Signal Mountain Comeback Nips McCallie In Jamboree

Tyner, Boyd-Buchanan, Bradley, Baylor, McMinn Other Winners

  • Friday, August 15, 2014
  • John Hunt

The first day of the annual high school football jamboree at Finley Stadium is in the books.

A dozen teams saw action and most coaches were more than happy with what they witnessed.  All were relieved to have escaped injury free on an evening where there was a 20-minute running clock for each “quarter” and younger, inexperienced players got a chance to see what it’s like playing under the lights in a big-time football atmosphere.

There were no ties and eight of the 12 teams scored at least a field goal.

Tyner blanked Silverdale by 14-0 in the first round while Boyd-Buchanan and Bradley both had 13-0 “wins” over Sale Creek and Howard, respectively. 

Signal Mountain slipped past McCallie by 10-7 in the best match of the night while Baylor edged Cleveland by 7-3.  McMinn County scored late to defeat a much-improved Red Bank squad, 7-0, in the final battle.

There will be another dozen teams in action on Saturday night with Grace and East Ridge opening the slate at 7 p.m.  The other matchups take place approximately every half-hour with Notre Dame-Brainerd, Hixson-Walker Valley, East Hamilton-Central, Rhea County-Ooltewah and Soddy Daisy-Franklin County to follow.

The regular season opens next Thursday night at Finley when McCallie hosts Cleveland.

TYNER 14, SILVERDALE 0: Not much has changed for Tyner as the Rams play hard-nosed football on both sides and they continue to have a group of talented running backs.

Jaylen Grimes got the first score on a 49-yard run about three minutes into the action on Tyner’s sixth play.  Kevin Cortes added the first of two extra points and the Rams were on their way.

The Seahawks picked up one first down before punting and Tyner wasted no time scoring again.

Junior quarterback Emmanuel Moss hooked up with sophomore Keiontae Halfacre on a 53-yard pass play down the right sideline as Halfacre raced untouched into the end zone.

A bad snap lost 18 yards on Silverdale’s next drive while a sack by Shannon Spralls moved the Seahawks back another 11 as Tyner’s defense really stepped up play on its second time on the field.

“We executed better on offense and we were sharper than we have been in practice,” said Tyner coach Wayne Turner afterward.

“We always use a lot of running backs, but that was a heck of a run by Jaylen.  He’s doing a great job, but we have to do a better job tackling.  Tonight we were reaching too much,” the veteran coach added.

Silverdale coach Al Rogers liked what he saw, at least for his team’s first possession.

“When we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we moved the football pretty well, but we had too many missed tackles,” he responded at the end.

Senior quarterback Tanner Webb had runs of six and seven yards to highlight the Silverdale ground game while Webb hooked up with Hunter Arnold for a 10-yard gain on their only pass completion.

BOYD-BUCHANAN 13, SALE CREEK 0: The Buccaneers took turns handing the ball off to  Austin Jackson and E.J.

Matthews and both did well as the Bucs piled up 135 yards rushing.
 

Quarterback Cooper Hodge had the biggest gain with a 45-yarder for a touchdown on the Bucs’ second play from scrimmage.

Jackson started things with a 25-yard gain on a sweep before adding runs of 15 and 10 yards as Boyd-Buchanan marched 77 yards in eight plays for its second TD, a four-yard run by Matthews.

The Panthers punted on their first two possessions, but picked up a first down on the third when sophomore quarterback Jeb Hart hooked up with freshman Chase Poole for a pickup of 12 yards.

Jackson finished with 63 yards on four carries while Matthews had 27 on five trips.

“We had one too many penalties, but we were trying to move fast on offense, so that happens,” said Boyd-Buchanan coach Grant Reynolds.

“I thought we played with a lot of heart and overall, I’m really pleased with our effort,” he added.

“We did okay overall, but we made a few mistakes,” said Sale Creek coach Ron Cox.

“We were hoping to build a little confidence tonight and we did.  We were running the right formations, which is an improvement from last year, but the mistakes we made are all correctable.  The good news is that we didn’t drop our heads when plays went against us,” he added.

BRADLEY 13, HOWARD 0: The Bears had the edge in experience and it showed, but the Hustlin’ Tigers are working hard to implement a new offense with first-year head coach Mark Teague and better days are ahead for them.

D. J. Moyse, a bullish 240-pound fullback, pounded into the end zone from the 4 for Bradley’s first score.  Christian Hamilton had runs of 16, 13 and 4 yards to set up that TD after Howard was stopped on downs at their own 37.

Sophomore quarterback Cole Copeland hooked up with Tyler Carpenter on a 35-yard TD strike for Bradley’s second score.

Sophomore quarterback Vincent Bowling showed a lot of promise for Howard as he completed two passes for 23 yards as the Hustlin’ Tigers showed what they could do with their no-huddle offense for the first time.

“This was our first scrimmage and I thought our sophomore quarterback got a little nervous at times, but I’m pleased with what I saw,” said Howard’s Teague.

“I saw a lot of fixable mistakes,” he added.

“I’m just happy that nobody got hurt,” said Bradley coach Damon Floyd.

“We didn’t really have a goal in mind other than getting a little game-experience under the lights.  I’m sure I’ll find something wrong when I watch the film, but I’m pretty happy with the way we performed,” he added.

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 10, McCALLIE 7:  This was by far the best battle of the night as the Eagles took advantage of a fumble recovery by Chris Moore to score the winning touchdown with less than a minute remaining.

JaVaughn Craig hooked up with Tyler Payne on a 28-yard TD pass into the left corner of the end zone to give McCallie a 7-0 lead with just under seven minutes to play.

The Eagles got on the board when kicker Josh Patta booted a 37-yard field goal to make it 7-3 and it looked like McCallie might be able to run off the final three minutes, but Craig lost the handle at the 40 in the final minute and Moore recovered.

Southpaw quarterback Jack Teter made the Blue Tornado pay when he connected with Hunter Van Dyken down the middle from the 40 on the last play.

Kaleb Menzel had a 46-yard run to set up Patta’s field goal.

The Eagles had threatened on their first drive, but another 37-yard field goal attempt by Ben Brown was wide right.

“This was just a scrimmage, but it was good to come out and compete the way we did,” Signal Mountain coach Bill Price expressed afterward.

“It was really nice to score there at the end.  We drove down the first time and didn’t get anything, so that was a good ending for us,” he added.

McCallie coach Ralph Potter was obviously unhappy with the way his team performed and he made his point loud and clear in their post-game gathering.

“That’s between me and them,” he said when asked what message he had just delivered.

“I just had to get that off my chest, but we did a lot of stupid stuff out there tonight.  We haven’t practiced well all week and it carried over to tonight.  But I just hate poor execution,” he added.

Maxim Yoah was the leader on the ground for McCallie with 37 yards on six attempts.  Craig completed four of five passes for 65 yards to four different receivers with Payne’s 28-yarder being the longest one.

BAYLOR 7, CLEVELAND 3: The passing game was the difference for the Red Raiders as quarterback Nick Tiano hooked up with Gage Upshaw twice on Baylor’s opening drive.

The second one was a nice 41-yard strike down the middle on fourth-and-5.  Another one covering 24 yards got the drive off on the right foot.

Cleveland had a nice drive on its first possession as the Blue Raiders covered 50 yards in 15 plays, but two straight imcomplete passes led to a 37-yard field goal by Brandon Romero.

The second unit for both teams played at the end and the quarter ended without any further threats.

“The good news is that nobody got hurt,” Cleveland coach Ron Crawford began.

“We had a coverage mistake and that cost us on the touchdown, but overall, it was a positive evening for us.  We’ve really been scrambling with injuries, but this was a good experience for us,” he added.

“The pre-season is behind us and we’ve got to get ready for our first game, but we saw some good things tonight,” said Baylor coach Phil Massey.

“We played with a lot of confidence on offense and we didn’t want to give up any big plays on defense.  And it was good to get some time under the lights,” he smiled.

McMINN CO. 7, RED BANK 0: These same two teams scrimmaged earlier in the week and the youthful Lions had the upper hand on Tuesday, but the Cherokees made up for lost time on Friday night.

It looked like neither team would score, but senior quarterback Corbin Powers had other ideas as he hurled a 57-yard TD pass to a wide-open Shymez Brabson on the first play following Red Bank’s second punt just inside the two-minute mark.

The Lions got a 30-yard gainer on a completion from Caleb Tate to Malik Davis, but the clock expired before Red Bank could get any closer.

“We hit ours and they didn’t as we just got lucky,” expressed Cherokee coach Bo Cagle when it ended.

“This was much better than Tuesday when we got embarrassed, but we played hard tonight and much more like we’re accustomed to playing.  We needed that,” he added.

Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski tried to make sure his team didn’t stay down after the last-minute defeat.

“Good things are happening for us and we just need to keep our heads up,” he told his kids following the scrimmage.

“We can’t be upset with this as it was basically a scrimmage.  We did okay against a much-bigger school.  The real season starts next Friday night.  We just need to keep improving, but there’s not much time to do anything when you have a running clock,” he added.

Tate had a good evening throwing the ball as he completed six of nine passes for 71 yards to six different receivers.  The 30-yarder to Davis was the longest.

Powers was good on all five of his pass attempts totaling 79 yards, but none were any bigger than the 57-yarder to Brabson.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)

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