MURFREESBORO – Oakland showed that its old-school football mentality still is a winning recipe in the postseason.

The Patriots used a strong ground game combined with a dominating defensive effort to beat Blackman 20-9 on Friday night in The Inferno in a Class 6A quarterfinal game.

Oakland (12-1) avenged back-to-back losses to the rival Blaze (11-2), including a 17-3 loss in last year’s quarterfinals. The Patriots host Maryville (13-0) next week in a semifinal at Ray Hughes Stadium.

“We knew going into the second half that we had a whole lot to finish,” Oakland junior defensive tackle Ty Nix said. “We had a whole plan — stay the course and make them drive the length of the field, and make them do it again and again.”

It was a plan that worked.

Trailing 7-6 at halftime, the Patriots drove 80 yards on 11 plays with George Gbesee scoring on a 15-yard TD run to make it 14-7 after JaCorey Smith’s 2-point conversion run. The score was helped by a Blackman offside on fourth-and-1 at the Oakland 46 and a personal foul after Smith’s 20-yard completion to Kyle Oliver.

Tennessee high school football playoff scores

Two plays later, Gbesee, who also had an interception and a fumble recovery, scored.

Penalties affected both squads. Oakland standout linebacker Kevin Prather, the Patriots’ leading tackler, was ejected for two unsportsmanlike penalties on the sixth play of the game.

“We rallied the troops and played for the guy next to you,” said Oakland coach Thomas McDaniel of the loss of Prather. “Someone made a mistake, and it’s unfortunate because he’s going to be out another week. But that’s the consequence he faces. But the rest of the guys really rallied.”

Prather will miss next week’s game due to Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association ejection rules.

Oakland finished with nine penalties for 93 yards. But Blackman had 13 for 140 yards.

“I thought our lack of composure in critical times … they had penalties in the first series, and after that we had all of the dumb penalties,” Blackman coach Philip Shadowens said.

Oakland pushed the game to 20-7 when Josh Cunningham capped a 51-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run. Cunningham finished with 127 yards on 26 carries.

Blackman took the opening series 77 yards thanks to multiple Oakland penalties and scored on a Jauan Jennings 6-yard run with 7:56 left in the first quarter.

Oakland eventually answered late in the first half when Kyle Oliver won a jump ball over Quentin Hardy and Jalen Miller and ran into the end zone for a 54-yard TD reception.