COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Despite a bright beginning Notre Dame’s state championship hopes quickly turned Gray late Saturday afternoon. Lausanne junior all-state running back Eric Gray ran 25 times for 281 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Lynx to a resounding 41-13 win over the Fighting Irish in the Division II-AA BlueCross Bowl at Tennessee Tech University.
“He’s the best runner I’ve seen since Santonio Beard,” said Irish defensive coordinator Curt Jones, referring to the former Pearl-Cohn all-state runner who later played at Alabama. “He’s got extraordinary vision, and his ability to cut back and find a seam and break arm tackles is something we haven’t seen.”
The win was the 27th consecutive for Lausanne and the second state title for the five-year-old program that reached the playoffs for the first time in 2015 and earned the Division II-A championship last year.
In the first state final in program history, Notre Dame (11-2) scored on the game’s opening drive, set up by a 73-yard kickoff return by Cameron Wynn, with Dallas Brown running the final 9 yards on the third play.
But Lausanne (13-0) answered with an impressive drive, capped by Gray’s 39-yard scoring run – the first of the game’s many highlights for the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder, who’s already a two-time Mr. Football award winner and now a two-time state championship game MVP as well.