It was frustrating,” said Morton, a junior. “We had to keep it together and keep fighting. We did that, but they’ve got a good team.”
Quarterback Luke Faulk, who put up 1,277 total yards and 17 touchdowns during the season, was the Golden Eagles’ most effective offensive weapon. He completed 14 of 24 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns. Faulk hit Donta Scott on a 48-yard scoring strike in the second quarter and flipped a 42-yard touchdown pass to Morton with 1:41 left in the third quarter.
But that play came way too late to make any difference.
The second quarter decided the game.
After Pittman’s 3-yard burst into the end zone, Faulk found Scott for the Golden Eagles’ first score, just over a minute later.
Ooltewah answered with Stephens’ 65-yard bomb to P.J. Toney, who made a circus catch down the sideline, juggling and then grabbing the ball after Shelbyville’s Jacob Ware deflected it, and racing for the touchdown with 4:08 left in the quarter. Toney had four receptions for 95 yards.
On the Golden Eagles’ next possession, Faulk found Scott for a 37-yard gain to the Owls’ 7 and Morton scored on the next play. A two-point pass play failed and the Golden Eagles trailed, 21-13, with 3:21 on the clock.
It was Ooltwah’s turn. Again.
The Owls went 65 yards in five plays – all on the ground – and T.J. Davis bolted 60 yards to the Shelbyville 7 and scored one play later to push the Owls’ lead to 28-13, with 1:13 left.
That’s how the first half ended and the Owls were in a dominating position.
Shelbyville had four first downs and 39 yards rushing – Morton had 36 on nine tries – in the first 24 minutes. Ooltewah rolled up 316 yards of offense, 14 first downs and had a 15-point cushion.
“This was a team win,” Williams said, praising his offense and defense. “I knew we could do things with our run game, but I didn’t know we would exert our will on them like we did. And we were able to throw when we needed to.”
The second half was a little less explosive.
Pittman scored the Owls’ fifth touchdown with 9:06 left in the third quarter and running back Jay Rudwall, Ooltewah’s defensive stalwart all season, capped the touchdown parade with a 3-yard run with 10:52 left in the game.
The game, matching two wildcard qualifiers, lived up to what fans expect in the playoffs.
“This was a third-round game,” Owls coach Shannon Williams said. “We could have played well and not won. That’s a good team and they’ve got weapons everywhere. Playing at home helped us. Our crowd helped and we’re playing our best ball right now.
“It’s the best we’ve played in all phases of the game all year. (Shelbyville) was as good as any team we played all year. To hold them to 53 yards rushing, that’s unbelievable. I told the kids during the week, don’t worry about results. Be excited about playing.”
How well did Ooltewah play?
Morton’s 46 yards rushing was a season low and his previous low (57 yards) came in the season opener against Coffee County. His season high was 185 yards against Wilson Central.
Ooltewah scored 40-plus points for the fourth time this season and has won its last three games by a combined score of 142-47.
The Owls scored on their first six possessions, 6 of 8 in the game and didn’t punt until Drew Manning got off a 36-yarder with less than four minutes left in the game.
“This feels great,” said Rudwall, a senior linebacker who had 105 tackles coming into Friday’s game. “We were determined to stop their top running back because we knew their line executed well and they had backs with a ton of speed. It’s great to advance and we can enjoy this game before we head up to Powell. They’re going to be tough.”
The Boxscore
Shelbyville 0 13 7 0 -- 20
Ooltewah 7 21 7 7 -- 42
First Quarter
OOL – Mikhail Creech 25 pass from Bradley Stephens (Callum Wishart kick), 3:25
Second Quarter
OOL – Desmond Pittman 3 run (Wishart kick), 6:50
SHEL – Donta Scott 48 pass from Luke Faulk (Andrew Thompson kick), 5:25
OOL – P.J. Toney 65 pass from Stephens (Wishart kick), 4:08
SHEL – Marquis Morton 7 run (pass failed), 3:21
OOL – T.J. Davis 8 run (Wishart kick), 1:13
Third Quarter
OOL – Pittman 27 run (Wishart kick), 9:06
SHEL – Morton 42 pass from Faulk (Thompson kick), 1:41
Fourth Quarter
OOL – Jay Rudwall 3 run (Wishart kick), 10:52
SHEL OOL
First downs 12 21
Rushes-Yds. 31-53 39-285
Passing Yds. 222 205
Com-Att-Int. 14-24-0 12-14-0
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-1
Punts-Avg. 2-43.5 1-36.0
Penalties-Yds. 7-55 11-73
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Shelbyville: Marquis Morton 17-46, Dallas Castleman 4-8, Luke Faulk 6-6, Tyler Eddings 1-3, Brayden Ward 3-minus 10; Ooltewah: Desmond Pittman 26-200, T.J. Davis 7-79, Jay Rudwall 1-3, Bradley Stephens 2-0.
PASSING – Shelbyville: Luke Faulk 14-24-0-222; Ooltewah: Bradley Stephens 12-14-0-205.
RECEIVING – Shelbyville: Marquis Morton 4-52, Donta Scott 2-85, Tyler Eddings 2-30, Trey Trice 2-18, Luke Faulk 1-13, Dallas Castleman 1-9, Zach Hamler 1-8, Jacob Ware 1-7; Ooltewah: P.J. Toney 4-95, Mikhail Creech 4-69, T.J. Warren 3-23, Matt Sealor 1-18.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at fleminglrry@aol.com)