Turnovers turn into blowouts.
In a county rival that drew what East Hamilton announced as a record crowd, Ooltewah forced an amazing seven turnovers – two interceptions and five lost fumbles – and the Owls trounced the Hurricanes, 41-7, in a District 5-AAA high school football game played on a pleasant Friday night.
“Right now we’re playing, statistically, about as well as any defense I’ve been around on the high school level,” Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan said.
“Seven turnovers are very rare. You make personnel decisions to make that defense as good as it can possibly be.”
There was nothing pleasant about East Hamilton’s slippery fingers.
Four of five Hurricanes miscues in the first half led to three touchdowns, a field goal and a 24-7 advantage at the break.
In the second quarter, the sixth-ranked Owls (5-0, 2-0) got interception returns for touchdowns from Adrian Hall and Rashun Freeman in a span of 1 minute, 39 seconds to demoralize the Hurricanes (1-4, 1-1).
“How many turnovers did we have?” East Hamilton coach Ted Gatewood asked. “Seven? That’s 22 turnovers in five games and I’ve never heard of that. You can’t overcome that and that’s on me. We’re going to address it and take care of it. When they say the stove is hot, the freaking stove is hot. You tell a 2-year-old the stove’s hot, don’t touch it. They might touch it once, but they learn not to touch it after that.”
Ooltewah defensive coordinator Doug Greene hasn’t been around too many games in which his unit came up with that many takeaways, and he’s been coaching a long time.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,” he said. “We got a bunch in 2008, but never seven in one game. We’ve got a chance to be a very excellent defense.”
The Owls were working on back-to-back shutouts coming into Friday’s game and had given up 32 all season while the offense had scored 157 points. Against an opponent hoping to win its first regular-season game in four tries in the series, Ooltewah’s defenders were a determined bunch, yielding only a David Whiteside 6-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
And if the turnovers weren’t enough to dash the Hurricanes’ hopes, a fourth-quarter scoring opportunity that fizzled at the Owls’ 1 finished the job.
After Logan Hammond picked off an Ooltewah pass early in the fourth quarter, East Hamilton quarterback Caleb Rhodes hit Tracy Thompson with a pass over the middle and Thompson headed for the end zone.
However, the Owls’ Hall chased him down at the 11 to stop the 58-yard play.
Whiteside gained 10 yards to the 1. The Ooltewah defense stuffed Rhodes twice for no gain and got Whiteside once for nothing.
On fourth down, the Owls knocked down a Rhodes pass to complete the remarkable stand.
“They do not like to give up points,” Greene said of his troops. “Adrian did a great job hauling (Thompson) down after a busted coverage and the kids executed on the goal line and weren’t going to let them in the end zone.”
Added Hall, “We don’t break (on defense). We try not to even bend.”
Capitalizing on the rock-wall defensive effort, the Owls then drove to the Hurricanes’ 21 where Laszlo Toser kicked his second field goal of the game, this one from 37 yards out to produce the final 34-point victory. He booted a 33-yarder in the second period and put seven of his eight kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks.
“We don’t break (on defense),” Hall said. “We try not to even bend.”
Running back Frunsez Kendricks, the Owls’ leading rusher, scored on a 1-yard run to cap a 58-yard, eight-play drive in the first quarter. The drive was set up by linebacker Taylor Stutz’s recovery of a fumbled exchange between Rhodes and Whiteside.
The Owls started to squeeze the life out of East Hamilton with a 17-point second quarter.
But first, the Hurricanes overcame themselves for their only touchdown of the game.
On a chaotic sequence, Rhodes ran for a sizable gain, but fumbled and the ball was recovered by Ooltewah’s Jeremiah Jackson, who then fumbled the ball back to East Hamilton.
The swift exchange of possession gave East Hamilton the ball at its own 6. The Hurricanes drove 94 yards for the score, Whiteside dashing in from 6 yards out.
That was really the Hurricanes’ only bright spot of the game offensively.
“We put a lot of stress on our offense,” East Hamilton running back Matt Milita said. “We put them in some bad situations and they were on the field a lot because the turnovers were killing us.”
On their next possession, the Owls turned the ball over on downs, but three plays later Hall picked off a pass – his fourth interception this season – and rambled 36 yards for a the touchdown. He was rocked by a hard tackle as he crossed the end zone.
“I didn’t even see the guy coming,” Hall said. “I felt him though. But that was a play they run a lot and I was in the right place at the right time and got the pick. I thought we played awesome defense tonight.”
On the second play after the ensuing kickoff, Whiteside fumbled and the Owls’ Nick Putman pounced on it at the Hurricanes’ 19. On a first-and-goal play, Kendricks scored on a 7-yard run but the touchdown was negated by one of many holding penalties called on the Owls.
When East Hamilton’s Nathan Fairbanks knocked down a Kelvin Leon pass on third down, Toser came on to salvage the drive with his first field goal with 2:17 left in the first half.
Sixteen seconds later Freeman scored on his interception return to break the game open. It was Freeman’s second pick of 2014.
“I saw the ball go up and our cornerback went up and the ball was kind of bobbled,” Freeman said. “It actually got between my legs and somehow I got it and ran as fast as I could to the end zone. I think that took (East Hamilton’s) heart away.”
The turnover bugaboo continued to bother the Hurricanes after intermission. They got the second-half kickoff, but in three plays Rhodes fumbled and the Owls came up with the recovery for their seventh takeaway of the game.
On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Edward Hayes scored on a reverse to stretch the Owls’ lead to 31-7 with 8:38 left in the third period.
The Hurricanes ran four plays with Milita at quarterback, but he fumbled on a first-and-10 play from the Hurricanes’ 32 and Putman fell on it for his second recovery.
Hayes, the Owls leading receiver, caught a 9-yard pass from Leon for the Owls’ final touchdown with 5:40 left in the quarter.
Leon completed 20-of-32 passes for 209 yards and now 831 passing yards with nine touchdowns on the season. He’s thrown five interceptions.
“Our defense has played well all season,” he said, “and I think they’ll keep it up too. Tonight all their takeaways made things pretty easy on the offense.”
Bryan found one negative aspect to his team’s victory – nine penalties, most of them holding calls, for 80 yards.
“Offensively, we would have had a good night if not for a bunch of holding penalties,” he said. “I don’t know where that came from because we haven’t had that many holding penalties this year. We’ll have to look at the tape and clean that up.”
Game Summary
Ooltewah 7 17 14 3 – 41
East Hamilton 0 7 0 0 – 7
First Quarter
OOL – Frunsez Kendricks 1 run (Laszlo Toser kick), 3:01
Second Quarter
EHS – David Whiteside 6 run (Cooper Loftin kick), 7:17
OOL – Adrian Hall 36 interception return (Toser kick), 3:40
OOL – FG Toser 33, 2:17
OOL – Rashun Freeman 25 interception return (Toser kick), 2:01
Third Quarter
OOL – Edward Hayes 2 run (Toser kick), 8:38
OOL – Hayes 9 pass from Kelvin Leon (Toser kick), 5:40
Fourth Quarter
OOL – FG Laslo Toser 37, 9:30
YARDSTICK
OOL EHS
First Downs 17 11
Rushes-Yards 32-131 43-67
Passing Yards 195 61
Com.-Atts.-Int 17-29-1 10-20-2
Total Yards 61-326 63-128
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 6-5
Punts.-Avg. 4-31 6-33
Penalties-Yds. 9-80 6-45
Individual Statistics
Rushing – Ooltewah: Frunsez Kendricks 10-44, Brandon Byrd 8-43, Cameron Turner 5-21,Daizon Taylor 1-17, Kobe Jones 1-11, Edward Hayes 4-11, London Elrod 1-minus 4, Kelvin Leon 2-minus 12; East Hamilton: David Whiteside 19-56, Matt Milita 7-12, Unknown 7-5, Martez Durrah 1-minus 1 Team 1-minus 1, Caleb Rhodes 8-minus 4.
Passing – Ooltewah: Leon 16-28-1 186; East Hamilton – Caleb Rhodes 7-17-2 56, Matt Milita 3-3-0 5.
Receiving—Ooltewah: Edward Hayes 5-71, Rashun Freeman 4-46, Anthony Turner 3-40, Peyton Oliver 1-14, Kendricks 1-11, Ethan Walls 1-9, Blake Smith 1-8, Brandon Byrd 1-minus 4; East Hamilton: Tracy Thompson 2-65, Jordan Gorman 1-26, Whiteside 2-16, Hunter Gregg 1-10, Durrah 2-8, Milita 1-7, James Wright 1-0.
District 5-AAA Standings
School District Overall
Ooltewah 2-0 5-0
Soddy-Daisy 1-1 3-1
Walker Valley 1-1 3-2
Cleveland 1-1 2-3
East Hamilton 1-1 1-4
Bradley Central 0-1 2-2
McMinn County 0-1 1-4
Friday’s Results
Ooltewah 41, East Hamilton 7
Walker Valley 17, Bradley Central 13
Soddy-Daisy 23, Cleveland 16
Oak Ridge 35, McMinn County 0
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)