Unfortunate scheduling. That's what this task can be called.
The task Chattanooga Christian's football program faced in its season opener at home Friday night: unfortunate scheduling.
The up-and-coming Chargers opened their fourth season against a determined Boyd-Buchanan team with a bad taste in its mouth, following a disappointing playoff exit last year.
The Buccaneers cleansed their collective palate with a 41-0 victory to open what it hopes to be a championship season.
"It's always nice to get that first one out of the way," said Bucs coach Grant Reynolds, surrounded by celebrating players. "For a season opener, we played really well. We executed the way we wanted to on both sides of the ball, but that's not to say we won't have a lot to work on.
"We played well; we didn't play perfect."
Boyd-Buchanan jumped to a 7-0 lead at the 10:28 mark of the first quarter on Rance Harden's 5-yard-run, then closed the first quarter with a 13-0 lead when junior quarterback Jim Cardwell connected with Grant Mathis on a 24-yard scoring pass.
The Bucs blocked a punt, Chase Miller scooped the ball and scored from 18 yards away, and the lead was 21-0 with 11:09 left in the first half. The game was essentially out of reach when Cardwell plunged in from the 1-yard line to make it 27-0 at halftime.
CCS quarterback Levi Corbett played a nice game, completing 22 of 31 passes for 220 yards. Running back Jay Sims was on the receiving end of eight of those passes for 92 yards.
Boyd-Buchanan, behind the running of Harden (11 carries, 94 yards) and John Hale (six carries, 55 yards), rolled up 253 yards on the ground. And big sophomore Austin Jackson rolled over the CCS defense in the third and fourth quarters for 71 yards on nine carries.
"Listen, we schedule them first every year for a reason. That's a fine team right there, and it gives you an idea of where you are," Chargers coach Barry Loyal said. "I'm pleased with how our team competed. We gave good effort. Everything else we can coach. You can't coach effort: You either have it or you don't, and our effort was good tonight."
Boyd-Buchanan hosts East Ridge next Friday, while CCS travels to Lookout Valley.