OOLTEWAH 51, CAMPBELL COUNTY 14
The star: Ooltewah’s Cameron Turner rushed for 124 yards and two second-half scores and caught a pass to set up a game-clinching score.Up next: Ooltewah hosts Walker Valley.
Friday's second-round Tennessee playoff pairings
(All kickoffs at 7 p.m. local time) CLASS 6A Bradley Central (9-2) at Blackman (8-3) CLASS 5A Farragut (10-1) at Rhea County (9-2) Walker Valley (7-4) at Ooltewah (9-2) CLASS 3A East Ridge (6-5) at Red Bank (8-3) Notre Dame (7-4) at Sequatchie County (11-0) CLASS 2A Watertown (10-1) at Marion County (10-1) Meigs County (10-1) at Forrest (10-1) CLASS 1A Fayetteville (9-2) at South Pittsburg (10-1) Whitwell (6-5) at Columbia Academy (10-0) DIVISION II McCallie (7-4) at Brentwood Academy (7-2) Baylor (7-4) at MUS (10-0)
The final score of Ooltewah's 51-14 home win against Campbell County in the first round of the Class 5A football state playoffs Friday night was the product of a fourth-quarter avalanche.
And the Owls (9-2) certainly are not going to apologize for the final stanza or their sluggish start.
"Survive and advance," Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said. "There are no polls, no rankings, no region standings anymore, so the only thing that matters is winning."
Ooltewah's fast start was met with a stiff chin from the Cougars (8-3).
A first quarter dominated by the Region 4 runner-up Owls on the field did not translate onto the scoreboard early, but Ooltewah survived the missed chances and the never-say-die Cougars to advance through the lone first-round matchup between state-ranked teams.
"That's a good football team," Bryan said. "We told them at halftime to keep doing what we do."
Ooltewah led 7-0 after the first 12 minutes on a 22-yard scoring pass from Collin Thurman to Cam Chambers. The Owls missed a chip-shot field goal on an impressive opening drive and had an interception returned for a touchdown called back on a penalty that gave the Cougars their only first down of the first quarter.
But Campbell County was determined to make the most of the 140-mile drive from northeast Tennessee.
A couple of of 2-yard runs from quarterback Shane Bowman answered a nice touchdown run from Sincere Quinn and an Ooltewah field goal by Aleksander Toser to make it 17-14 at halftime.
After surviving the sluggish start, Campbell County levied a couple of impressive drives, but a missed chip-shot field goal and a turnover inside the Ooltewah 5 meant two impressive drives provided no points.
"Momentum is huge," forlorn Campbell County coach Justin Price said after addressing his team. "We had a couple of opportunities to score (in the third quarter) and didn't take advantage of it. And they made the most of it because they are a good football team."
After surviving the scare, the Owls opened a fire hydrant of points.
A late third-quarter score from Quinn was followed by a couple of touchdowns from power back Cameron Turner. The defense got involved, with Tylan Cargle scoring on a 1-yard run after a long interception return and Jake Sullivan returned an interception 70 yards on the final play of the game.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.