Lausanne football gets four TDs from Eric Gray, beats Northpoint

On Friday, Lausanne's Eric Gray was named as one of five semifinalists for the Division II-AA Mr. Football award. Against Northpoint, he shared the spotlight with his defense.

Gray — who won the award in 2016 when the Lynx competed in DII-A — scored four touchdowns to support a lights-out performance from Erik Campbell and company as Lausanne defeated visiting Northpoint, 35-0.

The defending state champs, who will host Franklin Road Academy next week, are 10-0 and have won a state-best 24 straight games. Although there were plenty of times when they didn't look the part.

"It's self-inflicted wounds," said coach Kevin Locastro. "Big plays called back because of a holding penalty, a personal foul penalty here. I told the kids before the game and I really feel like this going through the playoffs ... our biggest opponent is ourselves.

"We've got to find a way to make other teams beat us, not find ways to beat ourselves. Tonight, we didn't play well enough to win the state championship in my opinion."

After a scoreless first quarter in which each team had one drive, Gray went to work. He scored on runs of 11, 4 and 1 yards to put Lausanne ahead 21-0 at halftime. He then scored on a 24-yard run in the third following a long punt return by Devin Boddie Jr. to take his total to 32 for the season while finishing with 197 yards.

"We were a little shaky at first," said Gray. "We played them before and their game plan was to stop the run. We kind of came out and passed to see if they could adjust but then the run opened up."

While the offense was getting cranked up, the defense was terrific from the start. Campbell — who moved from safety to defensive end in a five-man front — had four tackles-for-loss and a sack and spent much of the game in the Trojans backfield. Yusef Thomas also had a sack.

Lausanne's last score came on a 16-yard pass from Sky Forrest to Devin Boddie Jr. It was the second game back for Forrest after missing five games due to injury. Boddie filled in well in his absence but Forrest could be the X-factor going forward.

"Sky is a big difference from Junior," said Gray. "Junior is more of a runner. With Sky, they have to play the pass as well as the run." 

Forrest finished 6-of-10 for 135 yards and the score.

Northpoint finishes 5-6 in Chris Cascio's first year.

Mr. Football semifinalists named

Along with Gray, there were seven other Shelby County players who were named Mr. Football semifinalists in their respective divisions.

Two players were named in Division II-AAA, Briarcrest senior running back Tyler Badie and junior defensive end Bill Norton of CBHS. There were also two players named in Class 6A, Cordova running back Jeremy Banks and Germantown receiver-defensive back Jaylin Williams.

Other semifinalists are Raleigh-Egypt running back Kalyn Grandberry (Class 3A) and Southwind defensive end Jordan Davis (Class 5A). The only repeat semifinalist from 2016 is MAHS running back Caleb Johnson (Class 2A).

The three finalists in each class will be announced by Tennessee Titans' announcer Mike Keith at www.titansonline.com at noon on Nov. 13. The winners will then be announced during ceremonies at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on Nov. 27.

Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas.