Could anyone imagine it would be so easy?
Facing the Bartlett Panthers, a 3-1 team that had the 6th-ranked defense in the Shelby-Metro area, MUS executed their game plan brilliantly and minimized mistakes to take a surprisingly easy 28-7 victory on the road last Friday night.
Running much of the offense out of the shotgun, quarterback John Phillips got great protection and picked the Panther secondary apart as he completed 8-12 passes for 126 yards. And the success in the passing game, which spread the Bartlett defense out, opened up the running attack for the Owls (4-2, 0-1). The Panthers (3-2) seemed a step slow much of the night and never could get any offense going on the warm September evening.
MUS jumped out quickly on Bartlett. On the opening drive, Phillips hit several passes to receiver Jamie Drinan, who had 4 catches for 77 yards before leaving the game with an injury in the 3rd quarter. Those completions, one for 10 yards and another for 29, got the Owls close. RB Ross Rutledge finished the 9-play, 67-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge, and the David Thompson PAT gave MUS the early 7-0 lead.
Bartlett was ineffective offensively for most of the first quarter. Their only real threat was RB Charles Hodge, a big, 220-pound back who picked up 109 yards on 19 carries for the game. But they could not sustain any drives early.
The Panthers finally garnered some offensive momentum following a second-quarter MUS turnover, the Owls' only giveaway of the game.
Taking the ball at their own 27-yard line, the Panthers pounded the Owls with Hodge to get into MUS territory. Finally, from the MUS 24, Bartlett used a misdirection running play as RB Jeff Brown went untouched into the end zone for the score. Kyle Hudson kicked the extra point true, and Bartlett had tied the score at 7.
But the Owls took the lead for good on their next drive. Running a variety of run and pass plays to keep the Panthers off-balance, Phillips led MUS down the field. Then, on the 8th play of the drive, Phillips hit TE Blake Lindsay for a 7-yard scoring pass. Thompson's PAT gave MUS the 14-7 lead, a lead they would never relinquish.
In the second half, the Owls' defense dominated, and the MUS running game controlled the clock.
Rutledge got his second touchdown of the game in the third quarter as he went in from 2 yards out following a Bartlett turnover early in the second half.
Then, in the final quarter, Phillips finished off his solid evening as he scored from 3 yards out on a bootleg to complete the scoring. That play culminated a dominant 15-play drive that amassed 71 yards and 5:41 off the clock.
The stat sheet looked just as one-sided as the scoreboard for the Owls. MUS gained 354 total yards, including 205 on the ground against a defense that had not allowed a touchdown in their previous two games. Meanwhile, the Panthers could only amass 175 total yards with 73 of those coming on their only scoring drive.
The Owls also had an amazing 10 rushers run the ball as they tried to keep the pressure on the overworked Bartlett defense. MUS ran 26 more plays than Bartlett and eventually wore the bigger Panthers down to claim the win, a non-region victory that is extremely important as overall record is just as important as conference record when determining playoff teams in the Super 7.
The Owls return to Super-7 action this week as MBA travels down I-40 for the 7:30 PM kickoff. The Big Red, the three-time defending state champion, will come in angry after losing to CBHS 14-11 in Nashville last Friday night. The loss to the Purple Wave marked MBA's second defeat of the season.