By halftime, there were essentially just two questions remaining in Soddy-Daisy's homecoming football game against Tyner:
Who would be named the 2014 Soddy-Daisy homecoming queen? What would be the final score after the host Trojans' offensive display in the first half?
While Laura Maynard would reign over the Soddy-Daisy homecoming court, the Trojans ruled the field, exerting a top-speed precision dominance from the opening kickoff with 277 yards of offense in the first half of a 46-21 victory.
The Class 3A Rams, who are 0-5 against one of the toughest nondistrict schedules in the area, controlled the ball for much of the second half, but the deficit from the quick start for the Class 5A Trojans (4-1) proved too great.
"From snap one, that is the strongest half of football we have so far this year," said Soddy-Daisy coach Justin Barnes. "We were pretty much able to do everything we wanted to do in the first half. We executed our offense very well. We knew Tyner would keep coming at us for four quarters. But it was a great start for us, and it was a nice win."
As Barnes noted, Soddy-Daisy quarterback Hunter Maynor set the tone from the opening snap, hitting Blake Smith with a 49-pass that set up the first two of Christian Bell rushing scores. Maynor put the game out of reach for the Rams with a 45-yard rushing score and three TD passes before halftime.
Maynor, who finished with 301 yards on 15-of-27 passing, hit Levi Thornton with scoring strikes of 24 and 31 yards and Smith caught another for 14. Maynor provided the Trojans' lone score of the second half, a 1-yarder in the fourth quarter.
"We wanted to come out strong in the first half and we did," said Maynor, who was as surprised as anyone with the open field on his long TD run. "I am not your typical running quarterback. I think everybody knows that. I'm not sure they knew I had the ball at first, and Blake Smith made a heck of a block on the play. But give Tyner a lot of credit. They are a good team and they fought hard the whole game."
"We've had it pretty tough, but we are hoping that this will help us put together a run and we will be able to take care of business over the next few weeks," said Tyner coach Wayne Turner, whose team closes its season with five District 6-AA games. "We had some opportunities, but we turned the ball over and you have to give Soddy a lot of credit. They had a fast start and they bowed their backs when they needed to."
Chaysen Patrick, who rushed for more than 100 yards in the game, scored two of the Rams' touchdowns on runs of 1 and 2 yards, and Jaylen Grimes scored from 17 yards out.
Contact Greg Thompson at sports@timesfreepress.com