The Spears Stadium scoreboard showing Montgomery Bell Academy 34, McCallie 14, Blue Tornado football coach Ralph Potter could only shake his head and mutter, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a team commit seven turnovers in one game.”
Yet that’s exactly what happened Friday night in a Division II-AAA showdown between the two state-title contenders. The visiting Big Red took a 14-0 lead on two defensive touchdowns less than eight minutes into the opening quarter, then never let up before heading back to Nashville.
“We might have the smallest defense in Division II, but they play their guts out,” winning coach Marty Euverard said after MBA’s 14th straight victory over McCallie. “Any time you get a win on the road in this league, it’s big.”
The biggest play by that defense may have come only 10 seconds into the game, when senior defensive back Jake Herbstreit – one of ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit’s twin sons on the MBA roster – scooped up a fumble and scored to shock a boisterous home crowd and put the Big Red up 7-0.
A blocked punt soon led to a 14-0 lead with 4:04 left in the period.