Signal Mountain won its first district football championship Friday, and Guthrie’s, the chicken restaurant across from Pruett’s, was the place to be because the Eagles were eating for free.
They became the first Chattanooga-area team to lock up their district, rolling to a 54-13 victory over Marion County.
“You guys have done your jobs,” Signal coach Bill Price told his team as he handed out championship T-shirts. “Your job tonight was to win the game, and y’all did your jobs.”
Price asked the players what was their next goal. Their immediate response, almost in unison, resounded across the field: “State champions!”
Signal (7-0, 3-0) still has a district game to play against Whitwell, but the Eagles have the tiebreaker edge over South Pittsburg.
“This game means everything to me,” senior tackle Will Sawyer said. “Last year we lost to South Pittsburg, but this year we played well in all the district games we have played so far. [Winning the district] is a great feeling, especially when you remember this is our second year.”
Fellow senior Alex McGhee agreed.
“Yeah, the win is huge. Winning the district for the first time in school history is great,” the receiver and defensive back said. “We’re looking forward to next week, but we’re seriously trying to take it week by week. We have a lot of potential.”
The Eagles won again with a quick-strike passing game and a pounding running game. It didn’t hurt that they covered seven Marion County fumbles.
For all practical purposes, Eagles quarterback Hogan Whitmire left the game with 9:45 remaining in the second quarter, and by halftime Price had played two other quarterbacks and 11 running backs as his team rolled to a 48-0 lead.
Whitmire was 3-for-3 passing, all for touchdowns — to Jon Patton, Reese Phillips and Alex McGhee. They covered a total of 122 yards with the pass to McGhee going for 59.
Whitmire did re-enter the game a handful of times but only for a play at a time as Price coached up backups Phillips and Evan Greeve.
By the time the game had ended, Price had played 15 running backs. Darien Hogans led the way with 72 yards on four carries, with touchdown runs of 37 and 7 yards. Gervell Morgan, who has concentrated more on linebacker than running back this year, returned an interception 65 yards, and Donnie Garner returned a kickoff 87 yards after Marion scored its first TD (with 3:48 left in the third period).
Marion, limited to 4 yards of first-half offense, showed some second-half life against Signal reserves with quarterback Matt Zeman scoring on runs of 39 and 90 yards. Zeman, who was pummeled in the first two quarters, finished with 122 yards.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.
Ward Gossett is an assistant sports editor and writer for the Times Free Press. Ward has a long history in Chattanooga journalism. He actually wrote a bylined story for the Chattanooga News-Free Press as a third-grader. He Began working part-time there in 1968 and was hired full time in 1970. Ward now covers high school athletics, primarily football, wrestling and baseball and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling. Over a 40-year career, he has covered ...
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