Shannon Williams knew that his team needed a win in the worst possible way.
After starting 2-0 and losing three straight, the first-year coach was looking at a season headed south in a hurry.
In that losing streak, opponents had decided if they could corral Richard “Goose” Manning, Williams’ quarterback, they’d have a leg up on Ooltewah. For three weeks it worked.
“We really needed one after the murders’ row,” Williams said.
On Friday Manning and offensive teammates met in the middle and Manning earned Times Free Press player of the week honors as the Owls bested Walker Valley 41-35.
“Goose would be the first to tell you he has left some plays on the field,” Williams said. “He’s such a competitor. He expects so much of himself and he has tried to do so much to help us win. I was glad to see him make a few of those plays we haven’t made the last few weeks.”
While running back Randall Freeman was picking up 172 yards and two scores on 13 carries, Manning rushed for 175 yards and two TDs and completed 10 of 14 passes for 186 yards and two more scores.
Behind a clicking offensive line, The Owls pounded Walker Valley for more than 550 yards. It was Manning, though, to whom Williams turned on a crucial final march.
“That last drive of the game to win it, it was all Goose,” the coach said. “We ran him just about the whole way down there. He converted a third-and-12 and if we don’t get that we probably wind up in overtime and then who knows? He was tired, sure, but that six-minute drive was all his legs. It was a gutsy performance.”
Williams wasn’t about to say the game started and ended with Manning. He felt that Manning did what quarterbacks are supposed to do and that the team took a major stride forward.
“You have to credit the defense. They gave up just one touchdown over the last two quarters. Offensively, it was the [passing] completions. The weeks before when we needed to throw it, it was there and we missed it – either a drop, a mis-read or we just didn’t get it completed. On the rushing side we finally got hats on people and we were breaking some tackles.”
It was a combination of the two that made a difference. They were making blocks and breaking tackles and pulling in passes instead of coming up short across the board as they had the previous weeks.
“We’d been finding a way to get tackled or miss a pass or a catch. This week against a team that was well prepared the passing game finally clicked and we made some big plays in the running game,” Williams said.
He was in the office early over the weekend, trying to figure out how to eliminate a few too many penalties and how to improve on Friday’s success.
“That win keeps alive for things we want to play for the rest of the year. Hopefully we gained some confidence that what we’re doing are the right things. We have a lot of football ahead of us if we continue to build, execute and gain confidence,” he said.