CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Run, Owls, run.
Surging Ooltewah’s punishing ground assault buried Walker Valley on Friday night, 56-7, at The Corral behind a 35-point second quarter – five touchdowns in a span of 7 minutes, 5 seconds – and the Owls will roar into the Class 5-AAA playoffs next week riding a five-game winning streak and a heavy dose of momentum.
“Our momentum started five games ago when we got beat by McMinn County,” Owls coach Shannon Williams said.
“We decided this is how we have to do things if we wanted to play into November. McMinn exposed something that we weren’t quite doing right technically. It was something simple that we didn’t know until we played a quality opponent like that.
“It’s the way we’re blocking our support outside with our H backs. It’s gotten better every week and that’s made all the difference in the world.”
Williams and his Owls will learn their first-round opponent Saturday morning when the TSSAA announces the brackets, starting at 11 o’clock.
“We don’t know who we’ll play,” Williams said. “We’re not sure but think we’ll be at home. But we’ve been playing well and if we play well in the playoffs we ought to have a chance against any opponent, no matter who it is.”
Since losing to McMinn County, 35-24, on Sept. 14, the Owls have smothered five straight foes, averaging 41.8 points while yielding a meager 8.4.
And it was just another night at the office for Ooltewah against its District 5-AAA rival Walker Valley. The Owls have won all four meetings by an average score of 51-17 and twice scored 56 points and 62 once in the series.
On Friday, the Owls led, 49-7, at halftime and the second half was played with a running clock under the TSSAA mercy rule.
“They’re a good football team,” Mustangs coach Glen Ryan said, “and we weren’t a good football team tonight. You have to show up against a good football team.”
Invading Walker Valley’s football stadium nestled in a valley between I-75 and old Highway 11 in peaceful farm country that’s now in the shadow of massive Amazon and Wacker facilities, the Owls plowed through the Mustangs like a hard-working team of mules turning over over the fields on a pleasant moonlit fall night.
Ooltewah junior running back Desmond Pittman rushed 27 times for 183 yards and touchdowns of 7 and 1 yard, helping the Owls (7-3, 4-2) pile up 352 yards on the ground. Pittman heads into the playoffs with 1,103 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He's averaging 110.3 yards per game.
Pittman came into Friday’s game having posted back-to-back 200-yard rushing efforts, gained 113 yards in the first quarter and had 154 on 20 carries at halftime, powering the Owls to 304 yards in the first two quarters.
With the clock ticking away rapidly, the Owls had nine offensive plays in the third quarter. On a fourth-and-five, Ooltewah punted and the Mustangs fumbled it away with the Owls’ Stuart Doss recovering at the Walker Valley 19.
Jon Hill gained 5 yards on two plays and then the 224-pound Pittman – he had 17 yards on his first two carries of the quarter – took care of the last 14 to push the lead to 56-7 and went to the sideline, 17 yards shy of his third consecutive 200-yard performance.
“My offensive line is blocking for me and I’m following them,” said Pittman, who consistently zipped into the Mustangs’ secondary to find only undersized defensive backs trying to impede his jaunt toward first downs or touchdowns. “I love it. I love every minute of it.”
Pittman is a gift from the football gods, as far as Williams is concerned.
“From about the fourth game he started figuring it out,” the coach said. “He’s a really talented zone runner and he’s got a knack for being where he’s supposed to be to make his reads and cuts, and he’s just a tough sucker. He’s hard to bring down and this is about four straight weeks that toward the end of the game we’ve seen defenders shy away from him a little bit.”
But Williams did offer Pittman some advice: stay in bounds.
“If he hadn’t run out of bonds on some of those runs he would’ve had 250 yards,” Williams said.
“I thought I had a little more sideline,” Pittman said. “I guess I didn’t.”
Pittman wasn’t the Owls’ only ground-churning weapon.
Senior running back T.J. Davis rushed for 74 yards and three touchdowns of 8, 1 and 50 yards – on just eight carries – and the Mustangs (5-5, 2-4) had no answers for the constant onslaught from the Owls.
“I think we’re doing really well running the ball,” Davis said. “We try to execute every play right, and we did that tonight. I can’t remember us ever having a 35-point quarter like we did tonight. And three touchdowns are the most I’ve ever had in one game.”
Senior Jon Hill rushed for 83 yards with touchdown runs of 8 and 41 yards.
The Owls’ only offensive touchdown through the air was a 14-yard fade pass from quarterback Brody Binder to Michael Williams that started the remarkable 35-point second quarter.
With the ground troops bullying their way through and around the Mustangs’ defense, Ooltewah amassed 366 yards of total offense and threw just four passes in its 50-play offensive blitz. The Mustangs were held to 137 yards of total offense, a meager 36 in the fast-moving second half.
“That was a great team performance,” coach Williams said. “But you can’t just talk about offense. Our defense shut them out and I don’t think that’s happened to them all year.”
Actually, Polk County shut out the Mustangs, 22-0, on Sept. 11.
However, Williams made his point.
Walker Valley’s only touchdown came on Gabe Cartwright’s 97-yard kickoff return in the first quarter after the Owls had built a 14-0 lead.
Even the Owls’ defense got involved in the scoring act.
Linebacker Michael Ruebusch intercepted a Garrett Wallace pass and strolled into the end zone from 18 yards out for the team’s third touchdown in the blowout third quarter.
“The tackle just lightly blocked me, I saw the screen and the quarterback rolled out and when he threw I jumped, put my hands up and the ball came right to me,” Ruebusch said.
Freshman defensive lineman Jeremiah Jackson led the Owls with seven tackles, including six solos.
Hunter Newport had eight tackles to lead Walker Valley, which has posted two winning seasons – 2004 and 2008 – since launching its football program in 2001. In that same 12-year time span, the Owls have a 97-39 record.
The big ticket item Friday, though, was the Mustangs’ offense being stymied by the Owls’ tenacious defense.
“Our offense was inept,” Ryan said, “and we couldn’t get anything going. That caused our defense to wear down. They can’t stay out there on the field against big boys like Ooltewah puts out there.
“We still don’t do a good job with teams supposed to be the powerhouses. I don’t know if it’s intimidation or a lack of confidence, but we’ve got to get over that. I’m proud of our guys, but at the same time I want better for them.”
SUMMARY
Ooltewah 14 35 7 0 – 56
Walker Valley 7 0 0 0 – 7
SCORING
First Quarter
OOL – T.J. Davis 8 run(Laszlo Toser kick), 7:32
OOL – Desmond Pittman 9 run (Toser kick), 5:22
WLV – Gabe Cartwright 97 kickoff return (Brad Hoffner kick), 5:06
Second Quarter
OOL – Mike Williams 14 pass from Brody Binder (Toser kick), 9:24
OOL – Davis 1 run (Toser kick), 7:41
OOL – Michael Ruebusch 18 interception return (Toser kick), 6:41
OOL – Davis 50 run (Toser kick), 3:58
OOL – Jon Hill 41 run (Toser kick), 2:15
Third Quarter
OOL – Pittman 1 run (Toser kick), 37.0
YARDSTICK
OOL WLV
First Downs 16 11
Rushes-Yds. 46-352 36-116
Passing Yds. 14 21
Com.-Att.-Int. 1-4-0 1-11-1
Total Yds 366 137
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-2
Punts.-Avg. 3-34.0 4-29.2
Penalties-Yds. 8-50 4-27
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Ooltewah: Desmond Pittman 27-183, Jon Hill 7-83, T.J. Davis 8-74, Phillip McClain 4-12; Walker Valley: Justin Ware 14-79, Reggie Mills 15-73, Garrett Wallace 4-3, Chaz Fulford 1-1, Holt Spencer 2-minus 40.
PASSING — Ooltewah: Brody Binder 1-4-0 14; Walker Valley: Dustin Swafford 1-10-1 21, Cory Cook 0-1-0 0.
RECEIVING — Ooltewah: Mike Williams 1-14; Walker Valley: Swafford 1-21.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com)