Chattanooga Christian’s Austin Mansell reaches for Signal Mountain quarterback Reese Phillips Thursday at Signal Mountain High School.Neither an early rainstorm nor a wet field nor a strained groin nor a pulled hamstring was going to deter Signal Mountain senior running back Andrew Price.
On a night to recognize seniors, the diminutive runner — lining up sometimes as a wingback, sometimes as a fullback and occasionally as a single setback — was going to carry the ball.
Rushing for a school-record 333 yards and six touchdowns, Price overshadowed a phenomenal passing performance by Chattanooga Christian quarterback Levi Corbett as the Eagles rolled to a 76-35 victory over the Chargers. The 76 points also set a school record.
“Andrew played well. It’s his birthday tomorrow and he already has had quite a celebration,” coach Bill Price said of his nephew’s performance. “We’ve had some guys banged up and we had to do some things sort of patchwork, but we have at least one game left and two weeks to get healthy.”
In his postgame comments, Coach Price told the team he was so pleased with their refusal to fold.
“I’m proud of you. You have been through a lot,” he said. “You guys have struggled. I’ve struggled. To me you’re 7-2.”
Among those on the injured list was fullback Zack Bowman, who had been the rushing workhorse along with Tim McClendon, whose ineligibility ruling by the TSSAA leaves the Eagles officially 1-2. Bowman played some at linebacker but got just a couple of carries — and a touchdown — offensively.
“I knew with Zack not playing much offense that I’d probably get more carries,” said Andrew Price, who had played most of the season trying to recover from the groin and hamstring injuries. “This year, I haven’t paid as much attention to stats. I was happy getting 2 yards or 20 as long as we won.
“It was easy to run tonight because the offensive line was blowing holes you could have driven a truck through and then they were getting into the linebackers.”
In addition to Price’s 333 yards, Mitchell Hall rushed for 164. The Eagles as a team finished with 527 yards on 44 runs.
Quarterback Reese Phillips, who turned 17 Thursday, also had a decent night even though starting wide receiver Will Queen was limited with a broken hand and Jon Patton, the other wideout, was forced to use his asthma inhaler at halftime after playing both ways and on most special teams.
Phillips finished with 197 yards, completing 12 of 15 passes with two TD strikes to Queen. He also played all the way in the secondary and came up with an interception on one of Corbett’s few mistakes.
The passing honors, though, belonged to Corbett, who threw for 342 yards in the first half and finished with 357. He completed 21 of 39 attempts with one interception.
The difference in the first and second halves was Signal’s coverage switch.
“We went back to a zone coverage. We’re not a ‘man’ team but we have been patchwork back there because of some injuries,” Coach Price said.
The game started and ended as an offensive shootout. There were 42 first-quarter points, with Signal scoring 28 of those. By halftime it was 49-28.
Signal is off next week and will play its final district game on Oct. 28 at Sequatchie County.