It was Friday afternoon, Chattanooga Christian School’s Division II-AA East Region football game against visiting Grace Christian Academy of Knoxville still five hours away, when CCS coach Mark Mariakis said of his improving Chargers, “We’re just now coming together.”
After beating the Rams 47-13 on Friday night, it would be hard to argue with that assessment of his team, which not only improved to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in DII-AA East, but locked up a playoff berth for the fifth straight season.
“We’re starting five freshmen and seven sophomores,” Mariakis said after the Chargers piled up 506 yards of offense, all of it on the ground. “We’ve only got four seniors out of 64 kids, so we feel like our best days should be ahead of us.”
As usual, sophomore running back Boo Carter was the best player on the field for CCS, scoring four touchdowns and finishing with a whopping 276 yards despite playing less than three quarters. And when Carter didn’t score, fellow running back Javoris Havis did, the junior reaching the end zone three times and totaling 100 yards. Sophomore running back Da’Rell Brown didn’t score, but he did pick up 88 yards for the winners.
“It feels amazing to reach the playoffs,” said Carter, who is already drawing college interest from a handful of Power Five conference teams. “(Playing) Baylor and McCallie prepared us for the next level. Games we play now feel a lot easier after playing them.”