The Notre Dame football express continues to roll on down the track and it appears the Fighting Irish are just picking up a little bit more steam.
Facing a 10-2 McMinn Central in the quarterfinal round of the TSSAA Class 3-A football playoffs at spacious Finley Stadium Friday night, Notre Dame did what they've been doing all year -- scoring early and often while limiting the other team to virtually nothing.
And for the umpteenth straight week, the mercy rule was in affect the entire second half as Notre Dame won for the 12th straight game with the 48-7 victory.
Friday's win sets up a huge semifinal clash with perennial state power Alcoa, which had to come from behind on Friday to beat CAK.
Notre Dame's offense has so many weapons that opposing teams aren't able to stop them all. The Fighting Irish like to run the football and have done so with impressive results as senior tailback Auston Banks has had a great year, but they also have a very talented quarterback named Alex Darras who just happens to have a pretty good arm.
Banks had another great game with 141 yards on just a dozen carries while scoring touchdowns on runs of 15 and 5 yards, but it was the junior gun-slinger who really put on a show with his right arm.
Darras completed 17 of 19 passes in the first half alone for 255 yards and four touchdowns and finished with 19 of 23 completions for 299 yards.
But in an important game against a really good McMinn Central team, the Fighting Irish were simply too much for the Chargers to handle.
"This isn't the end result that we wanted, but we can't forget the outstanding season we had," Charger coach Josh Goodin told his players shortly after the final horn sounded.
"Notre Dame has a great football team and we knew it would take the best came we could possibly play, but they played lights out. Their quarterback had all kinds of time to throw the ball, but we just didn't do what we needed to do to have a chance," Goodin added.
Notre Dame got the opening kickoff and took exactly 88 seconds to score when Banks zipped 15 yards for the first Fighting Irish touchdown.
The Irish actually scored on all seven of their first-half possessions, including six touchdowns and a 25-yard field goal by Rhys Robertson early in the second quarter.
The difference was 42-7 at the break.
Notre Dame coach Charles Fant has done an impressive job of putting together a team and a coaching staff that seems to perform better with each passing week. Friday night's performance was no exception.
"Back in the summer, we talked about needing a great leap more than a giant step, but it doesn't end here tonight," Fant told his team after they inched just a little bit closer to a possible state championship game at Tennessee Tech in two weeks.
"I think this is the first time we've advanced to the semis, but we're ready to go and we'll stick with the process that's gotten us to this point. We take what our defense gives us, but these guys found a way to put it away again.
"Alex Darras was unbelievable and I'm almost speechless, but our offense is very economical as they don't take much time to score, but we're clicking on all cylinders right now. They didn't exactly stop our running game, but tonight, the pass was open and we took advantage. But this was another great win for our program," Fant added.
Notre Dame's offense really put on a show in the first half, racking up 17 first downs while piling up 404 yards total offense.
Darras shared the wealth in the passing game as five receivers had at least one catch in the first half.
Kareem Orr was the leader with six catches for 128 yards while Anthony Flemister had seven catches for 74 yards, including TDs of 32 and 6 yards. Orr's longest play covered 58 yards in the final minute of the first half, moving the ball from the Notre Dame 37 to the McMinn Central 5. Banks scored on the next play.
Sophomore Patrick Johnson only had one catch, but it was good for a 37-yard touchdown.
And has been the case on more occasions than not, the Notre Dame defense got into the act as Kealey Green returned an interception three yards for a TD for the final touchdown of the game with just over three minutes left.
Green had an earlier interception that he returned from the Charger 37 to the 4 late in the game, but in the only possession all night, the Irish didn't score as subs had taken over by this point.
The Chargers scored their only touchdown of the game with 22 seconds left in the first quarter when quarterback Jackson Guy scored on a keeper from the 12.
But on a night when the stakes were high, that one touchdown was simply not nearly enough.
Notre Dame ended the game with 457 total yards while McMinn Central countered with 183.
The Irish had 310 yards passing and 147 on the ground while the Chargers had 132 through the air and 51 on the ground.
Guy was the leading rusher for McMinn Central with 37 yards on 11 attempts while Jackson Long and Luke Davis both had three receptions for the Chargers for 49 and 29 yards, respectively.
McMINN CENTRAL 7 0 0 0 -- 7
NOTRE DAME 20 22 0 6 -- 48
ND -- Auston Banks 15 run (Rhys Robertson kick), 10:32 left in first;
ND -- Anthony Flemister 32 pass from Alex Darras (Robertson kick), 7:49 left in first;
ND -- Flemister 6 pass from Darras (pass failed), 5:08 left in first;
MC -- Jackson Guy 12 run (David Bull kick), 0:22 left in first;
ND -- Robertson 25 field goal, 9:58 left in second;
ND -- Kareem Orr 30 pass from Darras (kick failed), 5:09 left in second;
ND -- Patrick Johnson 37 pass from Darras (kick failed), 3:53 left in second;
ND -- Banks 5 run (Robertson kick), 0:29 left in second;
ND -- Kealey Green 3 interception return (kick failed), 3:32 left in fourth.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)