The small schools made a big impression on the final night of the annual prep football jamboree at Finley Stadium.
Chattanooga Prep, South Pittsburg and Whitwell each were impressive in their two matchups Saturday as the “BlueCross Bowl … Prelude to a Championship” wrapped up three consecutive nights of action, as was Soddy Daisy, which played in two of the final three quarters.
After Chatt Prep and Whitwell each whipped Class 4A’s Sequoyah — the Sentinels rolled 20-0, and the Tigers were equally dominant in a 26-6 result — those two Region 3-1A rivals stood toe to toe in a scoreless battle. Whitwell limited Chatt Prep to no gain or negative yardage on four of the Sentinels’ first six snaps, and the Tigers drove inside the Chatt Prep 10-yard line but turned the ball over on downs.
Whitwell senior Bennett McDougal scored three of his team’s four touchdowns in the win over Sequoyah, including a pair of receptions that covered 50-plus yards.
“I love playing in this atmosphere and getting out here with my boys,” McDougal said. “We’ve been working hard all summer for this moment. We’ve still got some stuff to work on for this season. We have to be more disciplined, but as the games went on, we were getting better and better.
“I’m fully confident in my team and what we can get done this season.”
South Pittsburg’s defense looked sharp in a 7-0 win over Division II-AA’s Silverdale Baptist Academy, including an opening series in which the Pirates sent the Seahawks 11 yards backwards. The big play in that series was a sack by 6-foot-6, 220-pound junior end JR Hardrick.
The Pirates scored on their opening possession when junior JaMychal Buckner, an all-state running back during the team’s run to last year’s Class 1A state title — which was capped by a BlueCross Bowl victory at Finley — outran the pursuit around the right end for a 10-yard scoring run.
South Pittsburg followed with an old-fashioned slugfest in its matchup with Class 4A program Soddy Daisy as the teams traded 70-yard scoring drives, with nearly all of the yardage coming on the ground. After the Pirates struck first on Buckner’s 15-yard touchdown run, the Trojans answered when Tucker Ross followed the push by his offensive front for a 2-yard score on a quarterback sneak.
“We’re a very young team, so we wanted to see how we would react when we got punched in the mouth,” South Pittsburg coach Wes Stone said. “We knew Silverdale does a really good job with what they do, and Soddy Daisy is a big, physical team, so we wanted to see how we would stand up to that type of physicality.
“We got through it without any more injuries, which was key for us because we had seven or eight guys who start either on one side of the ball or both who we had to hold out. It was good to see some of those reserves step up and really show a lot of fight.”
Silverdale bounced back for a 14-0 win over East Hamilton, and Soddy Daisy ended the night with a 10-0 win over Class 5A’s East Hamilton, highlighted by a short touchdown reception by Aiden Hollis.
“We’ve preached being a very physical football team the whole offseason, especially up front on offense, so that’s what we wanted to establish tonight,” Trojans first-year head coach Josh Owensby said. “That drive of South Pitt, regardless of who they played or didn’t play, that was good for our guys to go up against a team that’s state championship-caliber every year.
“We’re just trying to get momentum going. It’s a long season, and there’s going to be ups and downs as we go, but they’ve just got to believe they can do it, so the more they can see that on the field, like tonight, that’s going to help us get going in that direction.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com.