Cameron Turner had a thought at halftime.
If he and his Ooltewah teammates didn't start playing up to their potential, they wouldn't be playing any more this season.
Turner and the Owls dominated the final two quarters in a 40-21 win over Clinton in the operning round of the Class 5A playoffs on Thursday.
Ooltewah 40, Clinton 21
The star: Ooltewah quarterback Landon Elrod completed 21 of 27 passes for 230 yards and three TDs.Up next: Ooltewah will face Oak Ridge next Friday.
"I didn't want to go home," said Turner, who had 23 carries for 87 yards. "I wanted another game."
Ooltewah quarterback Landon Elrod completed 21 of 27 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Rashaun Freeman rushed eight times for 49 yards and two touchdowns.
The Owls defense, led by Jeremiah Jackson, Nick Putnam and Tyler Reid, provided consistent pressure on Clinton quarterback Tyler Thackerson and bottled up the Dragons' rushing attack - especially after a simple halftime talk.
"We had to play better in the second half, and we did," Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said. "In the first half we dropped passes, missed tackles and had penalties. We just had to play better."
Ooltewah (9-2) started its improvement just before halftime. The Owls trailed 14-9 with 7.5 seconds remaining, but instead of opting for a 26-yard field goal, Bryan chose to snap a play.
It worked. Elrod found Blake Smith cutting open on a cut at the goal line for a touchdown and a 16-14 lead at halftime. The Dragons had scored on a 4-yard run by Travist Patrick and a 3-yard sneak from Thackerson with Ooltewah's first touchdown coming on a 9-yard run by Freeman.
"We got focused and started executing," Elrod said. "Our running game turned out to be really strong tonight, and we kept feeding the running backs."
Freeman finished off a 10-play drive with an 18-yard touchdown run on the operning drive of the third quarter.
Clinton lost its footing when it failed on fourth-and-1 from its own 29. Ooltewah added a field goal before the start of the fourth quarter.
Then Scottie Strickland caught a beautiful 43-yard pass from Elrod, who found him open just beyond two defensive backs. Later in the quarter Elrod threw to Kobe Jones for a 13-yard touchdown, and Bryan could play some of his reserves for the final nine minutes of the game.
"We couldn't establish any drives," Clinton coach Josh Kerr said. "The windows were tight and we gave up sacks."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.