Football Playoffs: Mustangs, Owls Rivalry Has Quick Turnaround

Friday's Foes Ended Regular Season On Nov. 4

Thursday, November 10, 2016
Larry Fleming

So, Walker Valley and Ooltewah meet again.

Just two weeks after the two Region 4-5A rivals clashed in Cleveland and the Owls run away with a 63-35 rout of the Mustangs.

After each team posted first-round victories, they are pitted Friday night in a second-round Class 3A football playoff showdown at James. N. Monroe Stadium on the Ooltewah campus. Game time is 7 p.m. and admission is $8.

The Mustangs-Owls battle is one of 11 games involving 14 Chattanooga-area schools on the dance card (see schedule below) with third-round berths on the TSSAA brackets at stake. Not many match teams that played in the regular-season finale are squaring off again two weeks later.

“We’ve told our players the scripts never play out the same way,” Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said at Thursday’s practice session. “It’s a different game when you kick it off and you have to make plays to make things go your way.

“We really haven’t talked much about it being a rematch as much as just the next game we play.”

Ooltewah (9-2) hopes the game develops the same way the first one played out.

Walker Valley (7-4), not so much.

The Owls defeated the Mustangs 63-35 by rushing for a whopping 548 yards. Quarterback Collin Thurman threw for 120 yards, giving Ooltewah 668 yards of total offense.

Running back Cameron Turner rushed for 310 yards and his runningmate, Sincere Quinn, added 210 and the backfield tandem combined for seven touchdowns.

Thurman was asked if the Owls, who have won six straight games, expect a different defensive approach from the Mustangs this week.

“If I were them,” he said, “I’d try and stop the run.”

In a 35-27 upset of Oak Ridge last week, the Mustangs held the Wildcats to 226 yards rushing and 166 passing. Conversely, pass-happy Walker Valley quarterback Kolten Gibson threw for 301 yards and the ground attack added 173.

Gibson completed 19 of 32 passes with one interception. He rushed for 112 yards and two scores. Cooper Melton caught seven passes for 150 yards.

Ooltewah opened the playoffs with a 51-14 rout of Campbell County, with Turner putting 128 yards rushing and two TDs. While Quinn had only 34 yards rushing, he managed to score twice as well.

Turner, a senior, has 945 yards rushing on the season and averages 6.8 yards per carry. Quinn, a sophomore, has gained 759 yards for a whopping 9.9 yards per carry and each has 14 touchdowns.

Turner expects Walker Valley to put more defenders in the box with the hopes of forcing the Owls to the air.

“Our passing game is good and we’ve got receivers and a quarterback that can make plays,” he said. “If they slow our run game down, I’m confident the passing can get the job done. And we run a lot of scat plays, so the backs can be helpful with the passing game too.”

Ooltewah has five players with at least 100 receiving yards.

Junior Andrew Manning leads the way with 27 catches for 589 yards and five touchdowns. He averages 21.8 yards each time he catches the ball and has had only one drop the entire season. Junior Cam Chambers has turned 24 receptions into 341 yards and four scores.

Sophomore Tahj Cargle has 324 yards and three TDs, Turner 159 yards and Quinn 106.

“If (Walker Valley) puts more guys in the box, we’ve got enough balance to hurt them with the passing,” Quinn said. “As for running though, all we have to do is follow the blocks, read the holes and do what we do.”

Added Thurman, who has thrown for 1,691 yards and 15 touchdowns: “If they don’t load the box, we’ll do what we do and that’s run the football. If they do load the box, we haven’t really shown a lot in the passing game and we’ve got a lot more in our arsenal that we can throw at them. I’m not worried about it.”

Bryan said the Owls’ balance has been consistent this season – about 56 percent running to 44 percent passing. In the past, passing has been more dominant, something like 60 percent.

A couple games this year when the Owls had great success on the ground has skewed the numbers in that direction, the coach pointed out.

Bryan, 39-9 in four seasons at Ooltewah, believes both teams will stick primarily with the schemes they’ve used throughout the season, with possibly a few wrinkles thrown in for good measure.

“At this time of the year, this is week 13 and the 12^th game, you’re not going to overhaul the offense and defense a whole lot,” he said. “I don’t know what adjustments they might make, but I do know they have a potent offense and they’re coming off a tremendous win over Oak Ridge and that was a good win for them and our region.

“They’re a good football team now and they were a good football team two weeks ago. The quarterback (Gibson) is dynamic and their skill players out wide can make plays. The first time they snapped the ball against in the earlier game they put seven points on the board.”

As for the team’s defense, the Owls gave up 140 points in their first five games, including games of 55 and 47 points.

In the second five, the points allowed number was 72, including one shutout and two other games when opponents scored six and seven points. The two highest totals in that stretch were 24 points by Cleveland and Walker Valley’s 35.

In the playoff opener, Campbell County failed to score in the final 24 minutes and 47 seconds.

“In the second half the first time we played them, coach talked about the defense leveraging their offense,” said junior linebacker Jaylin Rogers, who leads the Owls with 64.5 tackles along with nine tackles for loss, 14 quarterback pressures, three passes broken up and three forced fumbles.

“If we do that again, then we can get harts to the ball.”

Senior defensive lineman William Whitson says the Owls have been approaching the Mustangs all week as if the teams never played during the season.

Players are not overconfident.

They won’t underestimate the Mustangs.

“It surprised some of us they beat Oak Ridge,” said Whitson, who has 57.5 tackles. 13 for loss, 21 pressures, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. “We know they can score points. We made mistakes and missed tackles in the first half against them two weeks ago, but if we clean that up we’ll be good.”

The Mustangs put up 28 second-quarter points against Oak Ridge after allowing the Wildcats to score 20 in the first quarter. Walker Valley won despite not scoring in the second half.

In the final regular season game of 2015, Walker Valley pushed Ooltewah into double overtime before falling 45-44 when the Mustangs' two-point conversion play failed by 1 yard.

So, fans should arrive at Jim Jarvis Field not knowing what to expect Friday night.

2016 TSSAA Football Playoffs

First-Round Results (Nov. 4)

Class 6A

Bradley Central 29, Cookeville 25

Class 5A

Ooltewah 51, Campbell County 14

Walker Valley 35, Oak Ridge 27

Farragut 40, McMinn County 21

Rhea County 45, Lenoir City 7

Class 4A

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