Baylor caps 12-0 football season with second state title in four years
The TSSAA Division II-AAA gold ball championship trophy is staying in Chattanooga.
David Gabriel Georges pounded out 28 carries for 151 yards and a touchdown Thursday night at a rainy Finley Stadium as top-ranked Baylor defeated second-ranked Brentwood Academy 28-24 in the BlueCross Bowl. The state title is the second in four seasons for coach Erik Kimrey's Red Raiders, who completed a 12-0 season.
This is the first undefeated season for Baylor since the 1973 Class AAA state championship team went 13-0 and was crowned national champion by the National Sports News Service.
"It's harder to go undefeated than people think," Baylor senior quarterback Briggs Cherry said. "This is what we've been working for all year, and just being able to finish this is the cherry on top of my career. There is a resilience with this team.
"We believe that something great is about to happen."
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The Red Raiders were in need of something great to happen with 7:55 remaining, when they trailed the Eagles 24-21 and began a critical possession at their 20-yard line. What followed was a 12-play, 80-yard drive that would culminate with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Cherry to Braxton Rein with 3:31 left.
Gabriel Georges, who was named game MVP, had seven carries for 55 yards and a 12-yard reception on that drive.
"We didn't get a whole lot of possessions in the second half, and we didn't do very well with the ones we had," Kimrey said. "At the end of the day, winning a championship is really hard, and that was a very good football team we played. We knew it was going to be a four-quarter battle, and the rain affected the game for sure.
"It was a little bit sloppy, and we were probably a little more conservative than we needed to be, but nobody pointed a finger out there. We encouraged each other, and I really think it's the character of our team that showed through in the end."
The Eagles never got going on their final possession, as a sack by Rein forced a fourth-and-20 from their 21 that they could not convert.
Baylor showed that same character in its 56-35 semifinal home win over McCallie at Heywood Stadium on Nov. 21, breaking free from a 35-35 deadlock through three quarters. Gabriel Georges had 32 carries for 435 yards and seven touchdowns in that rivalry pairing, but the yards came much tougher Thursday night.
Gabriel Georges entered the title game with 1,605 rushing yards this year while averaging an eye-popping 12.0 yards per carry, but his 5.4-yard average against the Eagles was the lowest of his junior season.
"Our goal was to hit him," Brentwood Academy second-year coach Paul Wade said after an 11-1 season came to a close. "We had all of their tapes, and nobody had really hit him. I was surprised he had 151. I didn't think he had that many.
"He's a heck of a player, and we knew he would get his share. We just wanted to put our hats on him as much as we could."
Gabriel Georges left last season's championship contest against McCallie early in the fourth quarter. He finished that game with 10 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown, but the Blue Tornado had a memorable comeback from a 21-0 hole in the second quarter and prevailed 27-21 to beat the Red Raiders in the BlueCross Bowl for the second year in a row.
Baylor and McCallie have now combined to win seven consecutive DII-AAA state crowns, with the Red Raiders responsible for the championships this year and in 2022, when they defeated Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy.
"There is so much that we went through with that state championship game last year," said senior receiver Jamyan Theodore, who had six catches for 62 yards and a touchdown. "We really wanted this."
Until Baylor's winning drive, the second half had been the Larry Sanders show, with the Brentwood Academy junior running back piecing together a 29-carry, 215-yard, three-touchdown evening.
The second score by Sanders came from 51 yards out midway through the third quarter to pull the Eagles within 21-17. Baylor had taken a 21-10 lead less than two minutes into the second half when a bad snap by Brentwood Academy resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Red Raiders outside linebacker Jacob Tate at the 2, which led to a short scoring run by Gabriel Georges on the next play.
Sanders scored from 12 yards out with 1:57 left in the third quarter to give Brentwood Academy its lone lead of the game. The Eagles were playing in their 29th TSSAA state championship game and now have a 14-15 record in those contests.
Baylor improved to 31-4 against TSSAA Division II opposition under Kimrey, which includes a 4-3 record against McCallie and a 5-0 mark against Brentwood Academy.
"I'm just happy for these guys, because they deserve it," Kimrey said. "We weren't thinking about last year. I don't know if I've coached a better group of young men who bought into what we were doing and pulled together as much as these seniors and their leadership. I'm happy for Baylor and I'm happy for them."
Said Gabriel Georges: "I can't even describe how happy the whole team is and the coaches, too. This is so great."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
Baylor caps 12-0 football season with second state title in four years | Chattanooga Times Free Press
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