NASHVILLE - Montgomery Bell Academy, the defending TSSAA Division II-AA football champion, cruised past McCallie on Friday night with a 38-10 win in the state quarterfinals.
The game stood in stark contrast to the teams' previous meeting in the regular season, when MBA's Big Red won in overtime.
The Big Red reached overtime against McCallie on Sept. 18 when running back Ty Chandler scored a touchdown before the end of regulation. He rushed 270 yards and four touchdowns in that game. This time Chandler was the spark again for MBA with 234 rushing yards and another four touchdowns.
One of Chandler's touchdowns was a 75-yard run in the third quarter that put the Big Red ahead by 28 points.
"Ty is a heck of a back," said his head coach, Marty Euverard.
Friday night was MBA's fourth straight win over the Blue Tornado, including a meeting in last year's quarterfinals.
The Blue Tornado were called for 10 penalties for 66 yards. An illegal-procedure call on MBA's 11-yard line, followed by an incomplete pass, ended a long drive and a big opportunity to cut the Big Red's lead to one touchdown in the second quarter. But McCallie had to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Stone Roebuck.
"We simply didn't perform as well as we did before," McCallie coach Ralph Patton said. "(MBA) did the same thing for the most part. We thought we would do well. We're at a loss right now. It's hard to put everything into context."
For their part, the Big Red had five penalties for 48 yards but bounced back from those setbacks.
"We have to clean up a lot of penalties, but I'm proud of the way we controlled the ball," Euverard said. "Our defense did well, too. Holding them down to three points up until the fourth quarter is no easy task."
MBA kicker Dean Cheevers returned to the field after he was sidelined with an injury for three weeks. He went 5-for-5 in point-after kicks and even came up with a 37-yard field goal to end the first half and put the Big Red ahead by 21.