Signal Mountain and Ooltewah both committed to running the football early, but in the end it was the Owls who shredded the Eagles' offense on the ground Friday night.
Led by Cameron Turner's 82-yard, three-touchdown performance, Ooltewah bounced back from an opening loss to win 38-7 at home.
Two nice runs on the opening possession looked like a good start for Signal Mountain (0-2), but Ooltewah (1-1) proceeded to stonewall the visitors and crank up its own rushing attack.
"We had a very good first half," Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said. "We moved the ball well, defended well. We've got to be more consistent and execute better, but it was nice to get a win. We still have some young players that are learning."
Turner was a big part of that, accumulating all of his yardage and touchdowns in the first half yards. He scored from 6 and 30 yards out in the opening quarter and added a 9-yard run to start the second period.
"He runs the ball hard," Bryan said. "He's tough to tackle and is a very talented player. He's a workhorse out there."
Sincere Quinn and Tyler Henderson joined in with scoring runs covering 23 and 32 yards, respectively, to send the Owls to halftime with a 35-0 lead.
"We didn't execute in the first half, and we really struggled on defense with their tempo," Signal Mountain coach Ty Wise said. "We knew they were going to come out fast, and we needed to move the sticks to keep their offense on the sidelines. We just didn't do a good job of that."
Things didn't get much better for the Eagles to start the second half.
Tahj Cargle sprinted down the sideline and shed a few tackles to take opening kickoff to Signal Mountain's 8-yard line. A penalty forced Ooltewah backwards, though, and Aleksander Toser's 38-yard field goal made it 38-0.
The rest of the third quarter sped by with a running clock, but the Eagles were able to slow the game back down by getting on the board in the fourth quarter. Collin Farr, who totaled 111 yards rushing and receiving, caught a 9-yard pass from Tom Vatter for the score.
"We went to an offensive set that the guys are very confident in," Wise said. "It's more of a power running game, and we had success with it."
Signal Mountain held possession for most of the final quarter. A penalty deep in Ooltewah territory prevented a likely second score for the Eagles.
Ooltewah also had a touchdown called back on a fumble recovery when the runner was ruled down.