Owls keep Bears in check

Sevier County gets bounced from postseason by solid Ooltewah club For the second time in as many years, the Sevier County Smoky Bears’ football season ended in the second round of the TSSAA state playoffs. The Smoky Bears (9-3) could not overcome a 10-point first-quarter deficit Friday night at Ooltewah (12-0), and fell to the undefeated, top-ranked Owls, 27-14, before a large crowd on a beautiful autumn night in the mid-state area. Ooltewah will advance to the third-round next week where the Owls will host the Farragut Admirals, second-round winners Friday night over William Blount. “They are a good football team all the way around,” said Sevier County head coach Steve Brewer of the 12-0 Owls. “I’m real proud of our guys, but (Ooltewah) was just the better team tonight.” The Owls, coached by legendary former Cleveland High School skipper Benny Monroe, never trailed in the postseason match-up. Sevier County, and its all-everything senior Corey Watson, did keep things interesting enough to keep the capacity crowd on its feet throughout much of the evening. But the Owls kept the Smoky Bears on their heels through much of the first half, using a multi-faceted rushing attack out of a spread-option formation. Ooltewah took a 7-0 lead with 4:08 left in the first quarter when senior quarterback Jeremy Woods capped a 12-play, 82-yard drive with a one-yard quarterback sneak. The long scoring march was the Owl’s first offensive possession of the night and consumed almost six minutes of the first quarter clock. The Smoky Bears had previously went three-and-out on the game’s initial series after Ooltewah won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half. Ooltewah’s freshman, left-footed kicker John Long, who kicked five of his six kickoff attempts into the end zone, connected on a 44-yard field goal to cap the home team’s second offensive series of the night, giving the Owls a 10-0 lead with 26 seconds left in the first quarter. Long was true on another three-pointer in the last minute of the second quarter, ending the Owls’ final drive of the half, which ate up all but 18.6 seconds of the second quarter clock and put Ooltewah up 13-0. With less than 19 seconds to work with, the Smoky Bears got a gift when Tyler Thomas’ kickoff return to the Sevier County 31 was extended 15 yards because of a late hit on Ooltewah. On first down, Watson hit senior receiver James Feezel on a pass to the Owls’ 38. Ooltewah committed another 15-yard, personal foul penalty on second down, moving the line of scrimmage to the 23 with a fraction over 7 seconds left in the half. Sevier County’s Brewer called his second timeout of the half to devise a scheme to get some points on the board with just a few seconds to work with. However, everything appeared to fall apart for the Bears when Watson was sacked on the ensuing play and the first-half clock elapsed to all zeros. But, to the dismay of the home crowd, the Smoky Bears were given one last chance after it was ruled that a Sevier County player had, in fact, asked for a timeout just before the clock had expired. After one second was put back on the clock, Helton lined up under center and Watson jogged out wide-right. Helton took the snap and watched as the starting quarterback sprinted toward the end zone, never taking his eyes off his teammate as Watson made a slight angle to his left as he crossed the five-yard line. Helton then zipped a tight spiral into triple coverage that the ever-athletic Watson leaped into traffic to snare before falling from the air straight down on the goal line for the improbable, last second touchdown. It gave the large ensemble of Sevier County followers a chance to offer the persistent Smoky Bears an ovation as they made their way to the locker room with all the momentum now on their side. Jared Anders then gave the Smoky Bears even more life when he surprised everyone by striking the kick to start the second half perfectly bouncing right up the middle of the field. The Smoky Bears kicker ran behind the ball and fell on it after it had rolled 10 yards to give the Sevier County offense its best chance of the night, trailing 13-7 at the start of the third quarter. Watson and the Bears offense failed to get anything going though, and after gaining just two yards to midfield, were forced to punt. Tragedy struck like lightning on the Smoky Bears’ comeback attempt, and ultimately their season, when the snap on the punt sailed over the Sevier County punter’s head and rolled back to the 31-yard line where it was recovered by an Ooltewah player. The Owls never looked back, methodically marching down the field to set up another one-yard quarterback sneak to go up 20-7 after the extra-point kick and regaining the momentum that the Smoky Bears had, ever-so-briefly, had gained control of. Another Sevier County interception set up Ooltewah’s final score of the night, giving the home team the ball at its own 41 after Watson overthrew a receiver on second and long. Owls’ running back Sean Sanders later crashed over from the one-yard line to cap a 7-play, 59-yard drive that put the home team up 27-7 after the successful extra-point. Watson led the Smoky Bears on a long, time-consuming 11-play drive in the fourth quarter that ended with a three-yard touchdown pass to Blake Wallace to make the Ooltewah lead 27-14 after the Anders’ extra-point with 8:47 left to play. The Smoky Bears were limited to just 82 rushing yards in the loss while the Owls accounted for a staggering 249 yards on 46 rushing attempts. Because of its rushing success, Ooltewah dominated the time of possession, holding the ball for over 31 minutes while Sevier County had the ball for just 17 minutes of game time. Sevier County did have 238 yards passing compared to 102 for the Owls.