If it weren't for Chattanooga Christian's Mondo Ellison, maybe the nightmare first quarter that haunted Howard the rest of the game wouldn't have been so bad.
In a three-minute span late in the first quarter, CCS scored three touchdowns off Howard turnovers. Ellison ran for all three, from 6, 21 and 5 yards, and the Chargers went on to win 27-6.
"My O-line. I have to give all the credit to them," Ellison said. "They came out fired up, just ready to go, so that's what we did. We worked together and were able to punch it in three times in a row."
Said CCS coach Mark Mariakis: "Most of our experience is on the offensive line. We've been preaching to those guys, the way they go, we go. They got challenged last week (against McCallie) and didn't feel good about themselves, so they responded really well."
The Chargers had a strong showing defensively, too. They didn't allow an offensive touchdown and forced the three early turnovers.
"Defensively, for us, we got a shutout and had their backs against the wall a couple of times and rose to the occasion," Mariakis said proudly. "We got kind of embarrassed last week. We kind of take pride in our defense, but our guys did really well tonight."
CCS finished the game with just 181 yards of offense, 173 of which were rushing yards. Ellison pounded the Hustlin' Tigers' defense with his physical style, running 25 times for 158 yards.
"He's that workhorse guy. Everybody knows his name and they know he's going to get carries. That's what we tell the offensive line and our running backs that are blocking for him," Mariakis said. "When you know he's going to get it, somebody's got to block somebody, and I think our kids did a really good job tonight."
"It gets the defense tired. They don't want to tackle me, so it works really well," Ellison said when asked about his physical style of play.
The Tigers started the game with the ball and swiftly moved into CCS territory, attacking the Chargers on the outside with their speed using passes and sweep runs. CCS was able to force a turnover on downs with the Tigers creeping toward the red zone.
In a matchup of speed versus power, the Chargers used their size and strength to power their way down the field, and then they got help from the Tigers. A fumbled catch on a kickoff return following the first score got the Chargers the ball back at the Howard 21-yard line.
From there, 17 seconds after his first touchdown, Ellison ran into the end zone to give CCS a 14-0 lead.
A few plays later the Chargers recovered a fumbled snap, and Ellison completed his hat trick less than two minutes later.
The second quarter was much better for the Tigers. They didn't score but they held the Chargers scoreless.
After halftime, Howard picked up some momentum, forcing a three-and-out, and capitalized on it with a 76-yard punt-return touchdown from Marques Williams. He broke outside, stutter-stepped against a defender and sped to the goal line.
The Tigers defense held tight for a while, but CCS was able to put the game away early in the fourth quarter with a 4-yard touchdown run by Dylon Clark.
Contact Shakeem Holloway at sports@timesfreepress.com.