NOTRE DAME 55, UPPERMAN 7Star: Notre Dame running back Auston Banks rushed for 156 yards on five carries and scored on runs of 44, 5 and 75 yards.Up next: Notre Dame (11-1) will take on McMinn Central (10-2) in a Class 3A quarterfinal. Upperman ends the season at 7-5.
On a cold night across the Chattanooga area, Notre Dame coach Charles Fant wanted his team to get off to a hot start in its second-round Class 3A playoff game against Upperman, a team that had beaten the Irish a year before.
With tailback Auston Banks taking the third play from scrimmage 44 yards for a score, the Fighting Irish (11-1) were off and running to a 34-point first quarter and an easy 55-7 win Friday night.
"I challenged our kids about starting fast, and it's amazing how from the very first snap they were ready to play football," Fant said following the game. "It's been a problem that we've had before, and it was like that the first three games of the year.
"But we started putting some things together and changing the way we practice. Everything we do now is so much faster."
Banks rushed for 156 yards on five carries and scored three times in the win, and Notre Dame quarterback Alex Darras threw for 144 yards and three scores, setting up a showdown next week with McMinn Central. The Chargers beat Red Bank.
"The line did a fantastic job for me by getting the holes as wide as they can for me so I can be explosive when I get to the second level," Banks said. "Me and my guys come out and play fast and try to get it done early. We just do our jobs."
Said Darras: "We knew we could take advantage of what we had on the outside because we knew we were a little bit more athletic. If they tried to load up the box, we could take it to the outside and break them down.
"We had a good week of efficient practice, and that really helped us in the game."
Darras was able to spread the ball around, throwing his three scoring passes to three receivers. He had a 19-yarder to Anthony Flemister, a 29-yard strike to Patrick Martin and a 20-yard TD to Jared Andrews.
"I always know if the defense takes away one of them that there's one more that's open," Darras said. "It helps my job and makes it easier for me to make clearer reads."
The Notre Dame defense kept the Bees bottled up most of night, pressuring quarterback Bailey Phillips often and keeping Upperman from finding any kind of rhythm on offense.
Upperman's only scoring drive came late in the first quarter and was sparked a 40-yard scramble by Phillips on third-and-5 to get into Irish territory and set up his 9-yard touchdown pass to Ben Guffey, making the score 27-7. But Notre Dame quickly dashed any hopes of a Bees rally with a long kickoff return by Kareem Orr to set up Darras' touchdown pass to Andrews, pushing the the lead back to 34-7 at the end of the opening quarter.
In the second half, Andrews took over at quarterback and he and Ricky Ballard scored rushing touchdowns.
"The last time we played McMinn Central, they beat us on this field and they blew us out and had an amazing plan offensively and defensively," Fant said about next week's foe. "It's going to be the kind of scenario as against Upperman -- also a team we didn't play well against last time.
"I showed my team the film of last year against Upperman, and I'm going to show them some of the film of two years ago when McMinn Central was here."
Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.