Red Bank quarterback Calvin Jackson battles for yardage Friday against Chattanooga Christian. The sophomore signal caller threw three touchdown passes and scored two on the ground as the Lions roared, 47-0.
The Red Bank Lions took more than their share of lumps at the beginning of the current football season, but things seem to be rolling pretty smoothly now as the host Lions pinned a 47-0 shutout on Chattanooga Christian at Red Bank Community Stadium Friday night.
The game was scoreless after the first quarter, but Zay Brown banged into the end zone from the 1 on the first play of the second quarter and that seemed to light a fire under the fast-improving Lions.
Red Bank quarterback Calvin Jackson had a pair of touchdown passes in the second stanza, the first a 26-yarder down the middle to Mike Porter and the second a 33-yard strike in the corner of the end zone to Mike Clark and the difference was 21-0 at halftime.
It never got any closer as Red Bank tacked on two more touchdowns in each of the final to quarters to win going away
"I thought we did some good things offensively and I surely liked the way our defense played, but it's nice to finally beat a private school," said Red Bank coach Chad Grabowski following the game.
"We're starting to click, but we just need to keep getting a little bit better every week. We got beat pretty good at start of the season, but these kids have been working hard the whole time and our reward has been huge.
"Our offensive line did a great job of opening some huge holes, but I wasn't expecting a game like this. They whipped us pretty good at their place last year and I knew they had improved a lot, but I never expected a lopsided game like this," he added.
The Lions finished with 452 total yards, including 267 on the ground and 185 through the air. Grabowski loves playing ball-control offense with a running game that runs the clock and gets positive yards and that was surely the case in this game, but Jackson had success through the air as well as he completed eight of 12 passes in the first half for 177 yards.
His only throw in the second half was an 8-yard TD pass to Blake Cagle early in the third quarter, but that play gave Red Bank a commanding 28-0 lead and there was no need to put the ball in the air again.
Brown was the workhorse for the Lions running game as he finished with 133 yards on 24 carries as Red Bank finished with 267 rushing yards.
While the Red Bank offense was doing its thing and piling up 20 first downs in the process, the Lion defense was equally as impressive as they limited the Chargers to 205 total yards, including just 52 in the second half.
CCS quarterback Matthew Mercer, who completed seven passes for 117 yards in the first half, didn't have nearly as much time in the second and the results showed as he was only able to complete six of 11 for 47 yards.
While Jackson had two TD passes in the first half and three for the game, the elusive sophomore took matters into his own hands in the second half and scored on runs of seven and five yards as that 21-point halftime lead swelled to 41-0 with 8:44 to play.
The Chargers had their best drive at the very end of the game where they took possession at their own 49 following Red Bank's sixth touchdown.
Mercer completed four of five passes in that drive for 33 yards, but the Lions added insult to injury when Cole Seeley intercepted a Mercer pass at the one and raced 99 yards for the last touchdown on the last play of the game.
"Red Bank is really a good football team and their speed on both sides of the ball sort of overwhelmed us," said Chattanooga Christian coach Mark Mariakis after his team had dropped to 4-4 overall and 0-4 in Region 3-AAA.
"We weren't able to get anything going on offense and forced our defense to spend way too much time on the field, but we just weren't able to handle their speed. We never gave up and I'm proud about that," he added.
Justin Wheeler was the offensive leader for the Chargers as he gained 30 yards on 11 carries. He also had six pass receptions for another 76 yards.
Ben Moore had two catches for 43 yards while Cooper Williams had another for 20.
The Chargers finished with 164 yards through the air and just 41 on the ground.
Red Bank will be on the road next Friday at Alcoa while Chattanooga Christian will be at home to entertain Grace.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 0 0 0 0 -- 0
RED BANK 0 21 13 13 -- 47
RB -- Zay Brown 1 run (Braulio Velazquez kick), 11:55 left in second;
RB -- Mike Porter 26 pass from Calvin Jackson (Velazquez kick), 5:14 left in second;
RB -- Mike Clark 33 pass from Jackson (Velazquez kick), 0:30.0 left in second;
RB -- Blake Cagle 8 pass from Jackson (Velazquez kick), 8:10 left in third;
RB -- Jackson 7 run (kick blocked), 3:21 left in third;
RB -- Jackson 5 run (Velezquez kick), 8:44 left in fourth;
RB -- Cole Seeley 99 interception return (no conversion attempted), 0:00 left in fourth.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)