On a night when McCallie's offense filled up the stat sheet, its defense came up with the two biggest plays of the game.
Junior defensive back Stone Roebuck intercepted two passes inside the red zone in the final minutes, and the seventh-ranked Blue Tornado defeated fourth-ranked Ensworth 28-20 in a Division II-AAA East/Middle Region showdown Friday night at Spears Stadium.
"I just went by what my coach taught me at the beginning of the season," Roebuck said. "If you're in zone coverage, just read the quarterback's eyes and it will take you right to the ball, and that's exactly what I did."
McCallie (4-1, 1-1) stopped the Tigers three times in the fourth quarter inside the Blue Tornado's 30-yard line. They forced a 44-yard field-goal attempt that was missed on the drive prior to the two that ended with Roebuck's interceptions.
"Defensively in that fourth quarter, we really stepped up," McCallie coach Ralph Potter said. "I'm just really proud of our guys, their attitude and their effort. It's inspiring to watch them play."
The first half was a completely different story as the two teams combined for 573 yards and six touchdowns.
McCallie moved the ball into Tigers territory on each of its six drives in the first half, but Ensworth (3-2, 1-1) stopped the Blue Tornado on three fourth downs with less than 2 yards to go to force turnovers on downs.
Ensworth started the scoring on a 7-yard run by Nicky Clifton. The 6-foot, 240-pound senior took several McCallie defenders to bring down all night as he gained 93 yards on 18 carries, including a touchdown.
McCallie answered just 25 seconds later, when senior running back Xavier Brooks broke off a 76-yard touchdown run. Brooks ran 13 times for 159 yards in the first half, but he was bottled up for much of the second half, finishing with 18 carries for 186 yards and three touchdowns.
McCallie led 21-20 at the break.
"We came in and executed," Brooks said. "We didn't do anything special, we just executed on offense. Since the MBA loss, we've really come along and matured."
McCallie rushed 52 times for 313 yards, and quarterback Deangelo Hardy added 87 passing yards to give them 400 total yards.
"We made a few mistakes in the offense," Hardy said. "But we still found a few ways to pop it. They were overplaying our run, so we threw it behind them a few times. You can't play both."