Ooltewah head coach Shannon Williams was impressed with his defense, felt so-so about the Owls offense and not pleased at all with the team's lack of composure under pressure.

"Start to finish our defense played great and posted a shutout, while the offense played good enough to win," said Williams.

Senior linebacker Alex Doss had a first quarter interception as well as a second quarter touchdown reception, while senior linebacker Stuart Doss had a pair of fumble recoveries, one in each half.

Ooltewah quarterback Brody Binder threw a pair of touchdown passes and was 8 for 23 for 41 yards with one interception, while running backs T.J. Davis and Desmond Pittman combined for two touchdowns and 113 rushing yards.

Scoring Summary: The Owls put their first points on the board late in the opening quarter as Binder connected with a wide open Colin Self on the right side of the Brainerd end zone on a 5-yard pass play and Alex Crowe was good on his first of three extra points.

The Owls added a safety, a 26-yard Crowe field goal and a Binder-to-Alex Doss scoring pass play in the second quarter for an 18-0 halftime lead.

Short touchdown runs by T.J. Davis (5 yards) and Desmond Pittman (8 yards), in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, closed out the scoring.

Whle the Owls posted their fourth opening game shutout in the past six seasons, Williams was far from happy about some of the players who lost their composure.

"We had two players ejected and that's not the way we play the game," Williams stated. "That shows how green we are and we didn't handle the pressure very well."

Self and receiver Shawn Montgomery - both seniors - were ejected in the second half, while Howard quarterback Sam Caffey was thrown out late in the fourth quarter.

Brainerd coach Stanley Jackson echoed Williams' comment about the lack of composure.

"We are green having lost 13 seniors from last year's 8-4 team and we have no leadership. We need some players to step up.

"We had way too many penalties and turnovers and didn't stay composed during the game."

Brainerd was penalized 12 times for 124 yards, while Ooltewah was penalized 10 times for 70 yards.

Caffey was 4 for 14 for 18 yards with two interceptions, rushed for 32 yards and had an interception on defense before being ejected for fighting.

Notes: Ninth straight season opening win for Ooltewah ... last loss to open a season came in 2003 in a 20-18 setback to Red Bank ... this is the 50th anniversary of Brainerd's stadium ... The first Brainerd football team in 1961 played all its games on the road, whle the 1962 team was 7-0 at home in its new stadium ...  

Next Week: Ooltewah travels to East Hamilton ... Brainerd is at Rhea County.

Ooltewah 32, Brainerd 0

First Quarter

Ool - Colin Self 7 pass from Brody Binder (Alex Crowe kick), :51 ... 7-0

Second Quarter

Ool - Safety, Jacoby Ramsey tackled in the end zone, 10:54 ... 9-0

Ool - Crowe 26 yard field goal; 3:48 ... 12-0

Ool -  Alex Doss 13 pass from Binder (kick failed); :45 ... 18-0

Third Quarter

Ool -  T.J. Davis 5 run (Crowe kick); 3:44 ... 25-0

Fourth Quarter

Ool - Desmond Pittman 8 run (Crowe kick); 9:24 ... 32-0

Records: Ooltewah (1-0), Brainerd (0-1)

Statistics: Rushing  - Ooltewah ... Phillip McLain (12-66), Desomnd Pittman (9-60); Brainerd ... Sam Caffey (14-32); Passing - Ooltewah ... Brody Binder (8-23-1, 41 2 TDs) ; Brainerd ... Caffey 4-14-2, 18).  

 contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net