In a football game that seemingly had an endless list of offensive highlights, it was a late defensive stand that helped lift McCallie to a dramatic 35-28 win over rival Baylor on Friday night at Heywood Stadium.
The two uber-talented teams – McCallie is the top-ranked team in Division II-AAA, with the Red Raiders third – combined for nearly 800 yards of offense. With Baylor facing fourth-and-10 at the McCallie 38 late in the game, though, three defenders closed in on quarterback Neyland Jean as he scrambled for yardage, stopping him after a 3-yard gain.
From there, the visiting Blue Tornado (7-0, 3-0) were able to run out the clock after picking up three first downs, including a conversion on fourth-and-8 with a 19-yard pass from DeAngelo Hardy to Thompson Byrd with just 35 seconds remaining.
“I believe this was the best game between these teams that I’ve ever seen,” McCallie coach Ralph Potter said. “Neither team really made mistakes. It was just guys on both sides making play after play. There were times where we just shook our head in amazement.
“You look at the score and think nobody played any defense, but both teams played really good defense. I’m actually at a loss for words. It’s going to take me a while to process all that just happened.”