Ooltewah looked as though it had two No. 35s on its football field, but only one No. 28.
Linebacker Alex Doss led the defensive charge, Desmond Pittman helped get the offense going early and the result was a 48-0 victory over Soddy-Daisy in a District 5-AAA high school game.
Despite coming into the game with some injuries to starters in the secondary, the Owls were aggressive and ultimately dominant defensively. Ooltewah (4-3, 1-2) limited Soddy-Daisy (2-4, 1-2) to 61 yards from scrimmage and three first downs.
"That's what we do anyway, but especially against a big, physical team like Soddy-Daisy," Ooltewah coach Shannon Williams said. "We've got to make the linemen move their feet and try to get around and create some negative plays in the backfield. I think we did that tonight."
Doss has a twin, Stuart, but he wasn't also wearing No. 35. It was just that Alex seemed to be everywhere Friday. He had a sack among his nine unassisted tackles and was the first among four to arrive on another sack.
"We had a bunch of young guys step up," Alex Doss said. "Everybody all around stepped up. We were hungry. For us seniors, this was our last time playing on this field."
However, it was his brother who got in on the scoring act. Stuart Doss caught a deflection off a Trojans receiver's hands and went 24 yards for his third interception-return touchdown of the season.
"He's just got that little bubble screen," Alex said. "He played a good game. We all played a good game."
On the other side of the ball, two of No. 28 Pittman's first three carries were touchdown runs of 25 and 35 yards. His fourth carry, still in the first quarter, went for 17 yards and put him over the 100-yard mark. He ended up with 173 on nine rushes, all before halftime.
"We have a lot of injuries in the offensive line, but they picked it up tonight," Pittman said.
In all, 330 of the Owls' 427 yards came on the ground.
"We had some guys play hurt," Williams said. "That's the way you're supposed to do up front. If you're injured, you come out. If you're hurt, you play."
Garrett Sealor hauled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from Brody Binder and Jon Hill had a 1-yard scoring run, helping Ooltewah to a 34-0 halftime lead. T.J. Davis returned from an ankle injury and got eight carries, including a 43-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Reserve Cameron Wallace ran 55 yards for the final TD with 3:12 to play.
The Owls play next at Bradley Central (4-2, 2-0).
"Hopefully, if we keep playing, keep winning, we can get another one here," Williams said. "But we've got three tough road games ahead of us, starting with a really tough Bradley team next week."