Ralph Potter has been around the game of football for a long time, but he’s never seen a game quite like the one his McCallie Blue Tornado played Friday night against Montgomery Bell Academy.
Potter was a quarterback during his playing days, so offense comes pretty naturally to him and he’s won a bunch of games based on that aspect of the game alone.
His team finished Friday’s game at Spears Stadium with a healthy 348-157 advantage in total yards, but it was an unusual number of turnovers that spelled doom for the guys in Blue.
Final score was MBA 34, McCallie.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game quite like that with all of those turnovers. We’re lucky we only lost by 20,” Potter said at midfield following the hard-hitting contest.
“We had a total lack of competitive greatness on the turnovers with missed blocks and the like, but I don’t have any answers at this point. I thought we moved the ball well at times and we probably had more total yards, but I’ve never had a team with so many turnovers,” he added.
For the game, the Blue Tornado fumbled the ball six times and lost four. They also gave up three interceptions, all in the second half.
It didn’t take long for the Big Red to take control as Jake Herbstreit scooped up a DeAngelo Hardy fumble on McCallie’s first play and scampered six yards for the first touchdown with all of 10 seconds elapsed in the game.
A special teams blunder on McCallie’s next possession was costly as well as MBA’s Lucien Brunetti blocked a Blue Tornado punt that was returned by Hedges Hayworth for another TD.
It was 14-0 at the 4:04 mark of the first quarter following Alex Massad’s second PAT.
Another fumble recovery by MBA’s Ian Hall in the final minute of the opening stanza stopped a Blue Tornado drive at the MBA 12. It took just 10 plays for Patrick Wilk to find paydirt from the 8 as the lead was 21-0 with 7:43 left before halftime.
Yet another fumble recovery, this time by Cooper Maddox inside the final three minutes, led to a two-yard run by Jackson Hannah with 52 seconds showing and it looked like a blowout in the making with the visitors from Nashville owning a 27-0 lead.
McCallie came right back to score its first touchdown on the final play of the first half on a 29-yard pass from Hardy to Shannon Walker, who caught the ball in the right corner of the end zone off a deflection.
Hardy had a 19-yard run and then another completion of nine yards to Walker while a 15-yard face mask penalty also helped the Blue Tornado.
Both teams had touchdowns in the fourth quarter to finish out the game, but the damage had been done to determine the outcome long before intermission.
MBA coach Marty Euverard could only give praise to his team’s defense for that advantage in turnovers.
“We’ll eventually get there with our offense, but what a great job by our defense as they played their guts out,” the coach said after his team improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in region play.
“It’s never over when you’re playing that bunch, but we were in the right spot defensively. I thought we had a nice drive in the second quarter, but it’s nice to win a big region game like this on the road,” he added.
McCallie finished with 348 total yards, including 136 on the ground and 212 through the air.
B.J. Harris was the leader on the ground with 59 yards on 18 carries while Hardy added 45 on 11 attempts.
Walker was the leading receiver for the Blue Tornado with 88 yards on five catches while Thompson Byrd gained 56 yards on five catches, all in the second half.
Kristopher Bowman had one catch covering 60 yards in the first quarter, but it was negated three plays later by another lost fumble.
The Big Red finished with 157 total yards, including 93 on the ground and another 64 through the air.
Sam Dugan was the leading rusher with 43 yards on nine carries while Wilk was next with 25 yards on eight attempts.
Braden Myers was the leading receiver with two catches for 37 yards while Tye Herbstreit had two grabs for 15 and Joshua Meriwether another for 12 yards.
While Herbstreit, Hall, Graham Holzapfel and Maddox all had fumble recoveries for MBA, Hugh Sullivan had two interceptions and Jake Herbstreit another pick for the MBA defense.
Kameron Watson had the only interception for McCallie.
McCallie will be on the road next week to face Knoxville Webb.
MBA 14 13 0 7 -- 34
McCALLIE 0 7 0 7 -- 14
MBA – Jake Herbstreit 6 fumble return (Alex Massad kick), 11:50 left in first;
MBA – Hedges Hayworth return blocked punt for touchdown (Massad kick), 4:04 left in first;
MBA – Patrick Wilk 8 run (Massad kick), 7:43 left in second;
MBA – Jackson Hannah 2 run (kick failed), 0:52.4 left in second;
McC – Shannon Walker 29 pass from DeAngelo Hardy (Stone Roebuck kick), 0:00 left in second;
MBA – Sam Dugan 20 run (Massad kick), 11:51 left in fourth;
McC – B.J. Harris 1 run (Roebuck kick), 5:59 left in fourth.
YARDSTICK MBA McCALLIE
First Downs 7 16
Rushes-Yards 26-93 34-136
Passing Yards 64 212
Comp-Att-Int 5-10-1 11-17-3
Total Yards 157 348
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 6-4
Punts-Avg. 5-41.8 1-41.0
Penalties-Yards 7-69 3-19
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
Rushing For MBA: Patrick Wilk 8-25; William Tyrone 8-5; Sam Dugan 9-43; Brenden Harris 4-15.
Rushing For McCallie: B.J. Harris 18-59; DeAngelo Hardy 11-45; Shannon Walker 3-5; Stone Roebuck 3-15; Caleb Jones 1-7.
Receiving For MBA: Tye Herbstreit 2-15; Braden Myers 2-37; Joshua Meriwether 1-12.
Receiving For McCallie: Shannon Walker 5-88; Kristopher Bowman 1-60; Thompson Byrd 5-56; Kameron Watson 1-18.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)