By halftime, the only thing still up for debate was on which side of the football Tyner had been more dominant.
The Rams raced out to a quick start Friday night, scoring on their first offensive play, and added two more touchdowns before the first quarter ended while building a commanding halftime lead over York Institute. Tyner’s defense was equally impressive, holding the visitors to minus-4 yards in the first two quarters and forcing three turnovers in the same stretch.
With the TSSAA’s continuous running-clock mercy rule in affect throughout the second half, the Rams made their 33-0 halftime lead stand to win their Class 2A semifinal by that score in the final game ever played on Wayne Turner Field at Bob Evans Stadium.
“That fast start was key for us,” Rams second-year coach Scott Chandler said. “We feed on that. Anytime we can make big plays on either side of the ball, our kids feed off that excitement and we can make it snowball on folks pretty fast.”
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night’s Chattanooga-area high school football games)
Top-ranked Tyner (13-1) advances to the BlueCross Bowl state title game for the first time since its 2017 runner-up finish, and the Rams will face Decatur County Riverside at 3 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Finley Stadium. No. 8 Riverside (12-2) avenged its 26-point loss to Huntingdon with a 26-13 road win in Friday’s other 2A semifinal.
Tyner joins Baylor as local teams in the BlueCross Bowl on Dec. 1-3 at Finley as Chattanooga hosts the TSSAA’s football championship event for the second year in a row. Baylor (11-2), which advanced with a win in last week’s Division II-AAA semifinals, will face Nashville’s Montgomery Bell Academy (13-0) at 7 p.m. in the final matchup on the first day.
After stuffing the Dragons for no yards on their first three snaps, Tyner wasted no time in striking for a score as senior quarterback Josh Jackson hit Jarius Cameron on a short pass that turned into a 61-yard touchdown.
The Rams forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Rayshaun Hinton scooped up the ball and returned it 18 yards for a score. Tyner’s defense pushed York backward on the next possession, and the Jackson-to-Cameron connection struck again on an 18-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 with 4:07 left in the opening quarter.
“We wanted to jump out early on them and not let them have any momentum or confidence at all,” said Jackson, a Tennessee Titans Mr. Football finalist who completed 12 of 15 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns, giving him more than 3,000 passing yards for the season.
He also ran for a short score and played only one possession of the second half.
“Defense wins championships,” Jackson continued. “We’ve got a great one, and they make it a lot easier for us offensive guys. We can just go out there and be relaxed and make plays because we know our defense isn’t going to give up much.”
York had won its previous four games by an average score of 39-7 but managed just 19 total yards on 34 offensive plays against a Rams defense that recorded its seventh shutout of the season, setting a program record.
Hinton forced three fumbles and Marcus Lewis had an interception for Tyner, which has held 11 of its 14 opponents this season to seven points or less.
“Our whole team played our hearts out, so I believe as hard as we’ve worked and played this season, we deserve this chance,” said senior Trae Ruffin, who had three tackles for loss in the first half and a 17-yard touchdown reception for the final points with 5:39 left before halftime.
It was Ruffin’s eighth touchdown in his past nine postseason catches.
“Those first few minutes of the game were key because we know what teams who get this far in the playoffs can do,” Ruffin said. “We had great preparation, we knew exactly what they were going to run based off their formations because we had studied hard all week to know what we needed to do to stop them.
“We hit them in the mouth from the start, and the defense just did our thing and got the job done.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.