Maybe fall break should come around more than once a year.
In perhaps the biggest victory in the last five years for the MUS football program, the Owls used a balanced, opportunistic offense and an extremely salty defense to sideswipe defending state champion Chattanooga McCallie, 39-17, in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd last Friday night.
For those who spent their fall break vacationing, they missed one of the most complete Owl performances in recent history.
The Owls (6-3, 2-1) jumped out quickly on the Blue Tornado (6-2, 2-1), ranked #1 in the state and winners of 18 out of their last 19 games. The vaunted McCallie option was shut down from the outset as the defense continued to pursue the ball well, string plays out, and tackle much better than earlier in the season.
In fact, the MUS defense got the Owls on the scoreboard first. On McCallie's second possession following an interception on their first, DE Todd Jean-Pierre, who continued his stellar line play, hit McCallie QB Ryan Moore and forced an errant pitch that sailed into the MUS endzone. Though the Blue Tornado recovered, the Owls recorded their first safety of the season to jump out to a 2-0 lead just 3 minutes into the game.
That small lead grew quickly.
After the ensuing free kick and Derek Clenin's 32-yard return, MUS needed only 8 plays to move 39 yards as QB John Conrad McCrary scored on a sneak from 1-yard out. The Ben Tacker PAT extended the advantage to 9-0 as the Owls began to take control.
Following another excellent defensive stand, MUS got the ball back and quickly kept the pressure on.
Taking advantage of more excellent field position, the Owls increased their lead quickly. On the second play of the drive from the McCallie 44, McCrary, who finished 9-16 passing for 144 yards, found WR John David Lawhorn, who put some ankle-breaking moves on the Blue-Tornado secondary to score his fourth touchdown of the season. Tacker's kick gave MUS the 16-0 lead as the first quarter ended.
Though McCallie never gave up, they could not get anything going in the first half against the inspired Owl defense.
Following another Blue-Tornado punt, MUS showed that their offense could also put a long drive together in the second quarter. On this 8-play drive, which included a steady dose of Clenin runs and McCrary passes, the Owls quickly moved into Blue-Tornado territory.
Then, from the McCallie 12, McCrary scored his second rushing touchdown of the game as he completed the 80-yard, 3:46 drive with the keeper. Tacker's extra point gave the Owls the 23-0 lead.
But MUS did not let up.
On the next possession, safety Trae Bryant snagged his second interception of the game and set the Owls up in McCallie territory. Following the gift, MUS needed only 4 plays to score. McCrary culminated the drive with his third rushing touchdown of the game, this one from 10 yards out, to increase the lead. Tacker's PAT hit the crossbar and fell back, but MUS still led 29-0.
However, they still were not done.
LB Bunky Parr got in on the pick party several minutes later as he intercepted Moore and alertly got out of bounds with 2.6 seconds remaining in the half, just enough time for a final field-goal attempt.
Tacker did his job as he booted a 33-yarder as time expired to give the Owls an amazing 32-0 halftime lead.
The first-half dominance not only showed up on the scoreboard but also in the statistics. MUS had outgained McCallie 217-33 in total yards, limited the Blue Tornado to only 3 first downs, and held Moore, one of the best quarterbacks in the region, to only 1-12 passing with 3 interceptions.
In the second half, MUS controlled the ball, the clock, and the game to cruise to victory.
McCallie did tack on 17 second-half points to make the score respectable, but they did not have enough time to get back into the game.
Moore showed off his great talent by booting a 35-yard field goal, which would have been good from 50 yards, on the Blue-Tornado's first second-half possession to chip at the lead.
They got even closer following a block of a Rob Park punt by Chris Johnson, his second block of the game. Johnson completed the drive as he took it in from 4-yards out for the score. His run on the two-point conversion also helped, cutting the lead to 32-11 early in the fourth quarter.
But MUS would have nothing of a comeback.
After recovering the onside kick, the Owls needed only 6 plays to tack on another score. John Phillips came in to lead the team on the final 4 plays of the drive, and his 5-yard bootleg increased the lead to 39-11.
The Blue Tornado did tack on one final, meaningless touchdown as Johnson, who finished with 49 yards on 9 carries and carried much of the load following a decimating injury to RB Wayne Fullam, went in from 1 yard out, making the final score 39-17 following the missed two-point conversion.
The Owls put together as complete a performance as they had all season on this night. The defense allowed only 165 total yards to a team that had been averaging 382 total yards, including 237 yards on the ground. They also held Moore to 3-17 passing for 38 yards and 3 interceptions.
The offense also looked solid. Their balanced attack continued as they totaled 191 rushing yards and 144 passing yards. They averaged 5.6 yards per play and gained 16 total first downs. They also held the ball nearly 6 minutes longer than the Blue Tornado and took advantage of their excellent field position. But most important, the Owls had no turnovers as they executed excellently.
The win puts MUS in good playoff position. Facing an open week before the final tangle with Christian Brothers on November 1, the Owls are still battling for the top seed in the conference. Currently, they are tied with McCallie and Brentwood Academy for first in the conference but would lose in a tiebreaker with those schools because of overall record. But as long as they take care of their own business, the Owls should be in good position.