Perennial state championship contender Maryville rolled past Bradley Central 31-7 Friday night behind four rushing touchdowns by Dylan Hopkins and captured the Region 2-6A regular season title at Skeeter Shields Stadium.
Hopkins, the Rebels’ quarterback, scored on runs of 1, 41, 6 and 10 yards while rushing for 93 yards on 14 carries against the Bears’ proud defense.
Through the air Hopkins was 16 for 19 for 197 yards with no interceptions. He was sacked once.
The sterling performance by Hopkins helped the Rebels pile up 448 total yards on 59 snaps, a 7.6-yard average per play, and to snap the Bears’ eight-game winning streak. Bradley hadn’t lost since suffering a 27-21 overtime loss to Farragut, the 2016 Class 5A state champion.
Bradley, which trails in the Maryville series 6-7-2 and has lost the last five meetings, was held to 254 yards of offense, just 69 on the ground.
With the win, the Rebels (9-1, 6-0) nailed down the region’s No. 1 seed going into next week’s TSSAA state playoffs. Maryville, which hasn’t lost a district/region game since 2000, entertains Bearden (6-4) in the first round.
Coach Damon Floyd’s Bears will host Science Hill (7-3) to start the playoffs.
Ooltewah (5-5), the No. 4 team out of Region 2, travels to Dobyns-Bennett and No. 3 Cleveland (7-3) goes to Farragut (8-2). Ooltewah beat Heritage 45-7 and Cleveland edged McMinn County 42-38 to close out their regular season play.
All playoff games start at 7 p.m. local time.
Bradley quarterback Dylan Standifer, who has sizzled offensively all season, was 17 for 31 for 185 yards with no touchdowns and two sacks. Standifer also was the team’s leading rusher with 34 yards on 11 carries and scored the lone touchdown on a 1-yard run in the second quarter.
The Bears had averaged 38.4 points per game during their impressive winning streak.
Standout wide receiver Lameric Tucker caught six passes for 55 yards, but was kept out of the end zone all night. Saylor Clark was the Bears’ leading receiver with seven catches for 71 yards.
But the game belonged to Maryville, which has claimed a record 15 state championship, one more than Alcoa, and once won four titles in a row from 2004-07.
Mason Mitchell paced the Bradley defense with nine tackles. Jeffrey Brewer and Hayden Owenby each had 7 ½ stops.
SCORING
Bradley Central 0 7 0 0 – 7
Maryville 14 3 7 7 – 31
First Quarter
MARY – Dylan Hopkins 1 run (Jack Cone kick), 10:24
MARY – Hopkins 41 run (Cone kick), 3:56
Second Quarter
BRAD – Dylan Standifer 1 run (Clay Shoemaker kick), 3:05
MARY – FG Cone 18, 0:04
Third Quarter
MARY – Hopkins 6 run (Cone kick), 7:00
Fourth Quarter
MARY – Hopkins 10 run (Cone kick), 7:18
YARDSTICK
BRAD MARY
First Downs 13 22
Rushes-Yds 27-69 40-251
Passing Yards 185 197
Comp-Att-Int 17-31-0 19-19-0
Plys-Tot Yds 58-254 59-448
Fumbles-Lost 4-1 1-1
Punts-Avg 4-32.5 2-19.5
Penalties-Yds 12-96 7-71
INDIVIDUALS
RUSHING – Bradley Central: Dylan Standifer 11-34, Nick Howell 13-30, Adam Mullis 2-7, Team 1 minus-2; Maryville: Dylan Hopkins 14-93 B. Teffeteller 5-55, Travonis Hodge 8-38, Isaiah Cobb 6-28, Trace Parris 4-16, C. Markham 2-14, Sean Ward 1-7.
PASSING – Bradley Central: 17-3-1-0-185; Maryville: Hopkins 16-19-0-197.
RECEIVING – Bradley Central: Saylor Clark 7-71, Lameric Tucker 6-55, Stephen Muhonen 3-47, Howell 1-10; Maryville: A.J. Davis 7-76, Markham 3-36, Byron Brown 2-41, Blake Watson 2-33, Cobb 2-11.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)