Jacob Huesman was the difference Friday night for Baylor. Or to be exact, two of his 19 runs were.
The senior quarterback had 80- and 74-yard scoring runs in the third quarter and the Red Raiders went from being tied at halftime to a 28-14 victory over archrival McCallie in a TSSAA Division II-AA football game at Baylor.
Huesman, who ran for 245 yards against Pope John Paul II on Sept. 10, rushed for a career-best 265 against the Blue Tornado. His first scoring run came on the first play after Arturo Rocha put the second-half kickoff in the end zone.
Baylor coach Phillip Massey said offensive line coach Tom Watson pointed something out to him during halftime and they went to work designing something to take advantage.
"They were really overplaying strong side, so we wanted to run something back weak side," Massey said.
Huesman said he didn't get news of what the first play of the third quarter would be until he got ready to take the field, but he wasn't surprised. He faked a handoff to running back George Porter to the left, found a crease in the line on the right and was gone.
"You want to run where they're not," Huesman said.
The game was a rematch from Oct. 1 when the Red Raiders beat the Blue Tornado 27-6. Huesman ran 16 times for 61 yards in that game.
"He made a couple of runs, but he didn't have anything like that," McCallie coach Rick Whitt said of Huesman's perfornance Friday.
He also was 10-of-13 passing for 136 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass to Deosha McColley with 42 seconds left in the first half that made it 14-14.
"He did a tremendous job," Massey said. "The two big, long runs were back-breakers for McCallie. He's done that all year. That's why he's in the position he is as a Mr. Football finalist because of the way he's played. He's carried our team."
McCallie took possession after the opening kickoff and marched 73 yards in nine plays. Daniel McClure took a handoff up the middle 15 yards for the score.
Baylor answered with an 80-yard drive in five plays. Huesman accounted for the first 65 either running or throwing before George Porter scored on a play similar to McCallie's touchdown.
The Blue Tornado got a big play through the air when Trent Lusk hit Keenan Hale with a pass and Hale broke a tackle a little past McCallie's 40-yard line and outran the defense the rest of the way for an 80-yard score.
"I love these kids and appreciate the way they came to work every day and tried to get better," Whitt said. "We played really, really well every ballgame. We just didn't do it for 48 minutes.
Massey, who praised his team's defensive effort in the second half, said he was concerned playing a good football team for the second time in a season. He thought playing at home and having an extra week to prepare were advantages.
"Coming into this game we tried to look at it more like a playoff game than a McCallie game," Huesman said. "Obviously it's hard to ignore the fact that it's McCallie, but we tried to remain calm and not let emotion play into it."
The star: Quarterback Jacob Huesman had 19 carries for a career-high 265 yards for Baylor. He ran for two touchdowns, threw for another and ended up with 401 yards of total offense.
Up next: Baylor will host BGA next Friday.