REGION REPEAT
Irish top CCS to win DII-AA East
There was no impassioned, fireand-brimstone speech at halftime.
Instead, with his football team trailing by a point at the midway point, Notre Dame coach Charles Fant calmly reminded his players that if they would simply take care of the small details, they would walk away with a huge win.
With the region championship on the line Friday night, that’s just what the Fighting Irish did, wearing down host Chattanooga Christian School to earn a 29-7 win and repeat as Division II-AA East champions.
Notre Dame (8-1, 5-0) will now have home-field advantage throughout the state playoffs, traveling only if it reaches the championship game in Cookeville.
“Coach (Mark) Mariakis and his staff had a tremendous game plan,” Fant said in praise of the CCS staff. “It’s been a long time since we had a tough game where we had to fight and scrap, and I like the way our kids responded.
“We watched what they were doing to us and made some adjustments, but our program is all about taking care of the little details and letting those add up.”
After CCS (5-4, 3-2) stuffed Notre Dame on fourth-and-3 on the game’s opening possession, the Chargers needed just five plays to cover 72 yards, highlighted by a 40-yard run from Mondo Ellison and capped with a 2-yard touchdown run by Traveon Scott.
The underdog Chargers continued to ride the momentum of the lead midway into the second quarter before Notre Dame answered
with a six-play, 78-yard scoring drive — all running plays — that ended with Jordan Ford’s 31-yard sprint to the end zone. A missed extra point allowed CCS to maintain a 7-6 lead as the second half began.
“Our offensive and defensive lines just kept pushing and finding a way to give us holes to run through, and things really started to open up for us in the second half,” said Notre Dame senior running back Cam Wynn, who finished with 15 carries for 106 yards and two touchdowns, including a 25-yard score late in the third quarter that put his team ahead to stay.
Notre Dame extended its lead in the fourth, adding touchdowns on its last two drives — an 11-yard pass from Jeffery Watkins to Bennette Brinson and a 6-yard run by Wynn. The Irish defense limited Ellison to just 25 yards in the second half after Ellison, an all-state pick a year ago, had gained 104 in the first half.
“We played at their level for three quarters, but we still have to learn how to play for four quarters against the best teams in the state,” Mariakis said. “We learned we can compete with one of the best teams, and that’s growth for our program.
“Now we have to get ready for another big region game that will decide where we stand for the playoffs coming up.”
Notre Dame gets a week off before the playoffs begin Nov. 2. CCS closes its regular-season schedule next week at Knoxville’s Grace Christian.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.
“Now we have to get ready for another big region game that will decide where we stand for the playoffs coming up.”
– NOTRE DAME COACH MARK MARIAKIS