Ooltewah’s Sanford area player of the week
With the season on the line and their top offensive weapon out with an injury, Ooltewah football coaches put the team’s fate in the hands of quarterback Kyrell Sanford last Friday night. The junior answered with an impressive showing, helping lead the Owls to a 45-7 win at Maryville Heritage that gave them the fourth and final state playoff spot from Region 2-6A.
Sanford completed 22 of 28 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns and ran 11 times for 92 yards and two scores. He also set up another score when he returned a punt 50 yards to finish with 396 total yards.
That led to his selection as the Waffle House All-Star area player of the week.
“He had already had a tremendous year, but no doubt everything ran through him on offense last week,” Owls coach Mac Bryan said. “He’s really improved as a passer and made a lot of key plays with his legs when we needed it.
“Any time a kid takes over at quarterback, it can take some time before he gets comfortable in the position. Kyrell is very smart and has the type demeanor you need — he never gets too high or too low — to be successful.”
In his first year as an
Owls starter, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Sanford now has nearly 2,500 yards of total offense, including 1,850 passing with a 69-percent completion rate.
“Before the game even started last week we knew we had to go hard or go home,” Sanford said. “I knew I had to step up my game because we had some injuries that had some other guys out, so it was a great feeling to help us get that win that we needed to get into the playoffs.”
After the Owls’ defense staked them to an early lead with an interception return, Sanford was a part of their next four TDs, including two before halftime to help them take control.
Ooltewah (5-5) will travel to Kingsport to face Dobyns-Bennett (7-3) in Friday’s first round of the playoffs. The Owls have scored 40-plus points in
all five wins this season and 30-plus in three of their losses, so the offense has played well. Sanford’s playmaking ability was needed even more last week with leading rusher Sincere Quinn sitting out with an injury.
“With Sincere unable to go, we really needed somebody to step up, and that’s exactly what Kyrell did,” Bryan said. “The game plan dictated we would have to throw the ball more, and in a win-or-gohome situation he really played well.
“We’re expecting to get Sincere back for this week’s playoff game, so that should make us more explosive, but it’s good to know we have other playmakers, too, and Kyrell is one of them.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress. com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.