Would the real McCallie football team stand up in its first road game of the year at Father Ryan?
After a narrow overtime win over Lipscomb Academy that wasn’t decided until the final snap, and a blowout victory against Saint Mary’s Ryken of Maryland that produced 67 points, no one was sure what third-year coach Joel Bradford had in his arsenal. Was the Blue Tornado a contender or pretender in the always powerful TSSAA Division II Class AAA category?
Against non-region member Father Ryan, MCallie prevailed 23-16 in a game that was much closer than most predicted, but one in which the Blue Tornado also fell behind the Irish in a 16-9 hole with 6:56 left to play in the third quarter, only to score the last 14 points of the game before electing to take a knee on the Father Ryan one-yard line at game’s end.
“We did some good things,” said Bradford afterward. “Our guys fought hard, and credit Father Ryan for having a good game plan and their kids playing well. But we’ve got to clean up some things to be the kind of football team we want to be.”
Cleaning up the yellow laundry aimed the Blues’ way in recent weeks will certainly be a priority this week with region foe Ensworth coming to Spears Stadium for Friday’s 7 p.m. kick. McCallie was whistled for 11 penalties covering 89 yards while the Irish were penalized for 17 yards total. Given that McCallie had 79 yards in penalties in the blowout win over Saint Mary’s Ryken and 92 in the overtime win over Lipscomb, cleaning up those self-imposed wounds will surely get special attention this week.
But the entire first half was a mess for the Blue Tornado, which coughed up a fumble on its first possession and an interception on its second, then was guilty of another interception late in the half. Despite all that, McCallie took a 9-3 lead on a 15-yard touchdown catch by senior Xavier Fillion in his first game of the season and a 25-yard field goal by Asher Kelley.
But the Irish would tie matters at halftime, then take a 16-9 lead midway through the third quarter on a short run. It took McCallie one play to tie the game at 16-all, however. Sophomore Levi Scott took a screen pass from junior quarterback Louis Fortier and went 80 yards up the right sideline, Asher Kelley’s PAT then tying the game at 16.
From there, McCallie’s defense stiffened -- the Blue Tornado had a 388-167 edge in total yardage -- and got the go-ahead touchdown on a nine-yard pass from Fortier to Pat Meyers with 7:51 to go. Despite his two interceptions, Fortier threw for 279 yards and three scores, and leading rusher Macc Chapin added 50 yards on the ground.
And down the stretch of the fourth quarter, it was McCallie’s leading tackler on the year, Fisher Kyriakidis, coming up with a huge sack and interception to ice the Blues’ third win of the season against zero defeats. Both Christian Wright and Ben Ironi also had interceptions for the winners.
“Fisher tends to make those kinds of plays when we need them the most,” Bradford said, no doubt calling to mind the four-yard tackle for a loss against Lipscomb in overtime. “His interception late basically sealed the win.”
Now comes the toughest test of the year, Ensworth.
“First region game,” said Bradford. “They are a really good football team. Lots of size up front and a good running back. This is a big test for us. We really need to play a clean game.”
They really need to keep those yellow flags in the officials’ hip pockets.