For a time in Friday's Division II-AA East/Middle Region high school football game at Baylor, it seemed as though Baylor and Ensworth were going to combine for more turnovers than points.
Those totals were even at halftime, but the Red Raiders got a big touchdown pass on a fourth-down play in the third quarter and an even bigger field goal in the fourth to put away the Tigers 17-7.
Both coaches agreed that the physical play in the game had a lot to do with the ball ending up on the ground as often as it did.
"We had been telling our kids all week it was going to be a physical football game," Baylor coach Phil Massey said, "and it certainly was. But as ugly as we looked sometimes, the defense made stops when it had to, and the offense executed when it needed to. I'm really proud of them. There plenty of times where we could've lost focus but we stayed with it."
Baylor (3-0) moved into the top spot in the Associated Press state poll this week. Ensworth (1-2) came in tied for third.
"It was kind of sloppy both ways," Ensworth coach Ricky Bowers said. "It was a physical game, hard-hitting. I think it's two pretty good teams, really."
The Red Raiders led 7-0 at halftime. At that point, Ensworth had turned the ball over five times - one a fumble at the Baylor 1-yard line that Brendon Harris picked up and returned 21 yards - and Baylor had turned it over twice.
The Red Raiders lost a fumble on their first possession of the second half, and Ensworth moved the ball 29 yards in five plays for the tying touchdown.
After the kickoff, Baylor drove to Ensworth's 29, where it faced a fourth-and-1. With the Tigers loaded up with five linemen across the line of scrimmage, quarterback Lorenzo White faked a handoff inside, rolled to his right and threw a pass to Emanuel Williams, who turned upfield and covered the final few yards for the go-ahead score.
"We felt like that was going be there," Massey said of the call. "They were really pinching inside. We tried to run it up in there some, but we weren't gaining much yardage doing that. We felt like that play was there, and the kids executed it."
Baylor's offense in the fourth quarter looked less about trying to hit big plays and more about churning clock. That was especially so when the Red Raiders made a fourth-down stop at their 29, then marched into the red zone where Keegan Weekley connected on a 29-yard field goal with 4:46 remaining.
"Once we got in field-goal range, we wanted to use clock management," Massey said. "We were not wanting to penalize ourselves sitting in field-goal range, and we didn't want to turn the ball over."
The night's leading rusher was Ensworth quarterback Jaylon King, who ran 14 times for 175 yards. However, he threw three interceptions.
In addition to the Tigers' six turnovers, Bowers also noted the distress caused by his team's 109 penalty yards.
"I felt like there were times when it seemed like everything that could go wrong did," Bowers said. "We'll get better. We've got more guys coming in that are hurt that will help us."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.