If the Bradley Central Bear football team were a jigsaw puzzle coming into the 2019 campaign, there was a certain amount of uncertainty as to whether head coach Damon Floyd would find himself searching for that one final piece to complete it.
The tailback piece was there, the wide receiver pieces were scattered everywhere, the veteran offensive line was a checkmark, and the defense had enough pieces to almost complete it.
And then McCallie transfer Javin Burke walked onto campus and Floyd magically had the final piece as if it was just lying there on the floor. And what a finished product this puzzle has turned out to be thus far.
The cleats two-time all-state quarterback Dylan Standifer left behind upon graduation weren’t just any cleats, but Burke isn’t just another foot as a packed house at Ooltewah’s Benny Monroe Stadium witnessed firsthand Friday night.
Burke was sensational, triggering a Bear offense on scoring drives in their first six possessions, to put away a bad memory against the host Owls with a big 54-28 Region 2-6A triumph that should have defenses across the state starting to lose some sleep.
Burke ran for a pair of scores, passed for four others, and completed 16 of his 24 tosses for 272 yards. He also added 93 rushing yards despite taking 24 yards in losses on a pair of kneel downs at the end and a snapped ball that sailed over his head.
“(Javin) has a lot of talent, that’s for sure. He is literally a dual-threat guy who has a lot of weapons at his disposal, and he knows how to use them. He’s accurate with his passes, has an impressive arm, and when he tucks it and runs, he’s probably one of the fastest guys we’ve ever had. He’s definitely one of the fastest in the state. I’m not sure what we did to deserve it, but I thank my lucky stars every day when I realize he fell into our laps,” said Floyd after the win.
Burke transferred in from McCallie to join his younger brother Javon on the Bears roster, and has thrown 11 TD passes with no interceptions over the last four wins since losing the season opener to perennial power Farragut. In that span, he has been on target 43 of 63 times for 826 yards.
“We’ve just come out with the mindset that every game is a big game for us and we are going to treat it that way. We work every day to get better, and honestly, we go out with the intention of scoring every time we get the ball. There’s really no reason not to,” said Burke.
The Owls certainly can attest to that. Bradley opened the game with four straight 80-yard drives with Burke engineering them flawlessly. The opening drive went 80 on 15 plays before Burke surged from the 2. The next 80-yard drive only took five plays, this time Burke taking a QB draw to the house up the middle from 40. On the third drive, it took just four plays before Burke found Saylor Clark wide open down the middle on a 62-yard catch-and run.
Even when something went wrong for Burke, it turned out well. Just before half, Burke dropped back to pass and was hit and fumbled. Tailback Ricky McCleary picked up the loose ball and took it the house from 30 yards with 34 seconds left in the half.
Of course, it wasn’t all the Burke show thanks to an Ooltewah offense that stood toe-to-toe, trading TD blow after TD blow in a wild first half. Up until a wild finish just before the half, it looked as if it would be last man standing with the ball as far as victory.
The Owls answered the first three scores with one of their own thanks to a herculean effort from tailback Jaequan Greenhill. The senior back rushed it 24 times for 204 yards and scored all four of the Owl TDs on runs of 44, 8, 13 and 23. His 13-yard score with 2:10 left before the half, knotted it at 21-all, but it also left plenty of time for that Bear offense. Not that it needed time.
McCleary’s fumble scoop and score was quickly followed by a fumble recovery from by Brandon Cruz at the Owls’ 27 with 27 seconds left. After a penalty and an incomplete pass, Burke scrambled around as the halftime horn sounded before finding Kanon Hall with an absolute dart in the end zone from 35 yards away to give the Bears a huge momentum swing.
“That fumble by our defense, really got us going. It was huge. On the play, I just ran around trying to find an open spot and my defender fell down, so I raised my hand and next thing I know it was there and we had another TD,” said Hall, who caught eight such passed for 164 yards and three scores.
“I think that score at the half really changed things because it was back-and-forth, and being down two scores made them probably change their game plan some,” said Floyd. “I just know we weren’t going to let up in the second half after what happened last year.”
And that was a wise move especially in light of the fact Ooltewah scored the game’s final 21 points to shock the Bears last year.
After forcing the Owls to punt for the first time on the opening drive of the second half, Burke kept it for a 22-yard gain and then effortlessly flicked his wrist on 27-yard score to Tray Curry in the end zone for a 40-21 lead. The two teams then swapped punts (a rarity indeed) before Ooltewah showed it wasn’t quite down for the count. Greenhill burst through the same hole Christian Benoit and Tre Johnson opened up time and again on the night, taking it the final 23 yards to cut it to 40-28.
There would be no miracle rally on this night, though, as the Bears opened the fourth period with a halfback pass from Curry to Hall that went for 32 yards and the score, and Burke slung a final dagger with his 46-yard bomb to Hall with 1:34 to push Bradley over the 50-mark for the third time this year.
“I didn’t get to play in the game last year because of an ankle injury, so tonight was important for me, but even more important for my teammates. We can do a lot of things with this offense,” said Curry, the D-I prospect.
Added Hall: “Javin has come in and just fit right in. He can do so much, and when we’ve got team’s double covering Curry all over the place, and playing it close with Javin’s ability to run, I just ran a bunch of wind sprints tonight, and found the ball.”
The Bears wound up with 521 yards of offense and have averaged 56 points in the four straight wins. They will take off next week and ready for crosstown rival Cleveland in two weeks. Ooltewah will regroup and travel to Soddy-Daisy next Friday in a non-region affair.
Aside from Greenhill’s big night, Tucker Miller had seven catches for 90 yards. Kam Arrowood had an interception for the Bears.
STATS
BRADLEY CENTRAL 7 27 6 14 – 54
OOLTEWAH 7 14 7 0 – 28
BC – Javin Burke 2 run (Isaac Vaughn kick) (4:46, 1st)
OO – Jaequan Greenhill 44 run (Braeden Haynes kick) (1:42, 1st)
BC – Javin Burke 40 run (Isaac Vaughn kick) (11:40, 2nd)
OO – Jaequan Greenhill 8 run (Braeden Haynes kick) (6:35, 2nd)
BC – Saylor Clark 62 pass from Javin Burke (Isaac Vaughn kick) (4:22, 2nd)
OO – Jaequan Greenhill 13 run (Braeden Haynes kick) (2:10, 2nd)
BC – Ricky McCleary 30 fumble run (Isaac Vaughn kick) (0:34, 2nd)
BC – Kanon Hall 27 pass from Javin Burke (kick failed) (0:00, 2nd)
BC – Tray Curry 27 pass from Javin Burke (kick blocked) (8:28, 3rd)
OO – Jaequan Greenhill 23 run (Braedn Haynes kick) (0:37, 3rd)
BC – Kanon Hall 32 pass from Tray Curry (Isaac Vaughn kick) (10:48, 4th)
BC – Kannon Hall 46 pass from Javin Burke (Isaac Vaughn kick) (1:34, 4th)
BC STATS OO
25 1st Downs 19
34-217 Rush 32-285
304 Pass 132
521 Total 417
16-25-0 Passes 12-18-1
6-55 Penalties 9-85
1-22.0 Punts 2-37.5
1-0 Fumbles 1-1
Individual Stats
Rushing: Javin Burke 14-93, Ricky McCleary 12-52, Tray Curry 6-32, Javon Burke 2-37 (BC); Jaequan Greenhill 24-204, Jordan Green 4-52, Lane Moore 3-22 (OO).
Passing: Javin Burke 16-24-0 272 yards, Tray Curry 1-1-0 32 yards (BC); Lane Moore 12-18-1 132 yards (OO).
Receiving: Kanon Hall 8-164, Tray Curry 3-47, Saylor Clark 2-76, Karter Howard 2-17 (BC); Tucker Miller 7-90, Fisher Perry 2-2Jaequan Greenhill 2-7 (OO).
Records: Bradley Central (4-1, 2-0 Region 2-6A), Ooltewah (1-3, 1-2 Region 6-2A)
(Contact James Beach via email at 1134james@gmail.com or Twitter @beachnut1134)