27ALLGO

Ooltewah 35 Science Hill 7 BTW, all you Lou Holtz's out there...at this point in the season you can't keep calling the owls players young. after 10 games they are all experienced players. but i am curious how many "youngsters" are starting for ooltewah this year?

Tribefan, will you be making the trip to Sevier?

SD does not have the speed to stay with the Cherokees. McMinn's D has been impressive themselves against much better competition. McMinn 38 Soddy Daisy 0

This was the best football game i have ever witnessed at ANY level. It's easy to throw around that best tag, but this one is no contest. mcminn had no timeouts and i'm sure was taking just one more shot at the end zone (with the thought of a TD or incomplete pass) and running a little more clock (considering how quickly OR scored previously). In hindsight, easy to say that wasn't the best decision. OR did fumble several times but i don't think mcminn actually got any did they? Awesome game by mcminn's will matthews. played solid defense all night. got the big INT towards the end of regulation, returned the KO into OR territory to put mcminn in position to win in regulation, and defended the 2 pt conversion well. great game players. you've given this football fan a memory i will never forget.

any scrimmage kick whether it is a punt or field goal is treated like a punt. the defense can field the kick, as long as it doesn't reach the end zone, and return it or the offensive team can down it. it should have been downed on the 1. take nothing away from cleveland. they will win many games this year and probably go far in the playoffs.

Let's see against ooltewah mcminn was 3-11 passing. 1 completion went for negative yardage and 1 ended up in a fumble that the owls recovered. that makes for ONE positive passing play. yeh, mcminn definitely should have thrown more in that game. against cleveland mcdermott had 180+ yards. cleveland could not stop the run game. mcminn's receivers dropped several passes and didn't look for the ball on several others. throw in that with the qb throwing an INT on 3rd and 1, and i can see why anyone would want mcminn to throw more. . .especially their opponents.

i agree with physically but not mentally. the cherokees came out ready to play. you may recall that one of those big plays came very early to put mcminn ahead. defensively, mcminn stopped ooltewah early as well. a couple of lapses in pass coverage late hurt. although ooltewah moved the ball more consistantly their scores came from big plays. mcminn had very few penalties after having 16 in their first game. (non of this is to say that the coaching on mcminn's sideline can even come close to ooltewah's, with Monroe & Gatewood, at this point) i do believe that the cherokees were mentally prepared. we did run out of gas, though. from what i witnessed friday nite, the owls are more likely to be #1 than #2. good luck to you guys.

cooterhooter and ImaOWL, thanks for the respectful comments. McMinn came into this ball game to win not just earn respect. we played well enough to be in contention but not well enough to beat a better than expected ooltewah team. IMO the owls are, or at least will be, better than last year's team. very quick on D and many weapons on O. Mcminn's offense couldn't get anything consistently. the D played well most of the game. marshall had 159 but included a 70 yd TD. take that play away and Mcminn's D holds him to 89 yrds on 26 carries. not bad considering they had to focus on the pass as well. ooltewah got many yards themselves on busted assignments (ie the last TD pass). Woods made many plays, with arm or legs, after Mcminn's D was able to flush him from pocket. Mcminn's D got tired late. the owls had 61 offensive plays. sorry for the rambling. good luck to the owls and maybe we'll see you in the playoffs. http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_91999.asp

If you are using the past two years games as an indicator (82-7) then why would you have a prediction of the owls by only 2 TD's let alone an IF statement that mcminn may win? my prediction is not based on years past but on this years teams. i don't know who you think has the areas best passing team (please don't say rhea or cookeville) but no way this years owls club is better than last years.

Should be a great game featuring arguably the regions best 2 backs in marshall and mcdermott. mcminn 24 ooltewah 14 * assuming of course that mcminn can correct the penalties and turnovers (which killed them in this same game last year) from last friday nite.

O.K. I understand what you're saying now. I still think McMinn is the best representative. Hard to punish a team just b/c they are logistically in a better position to play all of the region teams. I understand Ooltewah and Soddy and even Bradley for that matter not wanting to travel to the northern schools to play, and vice versa. But, that is still a choice those teams/coaches made. Even though there is no good criteria for choosing the best teams from each division, you can't ignore that McMinn was 5-1 against region 2-5A freshmen teams. Besides, I'm pretty sure McMinn's freshmen could beat the JV squads of Central, Walker Valley, Sweetwater, and McMinn Central as well. Don't know anything about Gordon Lee. Shoot, McMinn's freshmen could beat McMinn's JV for that matter. Anyway, it is a moot point now, since McMinn is playing and I hope you're right about next year having criteria in place. Yeah, Cleveland's Freshmen were pretty strong.

What teams did Ooltewah's freshmen team play? Whose JV squads did they play?

I don't even know what you just said.

Someone explain to me why Ooltewah freshmen are playing other schools JVs? I know the other schools have freshmen teams b/c McMinn played them and won. Don't talk logistics. If Ooltewah doesn't want to travel to the northern schools to play and vice versa, that's their choice. Why should McMinn be punished? This entire thread is ridiculous. How can there even be an argument as to who is supposed to represent the southern region. You would have to be a complete fool to think McMinn didn't deserve to be in the championship game. McMinn has played SIX region games. The southern teams aren't the only ones that matter. McMinn's freshmen have played twice the region games that Ooltewah and Soddy have played and have only 1 loss. Let McMinn have this moment b/c they've earned it. This has nothing to do with varsity teams.

Yeh, that makes a heckuva lot of sense. I'm going to defend the special teams play but in the same comment say how bad it was AND point out two other special teams miscues that hadn't previously been mentioned. Coach or not, that would be pretty d* stupid, wouldn't it?