Friday night, the Tyner Rams grew up on the football field.
Defensively, the Rams are going to be fine — that’s the expectation from a team that feasts on turnovers — but with a spot in the TSSAA Class 3A state semifinals on the line, the offense did its part as well. Third-ranked Tyner put together a 10-play, 56-yard drive that included two fourth-down conversions, including one for the game-sealing score as the host Rams defeated seventh-ranked Giles County 34-20 on Wayne Turner Field at Bob Evans Stadium.
Tyner, which avenged a 42-7 loss to Giles in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, improved to 12-1 and will travel next week to face second-ranked Gatlinburg-Pittman. (13-0), a 34-30 winner on Friday against fourth-ranked Meigs County 34-30 in another quarterfinal.
Tyner never trailed and got defensive scores from Zion Pinkerton on a 65-yard interception return and D’Aerion McNealy, who forced a fumble on the first play of the third quarter and returned it 30 yards to the end zone.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night’s Chattanooga-area prep football playoffs)
Tyner coach Christian Mainor called it “a team win” afterward. The 20 points scored by the Bobcats (9-4) were the fewest in a game all season.
“It seems like this year when our defense may be in a little bit of a struggle, our offense picks them up, and then when our offense is in a struggle, our defense picks up up, and that was exactly what you saw tonight,” Mainor said. “I’m really proud of our defensive staff; they had an excellent game plan to stop what’s been a really good offense all year. They scored a lot of points on a lot of really good teams, and so we knew it was going to be a dog fight, but I’m really proud of the game plan they came up with and proud of the way our guys executed.”
On a night when their offense did hit some rough patches, the Rams still rushed for 267 yards on 26 carries. They turned the ball over twice on fumbles and missed on some downfield throws that could have sealed the game earlier.
Jamarion Dowdell had 125 yards on just six carries, while Nyterris Lewis chipped in 106 yards, also on six rushes. Tyner quarterback Marcus Turner threw touchdown passes to Dion Edwards and Jur’won Hubbard — the latter put the game away with 4:26 remaining — and didn’t turn the ball over.
“We left a couple plays out there on the field that we feel like the score could have been a little different if we make a couple plays, so offensively, although it wasn’t pretty, when we had to go score two touchdowns, we went and did it,” Mainor said.
Giles County running back Pierson Collier, listed at 5-foot-5, 170 pounds, had 111 yards and two scores on 23 carries for the Bobcats.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.