CCS's Boo Carter gets wrapped up by a helmetless Brainerd Panther Friday night.
photo by Greg Davick
The second day of the Best of Preps high school football jamboree at Finley Stadium is now in the books.
Eight 20-minute “quarters” were played on Friday night.
There are times when it really is hard to decide who has the best team or who had the most outstanding performance as most coaches won’t run any of their trick plays and will give kids a chance to play who might not play much otherwise.
But after looking over Friday’s results, there’s no question that the most impressive team was McCallie.
The Blue Tornado, riding high after winning three straight D-II-AA state titles, played pretty flawless football as they got shutouts over Boyd Buchanan and Cleveland by scores of 14-0 and 7-0, respectively.
The Buccaneers, under legendary coach Gary Rankin for the first time, opened play with a 3-0 victory over Ooltewah while Cleveland notched a 7-0 win over the Owls in the second segment.
Marion County posted a 6-0 win over Soddy Daisy while Chattanooga Christian earned the other win with a 13-0 verdict over Marion.
The Brainerd Panthers battled to scoreless draws against both Soddy Daisy and Chattanooga Christian.
Eight more “games” will be played to wrap up this year’s event on Saturday night. The schedule will be posted at the bottom of this story.
BOYD BUCHANAN 3, OOLTEWAH 0: Senior Jacob Hutchson completed his first six passes to get the Buccaneers off on the right foot, but gave it up on downs after reaching the Ooltewah 29.
The Owls got runs of 16 and 17 yards from Takoda Jones and a pass play covering 14 yards from Ethan Lane to Darin Shannon for three first downs, but like the Buccaneers, gave it up on downs after moving to the Boyd Buchanan 11.
The Bucs then moved the ball down to the Ooltewah 11 as time became a factor and that’s when Ethan Lane booted a 28-yard field goal on the final play for the 3-0 win.
“It was okay, I guess,” Rankin said as he headed toward the sideline.
CLEVELAND 7, OOLTEWAH 0: The Blue Raiders showed they have the potential to move the ball on the ground as they piled up 127 yards during their quarter, 68 of it coming on a run by Grayson Merkel with just over eight minutes remaining.
That was the only score for either team.
McCALLIE 14, BOYD BUCHANAN 0: The Blue Tornado started off like their tails were on fire as they picked up first downs on five of their first six plays.
Jay St. Hilaire, the latest Canadian player at McCallie who is a strong-armed quarterback, completed a 16-yard pass to Carson Gentle on the first play while Tario Price gained 52 yards on six straight carries before scoring from the 1 with just under 15 minutes remaining.
Ja’Von McMahan got to show his stuff on McCallie’s next drive and he gained 42 yards on three trips, including a five-yarder for a TD with 6:26 left.
McCallie’s defense was also pretty stout as they limited Boyd Buchanan to negative two yards on three carries and three incomplete passes.
“That wasn’t bad,” McCallie coach Ralph Potter assessed.
“I think we’ve only had two scrimmages so far, so we just tried to treat this as one too. Our older kids need some time on the field, so they played most of that one.
“I’m pleased with what I saw, but I’m never satisfied,” he added.
McCALLIE 7, CLEVELAND 0: The Blue Tornado wasn’t quite as dominant in this one, but they still did more than enough to win.
St. Hilaire hooked up with Price on a 40-yard TD toss on McCallie’s first offensive play.
And despite some really nice throws downfield, the talented junior also three a pair of interceptions, the first to Jonathan Heralus and the second to Kit Hart.
“We had a tough time moving the ball, but were able to force two turnovers on defense. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do anything with either one,” said Cleveland coach Marty Wheeler.
“McCallie is a pretty good football team, but we just have to keep working to keep improving,” Wheeler added.
MARION CO. 6, SODDY DAISY 0: The Warriors are young and inexperienced in places, but they also have more than their share of talent that will only get better as time passes.
E.J. Wilson raced 73 yards on his only carry for the game’s only touchdown about six minutes in, but nobody else even came close.
“We have a bunch of young kids, but we also have 10 kids returning on both sides of the ball, so we’ll be okay,” said Tristan Chubb, the Marion County defensive coordinator.
“We just came out and competed and that’s what I wanted to see, but I also thought we showed a lot of enthusiasm, “ Chubb added.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 0, BRAINERD 0: It seems like there’s been a lot of pre-season hype about Boo Carter, but the talented CCS junior didn’t have a single carry in this one.
He had a couple of passes thrown his way, but his timing with new quarterback Jordan Gile was a bit off and nothing materialized there.
Carter did make his presence felt on defense where he intercepted a Panther pass from Jeremy Ferguson and returned it from the 45 to the 3, but was tackled before crossing into the end zone.
Ferguson did have one nice completion of 14 yards to Donovan Thomas, but that play was overshadowed by a personal foul penalty and the Panthers failed to score.
That marked the second 20-minute quarter where the Panthers were unable to score after battling to a scoreless draw with Soddy Daisy.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN 13, MARION CO. 0: Gile completed passes of 17 yards to Carter and 10 yards to A.J. Wallace, but it took a pair of runs by Javoris Havis to get the first score.
His first run of 22 yards got down to the 1 and he scored on the next play.
The Warriors had eight yards total offense, all on the ground, but punted three times as subs played most of the way.
CCS then scored on the final play of the quarter when Lane Travis hooked up with Conner Tyler on a 29-yard pass play to make the final 13-0.
"I was disappointed with our performance against Brainerd, but the kids played hard and the key was to escape injury-free," said CCS coach Phil Massey.
"I wish we could have been more crisp on offense, but this is nothing more than a dress rehearsal for next week. We have a big game with McCallie next Friday, so we have some work to do," he added.
SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE
Central vs. Tyner, 6:00
Red Bank vs. Tyner, 6:30
Central vs. Howard, 7:00
Red Bank vs. Blackman, 7:30
East Hamilton vs. Howard, 8:00
Baylor vs. Blackman, 8:30
East Hamilton vs. Notre Dame, 9:00
Baylor vs. Notre Dame, 9:30.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)