Chattanooga Christian School was down 10-0 Friday night and looked outmatched on a soggy David Stanton Field when coach Mark Mariakis called a timeout in the second quarter. His Chargers responded by scoring the next 28 points in a 28-17 win Friday night over Division II-AA East opponent Webb School of Knoxville.
“I told them to settle down and just play,” Mariakis said. “They were taking it to us, and we weren’t being physical enough. So we told them to relax, take a deep breath and play.”
The Chargers forced a defensive stop out of the timeout and got their first points on Jamichael Baxter’s 5-yard run. CCS (5-3, 4-1) then forced a fumble and recovered it deep in Webb territory.
The drive stalled out, and it looked as if Webb (3-5, 2-3) had forced a field-goal try to tie the game, but Mariakis reached into his bag of tricks. Quarterback Sam Hall was the holder and tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Traveon Scott. Eric Manirakiza tacked on the extra point to make it 14-10 with 1:12 to go in the second period.
CCS then closed the half with an interception to keep Webb, which had driven into the red zone, off the scoreboard and opened the third quarter with another stop on defense.
Webb’s punt stopped at the 9-yard line, where CCS took over for a drive that took up most of the third quarter. Baxter capped it with a 4-yard run, and the extra-point kick made it 21-10.
“It was a matter of willing ourselves to make something happen,” Mariakis said. “Our defense made some stops and we took over. That’s been our goal the last two weeks is taking over ballgames.”
Damarcus Hinton broke a 68-yard run to seal the victory with 9:42 left in the game. Webb was able to muster a 2-yard scoring run by Charles Robinson for the Spartans’ first points since a first-quarter run from workhorse Grissim Anderson and a second-quarter field goal by Harvey Niendorff but never threatened to make it close again.
“I saw a team that just refused to lose,” Mariakis said. “We had never beaten them. They had beat us four times in a row in two years. In past years I don’t think we would have come back like that. Our team just believes right now, and they’re playing for each other.”
Baxter and Scott each topped 70 yards on the ground, and Hinton’s long run helped him rack up 101 yards on just three carries. Webb’s Anderson was a tackle-breaking machine, rushing 14 times for 143 yards for Webb.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.