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Scores and Photos of Friday night high school football - Oct. 2
Footballs flew threw the air practically all night Friday at Soddy-Daisy. But a big run by Ooltewah's Rashun Freeman may have been the biggest impact play.
With the Owls' 16-point lead having dwindled to two midway through the third quarter, Freeman broke loose for a 78-yard run from his team's 5-yard line. Five plays later on the first play of the fourth quarter, Freeman scored from the 2 and Ooltewah was able to make that stand for a 30-21 Region 4-5A victory.
Ooltewah (5-1, 3-0) displayed a strong run defense early and combined with its pass rush held Soddy-Daisy (3-2, 1-2) to minus-15 rushing yards in the first quarter. The Owls also registered a safety by linebacker Tyler Reed.
The Owls led 23-7 late in the first half after quarterback Logan Elrod connected with Scottie Strickland for a 65-yard touchdown pass, but the Trojans responded with Christian Bell returning the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a TD.
Soddy-Daisy closed within 23-21 when quarterback Justin Cooke scrambled around before finding Tre Carter in the end zone from 22 yards.
After an exchange of punts, Ooltewah found itself backed up to its 5. Freeman's run on second down accounted for all but 33 of the Owls' rushing yards in the game.
"You always want to bust more runs," Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said, "but if we can get 3, 4, 5 yards a run it helps us keep balanced. We're going to throw the ball."
Ooltewah ended with 296 yards through the air. Elrod was 19-of-34 for 232 yards and Collin Thurman, who came in briefly while Elrod went out with an injury, had a 64-yard completion to Garrett Richardson. Strickland led the six receivers with seven catches for 100 yards.
Soddy-Daisy's Cooke was 19-of-42 passing for 193 yards. Carter had eight receptions for 97 yards and also was the Trojans' leading rusher with 22 yards on three carries, one a 14-yard gain on a fake punt,
"Defensively we made some plays up front," Bryan said. "Their quarterback has a good arm, but I thought our defense played well all night, particularly coming up with negative plays. He ran around and made some plays on the run. It's hard to defend receivers for that long."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.