Ooltewah defensive tackle Jake Bratton, a junior, turns McMinn County running back Xavier Abernathy head over heels during their Region 4-5A football game Friday night at James N. Monroe Stadium. The Owls won 28-6.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Something had to give.
McMinn County, ranked No. 4 in Tennessee, came into James N. Monroe Stadium on Friday riding a five-game winning, the last a stunning 28-24 win against Oak Ridge.
Ooltewah had won its previous two games against Soddy-Daisy and White County by a combined score of 103-7.
Since Soddy-Daisy and White County were collectively 5-10 on the season, the Cherokees appeared to have a pregame edge, at least on paper.
But high school football games aren’t played on paper.
Ooltewah, held in check in a mistake-filled first half, erupted for 28 second-half points, upset the Cherokees 28-6 and stayed very much alive in a tight Region 4-5A regular-season title chase.
“This was huge for us,” Ooltewah junior defensive lineman Jake Bratton said. “All week the talk was about how good McMinn was and we were picked to lose. We came out here and didn’t give up any touchdowns and we’re very proud of that.”
The victory was Ooltewah’s fourth straight against McMinn County. In the winning streak, the Owls have outscored the Cherokees by a combined 135-53.
With Friday night results, Rhea County, Ooltewah, McMinn County and Walker Valley all have 6-2 overall records. Rhea is 4-0 in region play, while the Owls, Cherokees and Mustangs are all 3-1.
“We’re 3-0 on the back half of the season and it’s all region play and our biggest game of the year is Cleveland, and that’s the next one,” Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said.
Bryan said the Owls were ready to shine because they were underdogs playing at home.
“We aren’t underdogs at home very often,” he said. “The thing I’m most proud of is they came in here fourth-ranked in the state, and we were underdogs in every publication in Chattanooga. I think we did pretty well.”
It didn’t look that way in the first half, though.
The Cherokees got two Kirk Lockmiller field goals of 25 and 35 yards and their defense kept Ooltewah out of the end zone.
Well, Ooltewah had a lot to do with that inability to score.
On their first possession to open the game, the Owls methodically drove down field. From the Tribe’s 43, quarterback Collin Thurman hit Sincere Quinn on a 13-yard pass play and hit Tahj Cargle with a 2-yard gainer. Thurman ran for 14 yards to the 5, but fumbled on the next play and McMinn’s Xayvier Beckinham recovered.
The next time Ooltewah had the ball, Quinn bolted down the sideline for an apparent 61-yard touchdown run. A holding penalty negated the play.
A fumbled snap thwarted another drive.
The Owls had 115 yards of offense at halftime, but nothing on the scoreboard.
“We did a good job on (McMInn) defensively in the first half, but our offense killed us,” Bryan said. “We were shooting ourselves in the foot.”
On the first possession of the third quarter, Ooltewah drove to the McMinn 3. The Cherokees’ defense stiffened and stuffed tailback Cameron Turner four straight times and took over on downs.
But McMinn was having trouble getting anything into the end zone as well with its ground-oriented offense.
“That’s not a big surprise,” said McMinn’s Xavier Abernathy, who rushed for 124 yards on 19 carries. “We knew they would load the box on us to stop our inside attack. Other teams have tried to do that against us.
“After beating Oak Ridge, this was frustrating. We still have great possibilities for our team the rest of the year.”
The Owls’ next series saw a second touchdown run – a 14-yarder by Quinn – nullified by another holding penalty. However, two plays later Thurman connected with Andrew Manning for a 20-yard TD. After Aleksander Toser kicked the extra point the Owls suddenly had a 7-6 lead with 3:43 left in the quarter.
Ooltewah’s defense forced a McMinn punt and Manning broke free up the middle and blocked Andre Smith’s kick. The Owls took over at McMinn’s 15. On the seventh play, Turner scored from the 1.
“I was very proud of those two big plays,” said Manning, who caught four passes for 49 yards. “I love the big stage and the big moments.”
Less than two minutes later, the Owls forced a punt and took over at midfield.
Quinn rocketed right up the middle and outran several McMinn defenders to stretch the Owls’ lead to 21-6.
Rondarius Wash’s fumble recovery stopped McMinn’s next drive and the Owls were in business again at the Cherokee’s 15.
A Thurman-to-Tahj Cargle pass gained 1 yard and Turner ran four straight times and scored from the 4 for the Owls’ final touchdown.
“We finally executed what we were doing offensively,” Bryan said of the late-game scoring spree. “We didn’t change anything. Collin made a nice throw to Manning to give us some momentum and we established an inside run game in the second half.
“We were concerned about that because of their defensive front, but I thought our offensive line did a nice job.”
McMinn County coach Bo Cagle, who switched his offense to the wing-T for this season, didn’t believe his up-front guys played up to par, certainly like they performed in the big upset of Oak Ridge last week.
“We weren’t nasty up front,” he said. “We didn’t get after people. You could see it in the kid’s eyes. Maybe it was a letdown from the Oak Ridge game. That happens once in a while with high school kids. The bad thing is it was against a good Ooltewah team.
“The guys put their heart and soul into beating Oak Ridge and probably should have won this game. On paper, we’re probably better than Ooltewah and the kids know that. We haven’t gone into many games as the favorite, so maybe they thought this would be easy. The bad thing is it was against a good Ooltewah team.
McMinn County ran 51 plays for 272 yards of offense while Ooltewah had 55 plays for 240 yards.
In 2014, Rhea County’s wing-T offense crushed Ooltewah in the 2014 playoffs, but the Owls won 16-0 last season before dropping a 14-13 decision to the Golden Eagles in the playoffs.
Other than the field goals, McMinn County reached Ooltewah territory five times with the deepest penetration to the 14, and that drive ended with Avans’ fumble recovery.
Also of note, the Cherokees came into Friday’s game having gambled 31 times on fourth-down and converted 81 percent of the time.
Both field goals came on fourth down, the Cherokees punted four times and were 0 for 2 on fourth down conversions.
“Rhea County is a good team and McMinn is a good team,” Bryan said. “If they ran another offense, they’d still be a good football team. We just had to tackle well and play disciplined defense. Our guys played with discipline with their eyes and didn’t get caught up with the play-action stuff that McMinn has hurt other people with.”
SCORING
McMinn County 3 3 0 0 – 6
Ooltewah 0 0 7 21 – 28
First Quarter
MC – FG Kirk Lockmiller 25, 1:14
Second Quarter
MC – FG Lockmiller 31, 2:52
Third Quarter
OOL – Andrew Manning 20 pass from Colin Thurman (Aleksander Toser kick), 3:43
Fourth Quarter
OOL – Cameron Turner 1 run (Toser kick), 8:56
OOL – Sincere Quinn 4 run (Toser kick), 2:50
OOL – Turner 4 run (Toser kick), 2:50
Region 4-5A Standings
Overall Region
Rhea County 6-2 4-0
Ooltewah 6-2 3-1
McMinn County 6-2 3-1
Walker Valley 6-2 3-1
Cleveland 4-4 1-3
Soddy-Daisy 2-6 1-4
White County 3-6 0-5
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)
Wide receiver Andrew Manning stretches for yardage after one of his four receptions for 49 yards. Manning caught a touchdown pass and blocked a punt in the Ooltewah's big win over McMinn County.
photo by Dennis Norwood