Ooltewah's Kyrell Sanford takes it around the end being pursued by East Hamilton's Adam Caudle
photo by Stephen Kenney
Quarterback Kyrell Sanford ran for three touchdowns, Ooltewah’s defense came up with four turnovers and the Owls continued their dominance of East Hamilton with a convincing 37-0 non-region victory Friday night at Larry Henry Stadium.
Sanford scored on runs of 11, 1 and 2 yards and gained 58 yards on 11 carries to key the Owls’ rushing attack that wore down the Hurricanes’ defensive unit as the game, played before a near capacity crowd, wore on.
“Kyrell is special,” Owls coach Scott Chandler said. “He’s able to throw the ball and run it and he’s hard to get a hold of and that’s good for us.”
Sanford went 13 for 17 with 149 yards and no interceptions in another sterling performance. He completed passes to six different receivers and Fisher Perry was the favorite target: six receptions for 90 yards.
“We came out and didn’t have any tempo at all and I didn’t like that,” Sanford said. “We came back later and started executing better and kept it rolling. Late in the third quarter they started arguing and it was clear we were in their heads and frustrating them. As the game went to the fourth quarter, we started picking up 5 yards every time and that broke them.”
Sanford was gushing about how the Owls’ defense throttled the Hurricanes’ offense from start to finish.
“The defense showed up tonight way before the offense and I love it,” he said. “We need that from the defense every single Friday night and the offense has to pick it up.”
Ooltewah (3-1) has won six straight against the Hurricanes (2-2) and outscored them 242-43 in the winning streak. Overall, the Owls lead the series 8-1, with East Hamilton’s lone win coming in the 2013 playoffs.
Friday marked the Owls’ second consecutive shutout and East Hamilton has managed just 17 points in the last five meetings.
Controlling every facet of the rivalry game, Ooltewah ran 54 plays for 291 total yards while the Hurricanes managed just 70 yards on 40 plays. Devontay Tipton was East Hamilton’s most effective runner, picking up 46 yards on 19 carries.
Quarterback Kyler Johnson failed to complete any of his three passes.
East Hamilton managed just five first downs.
Ooltewah’s Josiah High, Elijah Isaac and Jaquan Greenhill each recovered fumbles and T.J. Taylor intercepted a pass and returned it 82 yards to set up the Owls’ second touchdown.
“Defensively, we played our hearts out,” said Isaac, a senior defensive lineman. “We wanted to hit them in the mouth and hit them hard every single snap. They really got frustrated later in the game. We had them covered all over the field.
“Like the one play where one of guys smacked a pass and another one (Taylor) intercepted the ball. It’s not easy to throw on our guys and the up-front guys did a good job getting after their runners.”
East Hamilton’s deepest penetration into Ooltewah territory was to the 24 early in the third quarter. The Hurricanes got possession at Ooltewah 40 after a punt, but on a third-and-8 play at the 24, Isaac came up with his clutch fumble recovery.
Chandler, the team’s defensive coordinator, worked his unit hard during the week to go against the Hurricanes’ triple option attack. There was little room for East Hamilton’s backs to operate, and nothing even resembling good running lanes.
“They run that triple option and you have to be good stopping all three phases – the quarterback, dive and pitch,” Chandler said. “They’ve been heavy with the dive and quarterback and that’s what we planned most for, and then we wanted to rally to the pitch. We defended it well and late in the third and fourth quarters they got in the spread and had a little more success.
“I was afraid they might pop the dive a few times because it’s hard for the defensive ends to squeeze all the time. They see everything else coming at them and they want to get wide. But the D-ends did a great job and the middle linebacker held up in there. Overall, we executed the game plan really well.”
Sincere Quinn got the Ooltewah scoring parade started with a 2-yard TD run, capping a 13-yard, five-play drive that was set up when Josiah High recovered a Kyler Johnson fumble.
On the Owls’ next possession, Sanford connected with Fisher on a 23-yard touchdown strike, but an ineligible receiver downfield negated the play. Place-kicker Braeden Haynes salvaged the drive with a 44-yard field goal, giving Ooltewah a 10-0 lead with 1:13 left in the opening quarter.
Sanford began his attack on the East Hamilton end zone with an 11-yard scoring burst with 4:44 left in the second quarter. The Owls went to the locker room at halftime with a 17-0 advantage.
That scoring opportunity was put in motion when Taylor came out of a cluster of players on the Ooltewah sideline with the interception and rambled to inside East Hamilton 10 on a brilliant return.
The Owls’ quarterback struck again on a 1-yard TD run with 4:44 remaining in the third quarter, capping a 69-yard, eight-play drive.
Sanford capped his 18-point performance with a 2-yard burst with 4:51 left in the game, 10 plays and 88 yards after defensive lineman Elijah Isaac’s fumble recovery. The Owls’ lead ballooned to 30-7.
On East Hamilton’s next offensive play after Sanford’s third TD, Jaquan Greenhill pounced on another East Hamilton fumble and Ooltewah was back in business at its own 31.
With reserves handling the last drive, quarterback Lane Moore engineered a 69-yard drive in six plays with Greenhill scoring from 13 yards out with 86 seconds remaining.
Note: Tensions were even high in the press box at Friday’s game. Several fans complained about the music and how loud it was blaring out over the public address system.
A woman voiced her displeasure to the PA guy, things got heated. The PA guy came out of the press box and confronted a male fan and told the man, “You people better know your places.”
The complaining male left the stands. The PA guy went back into the press box and, apparently furious about the confrontations, packed up his sound system and went home.
An East Hamilton fan took over and things ran smoothly the rest of the game.
Scoring Summary
Ooltewah 10 7 6 14 – 37
East Hamilton 0 0 0 0 – 0
First Quarter
OL – Sincere Quinn 2 run (Braeden Haynes kick), 8:45
OL – FG Haynes 44, 1:13
Second Quarter
OL –Kyrell Sanford 11 run (Haynes kick), 4:44
Third Quarter
OL – Sanford 1 run (kick failed), 5:04
Fourth Quarter
OL – Sanford 2 run (Haynes kick), 4:51
OL – Jaquan Greenhill 14 run (Haynes kick), 1:26
YARDSTICK
OL EH
First Downs 14 5
Rushes-Yds 36-132 37-70
Passing Yards 159 0
Comp-Att-Yds 14-18-0 0-3-1
Plays-Total Yds 54-291 40-70
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-3
Punts-Avg 4-21.0 5-36.0
Penalties-Yds 5-40 5-50
INDIVIDUALS
RUSHING – Ooltewah: Kyrell Sanford 11-58, Sincere Quinn 13-28, Tylan Cargle 7-25, Jaquan Greenhill 2-17, Lane Moore 2-6, Kamrin Givens 1-minus 2; East Hamilton: Devontay Tipton 19-46, Marko Dozier 5-23, Bobby Parker 1-3, Kyler Johnson 12-minus 2.
PASSING – Ooltewah: Sanford 13-17-0-149, Moore 1-1-0-10; East Hamilton: Johnson 0-1-1-0.
RECEIVING – Ooltewah: Fisher Perry 6-90, S. Quinn 3-25, T.J. Taylor 1-22, Quentin Ingram 1-11, Jason Tabor 1-10, Tahj Cargle 1-10; East Hamilton: none.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)