Oak Ridge overcomes miscues to edge Montgomery, move to 5-0
SHENANDOAH — It was far from perfect. But despite a bevy of untimely penalties and some miscues on both sides of the ball, Oak Ridge found a way to win on Friday night at Woodforest Bank Stadium, claiming a 24-21 victory over Montgomery.
The War Eagles are now 5-0 for the first time since 2013, a season in which the team started 7-0 under coach Dereck Rush. But more importantly, Oak Ridge is 2-0 in District 12-6A this season and avenged a 28-21 road loss to the Bears from a year ago.
“It took effort and fight through adversity from our football team,” Rush said. “Overall, our kids fought, and they could have easily quit. But they fought and played hard and made plays when we needed to make plays. … We made some mistakes, but some of those things are correctable, and we’ve just got to build off that and get better.”
After leading 17-7 at halftime, Oak Ridge took a two-score lead when senior running back Trevarious Grimes plunged into the end zone on a 4-yard run. That would be just enough cushion for the War Eagles’ defense, which came up with two big stops late in the fourth quarter.
On the second-to-last drive for Montgomery, the Bears had the ball right at midfield when senior defensive back Mykedrian Ellis came up with an interception of quarterback Jordan Hood to halt the drive and end the threat.
The critical turnover came with 4:04 on the clock, and after burning some precious seconds way with their running game, the War Eagles punted. Montgomery took over at its own 5-yard line with a little over a minute to play. But Oak Ridge got the fourth-down stop it needed with 42 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
“We still have control of our own destiny, so we’ve got to get better — that’s the bottom line,” Montgomery coach John Bolfing said. “We’ve got to get ready for Conroe next week. They’re going to come over there, and it’s going to be a heck of a game, and we’ve got to get ready for it. We’ve just got to get better every week.”
Montgomery was moving the ball well on its first drive of the game, but after breaking off a 29-yard run into Oak Ridge territory, Hood fumbled the ball. It was scooped up by defensive back Zavier Johnson at the War Eagles’ 3-yard line.
Oak Ridge took advantage of the turnover a few plays later, cashing in on a 92-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Reinard Britz to a wideopen Tanner Lacy.
“I think we just made mistakes,” Bolfing said. “Give all the credit in the world to Oak Ridge — they played a heck of a game, and we had trouble offensively in the first half getting anything going. … Good defenses cause mistakes, and they did.”
Oak Ridge added to its lead later in the first quarter as Darrius Jelks took a screen pass from Britz and raced 34 yards to the end zone.
Montgomery finally got on the board with less than five minutes to play before halftime, using some trickery on double pass to beat the War Eagles for a 33-yard score. Wide receiver Caleb Campbell, a former quarterback, caught a backwards pass from Hood to the left of the formation and fired a strike down the middle of the field to Alex Nunn, who hauled in the touchdown.
Oak Ridge made it a two-score game with two seconds remaining on the clock before halftime as Parker Venema connected on a 21-yard field goal for the 17-7 advantage.
The War Eagles kept their momentum going in the third quarter as Grimes capped a 66-yard drive with his touchdown run.
Montgomery answered on the ensuing drive as Daniel Dobis caught a pass from Hood in the flats and rumbled 27 yards to reach paydirt, making the score 24-14.
The Bears cut the lead to three points with 19 seconds remaining in the third period when Hood connected with Campbell for 14-yard touchdown pass. But that’s all the Bears could get, and the War Eagles made just enough plays down the stretch to earn the important league victory.
“This district here, any given Friday, if you don’t come to play, you can definitely get beat,” Rush said. “Every district game is important. Every win in district gets us a step closer to our destination as far as goals are concerned. Every win is going to be a big win for us.”