Darras leads Notre Dame rout of Chargers

Notre Dame 48, McMinn Central 7Star: Irish quarterback Alex Darras threw for 285 yards and four touchdowns.Up next: Notre Dame (12-1) will host Alcoa. McMinn Central completes it season at 10-3.

When they go to critique the video from Friday's game, Notre Dame's coaches are likely to hand quarterback Alex Darras a blank sheet of paper or maybe a typewritten sheet with "ATTA BOY" in all caps.

The junior quarterback, who has progressed steadily since the Irish's district win over Signal Mountain, was a passing Picasso at Finley Stadium. He completed 18 of 22 passes for 285 yards and four touchdowns as he and his Fighting Irish teammates hamstrung McMinn Central 48-7.

"Early in the season I was a little out of rhythm, but I'm getting in the swing of things now and it's helping everybody out," Darras said.

"It's unbelievable to see him now," coach Charles Fant said. "He always got us into good situations, but ever since he came back from a foot injury early in the season he was delivering the football differently. It was coming out of his hands better and he had so much control.

photo Notre Dame's Auston Banks tries to elude McMinn Central's Cutler Lance, left, and Ryann Dahle Friday at Finley Stadium.

"The way we've been playing offense is very efficient, and so watching our offense hitting on all cylinders is so much fun to watch. The way we set up this offense, we're only going to take what you give us."

About the only minuses coaches could give Darras would be for missing a 47-yard field-goal try and failing to get a couple of kickoffs into the end zone. The 3-point try had the distance but faded left.

The Irish's 12th straight victory allows them to advance to a Class 3A state semifinal against defending state champion Alcoa, which broke from a 14-14 tie at home with Christian Academy of Knoxville with a flurry of fourth-quarter points for a 35-14 victory.

Darras used seven receivers with Kareem Orr and Anthony Flemister leading the way. Flemister had a pair of touchdown grabs among six catches for 72 yards and Orr caught five passes for 125 yards and a TD. The other scoring toss was pulled in by Patrick Johnson for a 32-yard completion.

"We didn't do anything different. We saw some coverages that they had run earlier in the year, so we just tried to break that down," Darras said. "Without the offensive line we wouldn't do much. They are so good blocking for the running game and the passing game."

It wasn't just the passing game that clicked for Notre Dame. Senior running Auston Banks had 12 carries for 154 yards with two TDs before retiring for the night near the end of the first half with a case of turf toe. He watched the rest of the game from the sideline and sporting a walking boot.

"We take what the defense gives us," Fant said. "Our offensive coordinator Jason Campbell gets upstairs and sees what's going on and makes some great calls, and then we have some plays where Alex can make some calls. It goes pretty well when you get two great minds together."

McMinn Central never could get its running game untracked, and the Chargers were held to 43 yards -- and 34 of that came from a scrambling Jackson Guy. Without Guy the Chargers would have had even less to show for the game because the junior also passed for 124 yards.

"We prepared hard all week. The defensive line always makes the linebackers' jobs so easy," Irish linebacker Tyler Enos said. "McMinn Central was a fast team, but every play there were three or four of us at least around the ball."

The other Notre Dame scores came on Rhys Robertson's 25-yard field goal to open the second quarter and give the Irish a 23-7 advantage and on Kealey Green's 3-yard interception return in the fourth quarter. It was Green's second interception of the night.

Notre Dame forged a 42-7 halftime lead, initiating a mercy-rule running clock to start the second half for the seventh straight game.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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