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Tennessee playoffs(All kickoffs at 7 p.m. local time)Class 5AOak Ridge (10-1) at Ooltewah (9-2)Rhea County (8-3) at Farragut (10-1)Class 4AEast Hamilton (7-4) at Stone Memorial (11-0)Class 3AChattanooga Christian (8-3) at East Ridge (11-0)Notre Dame (8-3) at Upperman (9-2)Class 2ATyner (8-3) at Boyd-Buchanan (11-0)Marion County (10-1) at Forrest (10-1)Class 1AFayetteville (9-2) at South Pittsburg (8-3)Whitwell (6-5) at Columbia Academy (10-1)Division II-AABaylor (8-2) at MUS (7-3)McCallie (6-5) at MBA (9-1)
They're a week late joining the party that is the Tennessee high school football postseason, but Baylor's Red Raiders will get their first taste of the 2015 playoffs Friday at Memphis University School.
Six Chattanooga-area teams will be playing at or close to home this week, and two of those games are rematches from the regular season.
Chattanooga Christian returns from a 23-22 victory at DeKalb County to revisit unbeaten East Ridge with hopes of overturning a 28-13 loss. Meanwhile, a healthy Tyner team, which won 34-7 at Watertown, goes to undefeated Boyd-Buchanan seeking to avenge a 40-7 Week 4 thumping.
East Hamilton, a 32-7 winner over Region 4 runner-up Page, also has a second-time-around game. The Hurricanes travel again to unbeaten Stone Memorial, which edged them 14-7 in the last Region 3-4A game. Whitwell likewise plays a repeat opponent, this time going to Columbia Academy, which defeated the Tigers 41-24 on Oct. 23. McCallie will be on the road at Montgomery Bell Academy, which topped the Blue Tornado 33-27 in overtime on Sept. 18.
Elsewhere, Ooltewah will be at home against Oak Ridge, which eliminated Soddy-Daisy, and South Pittsburg will host Fayetteville, a lopsided home winner over Grace Academy. Rhea County goes to Farragut to play the Region 3-5A champion, Notre Dame goes to Region 4-3A winner Upperman and Marion County is at Region 4-2A winner Forrest.
In addition to Grace Academy and Soddy-Daisy, area Tennessee teams whose seasons ended Friday were Bradley Central, Cleveland, Red Bank, Sequatchie County, Bledsoe County and Copper Basin.
While he likes the idea of maintaining momentum - the Red Raiders ended the regular season with a 31-14 win at Father Ryan - a bye week couldn't have come at a better time for Baylor and coach Phil Massey.
"So far we haven't had a single practice when every starter was there," he said Thursday. "There's some kind of virus - fever and vomiting - going through the team right now."
With the bug running through his team, Massey quickly agreed that hindsight was 20-20 and acknowledged the benefits.
"Otherwise it would be tough to get a lot accomplished," he said. "We're trying to scheme and game-plan and having to repeat things the next day and the next because folks are missing."
It helps, too, that the replacement for guard Cooper Reiniche gets extra repetitions. Reiniche is out for four weeks with a high-ankle sprain. Kick returner/running back Adrian Harris may still have a cast on his arm from a broken wrist suffered in the McCallie game, but he'll be back at least to help the running game. Center Riley Bodine has a broken hand.
"Adrian won't be able to do any returns for us, and the good thing about Bodine is that the hand he broke was his left hand and he snaps with his right," Massey said.
The Red Raiders practiced Thursday and lifted weights Friday before getting Saturday off. They'll be back on campus today, though, for a late-afternoon practice.
"It's been good for us to have a chance to catch our breath," Massey said. "We'll have time to prepare for a good football team we haven't seen for two years."
The Red Raiders haven't faced MUS since 2012, and MUS won that one. The Raiders will leave Friday morning.
"We're sticking to the same itinerary we used last year when we went over there and defeated Christian Brothers," Massey said.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.