KINGSPORT — It rarely comes easy when Dobyns-Bennett and Oak Ridge meet on the football field.
The Indians were at the Oak Ridge 5-yard line, going in for a three-score lead in the closing seconds of the first half when they fumbled the ball. The Wildcats then went down and kicked a 32-yard field goal.
Oak Ridge scored again on its first possession of the second half and dominated the third quarter before the Tribe got back on track. Senior quarterback Jake Carson led the way, throwing for 195 yards and two touchdowns in the Indians' 21-12 win Friday night at J. Fred Johnson Stadium.
Carson and the Indians (7-1), ranked No. 3 in Class 6A, didn’t panic despite the threat from the Wildcats (4-5).
“We get it inside the 10 and it’s going to be 21-0 at the half. Instead, it becomes 14-3 with a big momentum swing,” D-B coach Joey Christian said. “We had a hard time throwing down the field against these guys, but the No. 1 rule, we took care of the ball. We had to dink and dunk in the second half, but at times it was effective.”
FIRST HALF
After a scoreless first quarter, Hayden Russell raced past his defender and Carson found him for a 70-yard touchdown. Later in the half, Carson threw a screen pass to Peyton Franklin, who followed his blockers for a 54-yard touchdown and a 14-0 Indians lead.
“That throw to Russell was something we put in this week,” Carson said. “That’s the way we drew it up. We’re going to give the safety two people. He’s going to choose one and the other will be wide open. Hayden was wide open and I just had to get it to him. He ran a 40-yard dash from there and scored.”
The fumble at the end of the first half changed the momentum. The Wildcats drove from their own 12-yard line to the Indians' 15. Junior kicker David Wilson booted his 32-yarder on the last play of the half to cut it to 14-3.
THIRD-QUARTER BLUES
Oak Ridge scored on its first possession of the second half after a seven-play, 47-yard drive ending in Jai Hundley's 1-yard run. The Wildcats had a chance to pull ahead on a drive aided by a pair of pass interference calls before George Evans tackled Hundley on fourth down at the Indians' 22.
“We needed a big stop on that drive. The defense had been struggling to stop them,” Evans said. “Sometimes when it’s a heavy-run formation like that, you can get through unblocked. I was able to find the hole, get through and make the tackle. I just had to make sure I got low, wrapped up and got him down.”
Still, the Wildcats kept the pressure on and scored on a safety after a bad snap on a punt to make it 14-12 with 28 seconds left in the quarter.
INDIANS HANG ON
The Indians took advantage of a fumble on a punt return, turning it into a two-score lead when Franklin broke through the line for a 26-yard TD run. He had a team-high 52 rushing yards, half on that play.
Overall, it was tough sledding for D-B, which managed only 116 rushing yards on 31 carries — an average of 3.7 yards per carry. It would have been significantly higher if Brayden Simpson’s 82-yard burst on D-B’s first offensive play hadn’t been negated by a holding penalty.
Both teams were heavily penalized. Oak Ridge was flagged 17 times for 150 yards and D-B 15 times for 130 yards.
“You just keep chipping away at it,” Christian said. “We kept running the same play, wide zone. They would squeeze it off. We would miss a block here, couldn’t find a linebacker there, but we kept at it. Finally, Peyton was able to make a play for us.”
D-B's Jonavan Gillespie closed out the game with an interception.
Hundley finished with 108 rushing yards on 10 carries and quarterback Ethan Garza threw for 109 yards for Oak Ridge.
NEXT UP
D-B heads to Science Hill next Friday in a showdown for the Region 1-6A championship.
