Bradley Rallies In Second To Beat Soddy-Daisy 38-28

Tucker, Standifer, Defense Power Bears' Comeback

  • Thursday, October 5, 2017
  • Larry Fleming
Bradley Central's senior linebacker Jay Person (1) bears down on Soddy-Daisy running back Brandon Davis during their non-region game Thursday night at Soddy-Daisy. Davis rushed for 102 yards, but the visiting Bears won 38-28 with a strong comeback in the second half.
Bradley Central's senior linebacker Jay Person (1) bears down on Soddy-Daisy running back Brandon Davis during their non-region game Thursday night at Soddy-Daisy. Davis rushed for 102 yards, but the visiting Bears won 38-28 with a strong comeback in the second half.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Bradley Central’s Lameric Tucker powered a second-half rally with two touchdown receptions, one a 76-yard bomb, and the Bears overcame a 28-13 halftime deficit to beat Soddy-Daisy, 38-28, at Robert Talaska Field on Thursday night.

With the comeback Bradley Central (6-1) has now beaten the Trojans six straight times for a 23-14 edge in the series.

“I’m proud of all the guys the way we came back,” Tucker said.

“We handled adversity and stuck together even though we were down two scores in the first half. Win or lose, coach (Damon Floyd) wanted us to go out there and fight our hardest and play some football.”

The Bears, who have won six in a row after dropping the season opener to defending state champion Farragut, 27-21 in overtime, played the second half as well as Soddy-Daisy did in the first half when the Trojans (4-3) built a 28-13 halftime lead.

“We’ve yet to play a full game,” Trojans coach Justin Barnes said. “Even when we won some early games we struggled at some point in the game. That’s very frustrating. You see glimmers of excellence and think you’re turning the corner. Then we have 11 guys trying to play as individuals in a team sport.

“That leads to busted coverages, blocked field goals, holding penalties and everything else. We looked like we would rather have been somewhere else tonight in the second half.”

The Trojans spotted the Bears the first of two Clay Shoemaker field goals in the early going before quarterback Gavin Chambers went to work through the air. He hit Garrett Richardson on a 22-yard TD toss and hooked up with Ty Boeck on a 63-yard touchdown that produced a 14-3 first-quarter lead.

Boeck finished with 118 yards on four catches and Chambers was 26 for 33 for 231 yards with one interception.

Bradley quarterback Dylan Standifer, coming off a five-touchdown passing effort in a 49-14 win over McMinn County, found Saylor Clark on a 29-yard play that ended up in the end zone. Shoemaker followed with his second field goal.

Trojans running back Brandon Davis, who ran 14 times for 105 yards in the first half, scored from 14 yards out to put the Bears in a 21-13 hole – he was held to minus-3 yards in the second half

Less than two minutes later, Soddy-Daisy’s Ben Jenkins picked up a Standifer fumble at the 1 and stepped into the end zone with 3:32 left in the half.

“What we were doing in the first half was working,” Barnes said. “We knew they would make some adjustments and we had a few tweaks here and there. But we have this thing that when we are going good guys want to start doing their own things, like I was talking about earlier. We lose our focus and the ability to play a full game.”

For Bradley, it was a completely different ballgame after intermission.

Before the break, the Bears drove to Soddy-Daisy’s 16. Following an incomplete pass, Bradley was slapped with holding and personal foul penalties and the ball was moved back to near midfield.

The Bears faced a third-and-42. Standifer hit Tucker for a 36-yard gainer, but Standifer missed his next throw and the Bears turned the ball over on downs.

Soddy-Daisy, which lost two previous games by a combined two points, drove 75 yards in seven plays with Davis going 14 yards for a 21-13 advantage. Jenkins came through with his clutch defensive gem to stretch the lead to 15 points.

So what happened during halftime when the Bears huddled in the open beyond the end zone?

“We had to come together because if we didn’t we were going to lose this game,” said senior linebacker Jay Person, who had a team-high eight tackles, two for losses. “But, honestly, the coaches didn’t make a lot of adjustments. We just started getting to the ball and making more tackles than in the first half.”

Adam Mullis, who rushed for 112 yards on 17 carries, rambled 10 yards to start Bradley’s second-half rally 1 minute and 52 seconds into the third quarter.

Tucker stunned the Trojans with the 76-yard score and came back three minutes later with his 4-yard TD reception that gave the Bears a 32-28 lead.

“At the half, me and a few of the guys talked,” said Tucker, who has 40 catches for 957 yards and nine TDs on the season. “I said, ‘Hey, this is not a region game, but I know we want to win. If you’re competitive you want to win this game.’ It was important to the seniors because it’s the last time we’ll play Soddy-Daisy.”

Bradley wrapped things up early in the fourth quarter when Standifer flipped a short pass to Stephen Muhonen, who turned it into a 40-yard touchdown play.

It was Muhonen’s second career touchdown. His first score, a 15-yard reception, came last week in a 49-14 win over McMinn County.

Standifer, who threw for five touchdowns against the Cherokees, added four more in Thursday’s win, going 16 for 26 for 355 yards. Tucker caught eight passes for 191 yards, helping the Bears pile up 506 total yards of offense. Soddy-Daisy had 382 total yards.

Standifer, a junior, now has thrown for 1,870 yards with 19 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He has completed 103 of 147 passes for a sizzling 70.1 percent and is averaging 267 yards per game.

Still needing two scores, the Trojans drove 69 yards to the Bradley 12. Facing a third-and-11, the Chambers hit receiver Jarvis Smith, but the play gained only 4 yards.

Place-kicker Cooper Hamilton came on to try a 25-yard field goal, but Bradley’s Mason Mitchell broke through the line and blocked the kick with 3:48 left.

“That was huge,” Floyd said. “It kept the two-score lead. Give our guys credit because they kept playing. A lot of times, players will take a play off on a field goal, but ours didn’t.”

Mason had seven tackles in addition to the blocked kick. Jeffery Brewer and Parker Johnson each had five stops.

SCORING

Bradley Central                   3 10 19 6 – 38

Soddy-Daisy                       14 14 0 0 – 28

First Quarter

BC – FG Clay Shoemaker 29, 6:36

SD – Garrett Richardson 22 pass from Gavin Chambers (Cooper Hamilton kick), 3:59

SD – Ty Boeck 63 pass from Chambers (Hamilton kick), 1:34

Second Quarter

BC – Saylor Clark 29 pass from Dylan Standifer (Shoemaker kick), 10:39

BC – FG Shoemaker 29, 8:09

SD – Brandon Davis 14 run (Hamilton kick), 5:08

SD – Ben Jenkins 1 fumble recovery return (Hamilton kick), 3:28

Third Quarter

BC – Adam Mullis 10 run (Shoemaker kick), 10:08

BC – Lameric Tucker 76 pass from Standifer (pass failed), 6:18

BC – Tucker 4 pass from Standifer (run failed), 3:02

Fourth Quarter

BC – Stephen Muhonen 40 pass from Standifer (Shoemaker kick), 9:52

YARDSTICK

                                              BC                   SD

First Downs                           19                    20

Rushes-Yds                           26-151            29-123

Passing Yards                      355                 259

Comp-Att-Int                         16-26-0          27-34-1

Plys-Tot Yds                          52-506            63-282

Fumbles-Lost                        2-2                  1-1

Punts-Avg                              2-37                4-34

Penalties-Yds                        9-124              8-67

INDIVIDUALS

RUSHING – Bradley Central: Adam Mullis 17-112, Devon Moore 6-31, Lameric Tucker 1-11, Dylan Standifer 1-1, Team 1-minus 4; Soddy-Daisy: Brandon Davis 15-102, Ty Boeck 5-30, Gavin Chambers 5-0, Garrett Richardson 1-minus 4, Hayden Maynor 3-minus 5.

PASSING – Bradley Central: Standifer 16-26-0-355; Soddy-Daisy – Chambers 26-33-1-231, Spencer Gore 1-1-0-28: .

RECEIVING – Bradley Central: Tucker 8-191, Nick Howell 5-86, Stephen Muhonen 1-40, Saylor Clark 2-38; Soddy-Daisy: Boeck 4-118, Jarvis Smith 9-46, Beau Blaylock 5-40, Richardson 4-28, Hunter Burke 2-22, Maynor 1-4, Landen Reece 1-2, Davis 1-minus 1.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming)

Bradley Central wide receiver Lameric Tucker looks for running room Thursday in the Bears' 38-28 victory over Soddy-Daisy. Tucker had two touchdown catches in a 25-point comeback in the second half and finished with eight receptions for 191 yards.
Bradley Central wide receiver Lameric Tucker looks for running room Thursday in the Bears' 38-28 victory over Soddy-Daisy. Tucker had two touchdown catches in a 25-point comeback in the second half and finished with eight receptions for 191 yards.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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