COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Going into Thursday night’s BlueCross Bowl Division II-AAA state championship game, most of the attention had been given to the McCallie offense – which was averaging 36 points per game – and the Montgomery Bell Academy defense, which hadn’t allowed more than 14 points in a game as the Big Red won seven of their previous eight.
By the end of the game, however, it was McCallie’s defense that had stolen the spotlight and led the way for the Blue Tornado to win the program’s second state title with a convincing 28-7 victory at Tennessee Tech University.
McCallie (11-2) set a record for a TSSAA title game with nine sacks – 2.5 by Aaron Crowder and two each by Jay Hardy, James Howard and Adam Smith – and totaled 12 tackles for loss, holding MBA (8-5) to single-digit scoring for just the third time this year.
“We played better than I thought we would, better than we had recently,” McCallie coach Ralph Potter said. “We were really good up front, but our secondary really stepped up and did a great job. Some of those sacks were because of the coverage we had on their receivers downfield.
“We had one busted assignment in coverage all night, but other than that we were stone solid.”