Soddy Daisy quarterback Slater Hickman went back to his days of drawing plays in the dirt and basically telling his receivers to get open and it paid off in a big way Friday night on the Trojans’ home field.
In a battle of teams trying to find their way, the Trojans got a pair of big special team plays and two Hickman specials and it provided just enough for the men of troy to slip past the visiting Ooltewah Owls by the tune of 31-23 in a non-region affair.
“I’ve been working with these receivers since we were kids, and they never give up.
When they see me scrambling back there they go to open spots. Tonight was fun slinging it around,” said Hickman who completed 17 of 25 tosses for 323 yards and a trio of scores.
Added head coach Justin Barnes: “It’s hard to cover those guys for five and six seconds, and Slater bought them the time. There’s not a lot of kids who can make that throw across the field like he did.”
Two of the TD tosses were things of beauty. The first was a 25-yard throwback across the field after scrambling out of the pocket with a heavy rush on, and Barnes assertion was spot on. The ball was thrown across his body to a wide open Eli Coffelt on third down and it easily covered 40 yards with a flick of his wrist just before the first quarter ended to put the Trojans up 11-0 at that point.
The second one came when he was flushed again to his right, tucked it all the way back to the line of scrimmage before finding a streaking Braden Dodd for 60-yard score late in the third period to make it 31-14.
“Those guys just know what to do and they are pretty good at it,” Hickman grinned as the alma mater was being played by the band and his teammates celebrated victory nearby.
It has been a rough go in 2021 for both the Owls and the Trojans, and notching the win was an important step for Soddy Daisy in making a playoff push with its second win in eight outings.
“For whatever reason we laid an egg last week at East Hamilton. We have good kids and we challenged them this week. Things have not gone well for us, and not just this year, and it’s easy to develop bad attitudes. I had to work on mine this week as the leader of this team and we worked hard to fix some things. We took a big step tonight. We haven’t beaten those guys very often, and I’ve only done it twice in my nine years here,” Barnes lamented.
The Owls, in fact, could almost always count on Soddy daisy games to right the ship, having won all but three of the last 20 outings against them coming into last night. And despite giving up two blocked punts for scores and having seven dropped passes on the night, Ooltewah was in until the end.
“The frustrating part is we compete, but we don’t always execute. We didn’t show up in the first or third quarters. But if we just execute on a few of the plays tonight, things are different. The blocked punts, the dropped passes, sometimes things just snowball for us, but we have to figure out a way to play four quarters,” said first-year Owl boss Goose Manning.
The Trojans jumped to an early 11-0 lead thanks to a Jackson Voiles 24-yard field goal on their first drive, and a Kayden Phillips’ block of an Ooltewah punt through the back of the end zone. Hickman’s magic provided the other TD before the Owls finally found paydirt early in the second period.
Jordan Green slipped through for a five-yard score to slow the Trojan roll, but Hickman found Coffelt again in the middle of the end zone on the ensuing possession to make it 18-7. The Owls got hat one back in a hurry as AJ Robinson, who was equally impressive calling the signals for the Ooltewah, hit Tacoda Jones on a nine-yard strike just 4:04 before the half and make it a one score affair.
Soddy Daisy marched down the field, but stalled inside the 10 and Ooltewah was able to get a tip on the field goal try just enough to push it wide of the uprights. The Owls then raced 70 yards down the field in the final minute and had a chance to take the lead, but two dropped passes in the end zone, including a wide open one on fourth down ended the half.
“I think that drive at the end of the half really carried over to start the second half, and we got punched again in the third quarter,” Manning said of the momentum change.
Ooltewah had just 13 total yards in the period and one first down, and when Phillips broke through and blocked his second punt late in the quarter, Justice Grier was there to pick it up and scoot in for a score. The Trojans forced another punt before Hickman found Dodd all alone for the 60-yard connection.
Robinson wasn’t done, though, getting two big drives in the final period, the first ending in a TD on a dart to Reggie Knight for a 40-yard score to pull within 31-20. With the scoreboard clock against them, he drove them down once more to set up Garrett Rigsby’s 24-yard field goal with 1:15 left.
Ooltewah got it one more time, but with just a few seconds left made it to midfield before being tackled on a desperation play. Robinson completed 22 passes for 299 yards, but would have had more without the seven drops. Christian Doty caught 10 of them for 166 yards and tailback Takoda Jones had 88 rushing yards as Ooltewah put up 428 total yards.
Soddy Daisy was held to just 62 rushing yards on 32 attempts, but had five receivers with 50 or more yards. Lane had eight catches for 96 yards, Coffelt added three for 59, Tanner Whittenbarger had three for 56, and Dodd had 59 on his two catches. Trevor Alexander also hauled in one for 59 yards.
Soddy Daisy will host Hixson next week, while Ooltewah will travel to Brainerd.
Stats
OOLTEWAH 0 14 0 9 – 23
SODDY DAISY 11 7 13 0 – 31
SD – Jackson Voiles 24 field goal (5:48, 1st)
SD – Kayden Phillips blocked punt out of end zone (4:07, 1st)
SD – Eli Coffelt 25 pass from Slater Hickman (Pass failed) (0:50, 1st)
OO – Jordan Green 5 run (Garrett Rigsby kick) (10:34, 2nd)
SD – Eli Coffelt 19 pass from Slater Hickman (Jackson Voiles kick) (6:58, 2nd)
OO – Takoda Jones 9 pass from AJ Robinson (Garrett Rigsby kick) (4:01, 2nd)
SD – Justice Grier 7 yard return of blocked punt (Jackson Voiles kick) (5:38, 3rd)
SD – Braden Dodd 60 pass from Slater Hickman (kick blocked) (3:00, 3rd)
OO – Reggie Knight 40 pass from AJ Robinson (kick failed) (6:27, 4th)
OO – Garrett Rigsby 24 field goal (1:15, 4th)
Oo STATS SD
17 1st Downs 10
24-129 Rush 32-62
299 Pass 323
428 Total 385
22-41-0 Passes 17-25-0
3-27 Penalties 6-38
2-0 Fumbles 2-0
Individual Stats
Rushing: Takoda Jones 12-88, Reggie Knight 3-15 (OO); Tanner Whittenbarger 23-44, Slater Hickman 9-9 (SD).
Passing: AJ Robinson 22-41-0 299 yards (O); Slater Hickman 17-25-0 323 yards (SD).
Receiving: Christian Doty 10-166, Quincy Harvey 4-30, Reggie Knight 2-46 (O): Trevor Alexander 1-59, Gavin Lane 8-96, Eli Coffelt 3-59, Tanner Whittenbarger 3-56, Braden Dodd 2-59 (SD).
Records: Ooltewah (1-6); Soddy Daisy (2-6).
(Contact James Beach via email at 1134james@gmail.com or Twitter @beachnut1134)