Baylor Scores Late To Beat Brentwood Academy

Briggs Cherry's Third TD Pass Sparks 28-24 Thriller

The Baylor Red Raiders won some big football games this fall as they won all 12 games without a defeat, but none were any more special or exciting than the last one at Finley Stadium Thursday night.

All three of the private school games were played on the first day of the BlueCross Championships and the first two were blowouts with BGA and Nashville Christian rolling to impressive wins. But they saved the best for last as Baylor scored on its final drive to seal a 28-24 victory over Brentwood Academy in a game that could have gone either way.

Erik Kimrey has been Baylor's coach for the past four years and now has two state championships in the past three, but for a game where it started raining about 10 minutes before the opening kickoff and rained the entire game, there were a bunch of happy folks on the Baylor side when the game finally ended.

"Championship games are always tough as it's never easy to win one," Kimrey said shortly after all the post-game awards had been presented.

"That's a good team over there. They had a good plan for us and caused us problems at times with their defense. We talked to our guys all week about momentum, knowing there would be some important shifts. It was all on their side in the second half after scoring the two touchdowns and taking the lead, but we were fortunate to have the bad snap before the intentional grounding call and the missed field goal.

"Brentwood Academy had a great plan and we didn't handle it as well as I would have liked. It was sloppy with all the rain, but our defense really played well and stepped up big in the fourth quarter. I called a play on that last touchdown that I hadn't called in the last three years, but our guy was wide open and it worked.

"But I'm just proud of how our guys stayed the course tonight," Kimrey added.

David Gabriel-Georges was named the game's most valuable player after gaining 151 yards on 28 carries and catching three passes for 60 yards, scoring two TDs in the game.

The super-star junior scored the first touchdown of the game when he snagged a 19-yard pass from quarterback Briggs Cherry with 7:32 left in the first quarter. It was 7-0 after Sam Shutters booted the first of four extra points.

The Eagles responded in a hurry as they took the kickoff and moved 65 yards in 14 plays, erasing 7:16 off the clock before tying the game with two seconds left on a one-yard plunge by Larry Sanders, who finished the game with 215 yards and three TDs.

The Baylor defense got a pair of interceptions in the first half, the first by Keaton Whaley and the second by Cosmo DeMatteo that led to Baylor's second TD when Cherry tossed a 31-yard strike to Jamyan Theodore with 1:02 left before halftime.

The Eagles got a brilliant 70-yard kickoff return by Kesean Bowman to put the Eagles in business at the Baylor 15  where a brilliant play by Jorden Djila Tchuisseu ran him down from across the field and saved a sure touchdown, but they had to settle for a 34-yard field goal after quarterback Crews Jenkins threw three straight incomplete passes.

It was 14-10 at the break.

The Red Raiders took advantage of another turnover to score its third TD following a fumble recovery by Jacob Tate, who covered a horrible snap at the 2. Gabriel-Georges scored on the next play to put Baylor up 21-10 with 10:05 left in the third stanza.

Sanders got the Eagles within four with a 51-yard TD scamper with 7:02 left in the third and then put his team ahead on a 12-yard run with 1:57 showing. Ironically, that second score followed Cherry's second interception of the game after having none in the first 11 games.

A bad snap on a Baylor punt gave Brentwood Academy the ball at the Baylor 35 with 10:58 to play. A 17-yard gain by Sanders moved it to the 18 before two more carries gained 13 yards and had the Eagles knocking on the door at the 5.

Sanders covered another bad snap that lost his team 12 yards, but Jenkins was flagged for intentional grounding on third-and-goal from the 12. The penalty moved the ball back to the 31 where kicker Tommy Bauchiero's 48-yard field goal attempt fell short.

The Red Raiders knew at that point they had dodged a huge bullet and they took advantage, moving 80 yards in 12 plays and scoring what turned out to be the winning touchdown with 3:31 left when Cherry hooked up with sophomore Braxton Rein for a six-yard score on a critical third-and-6.

The Eagles were penalized 15 yards following the score, allowing Baylor to kick off from the 45. There was no return after the kick sailed into the end zone. The Eagles picked up one first down, but a huge sack by Khori Faulkner on third-and-8 lost 12 yards and the game was all but over when Jenkins fourth-down throw fell incomplete.

Cherry was then able to take a knee twice as the final 1:05 slowly ticked off as the Eagles were out of timeouts by that point.

Baylor finished the game with 277 total yards, including 119 on the ground and another 158 through the air. The Eagles countered with 192 total yards, including 152 on the ground and 40 through the air.

Baylor finishes the season a perfect 12-0 while the Eagles ended up at 11-1.

Game Summary

BRENTWOOD ACADEMY	7	3	14	0	--24
BAYLOR SCHOOL	7	7	7	7	-- 28

SCORING SUMMARY:

First Quarter
BAY 07:32 David Gabriel-Georges19 pass from Briggs Cherry (Sam Shutters kick) 7-0

BA 00:02 Larry Sanders 1 run (Tommy Bauchiero kick) 7-7

Second Quarter

BAY 01:02 Jamyan Theodore 31 pass from Briggs Cherry (Sam Shutters kick) 14-7

BA 00:26 Tommy Bauchiero 33 field goal 14-10

Third Quarter

BAY 10:05 David Gabriel Georges 2 run (Sam Shutters kick) 21-10

BA 07:02 Larry Sanders 51 run (Tommy Bauchiero kick) 21-17

BA 01:57 Larry Sanders 12 run (Tommy Bauchiero kick) 21-24

Fourth Quarter

BAY 03:31 Braxton Rein 6 pass from Briggs Cherry (Sam Shutters kick) 28-24

TEAM STATS	Brentwood	Baylor
First Downs	13	16
Rushes-Yards	37-152	32-119
Passing Yards	40	158
Total yards	192	277
Passing (Comp-Att-Int)	6-17-2	13-21-2
Penalties-Yards	6-59	7-52
Punts-Average	0-0.0	1-23.0
Fumbles-Lost	2-1	2-1
3rd Down Conversions	7-14	8-11
4th Down Conversions	2-3	0-1
Time of Possession	24:58	23:02

Individual Stats

Rushing: Larry Sanders 29-215; Crews Jenkins 6-(-27); TEAM 2-(-36) (BA); David Gabriel Georges 28-151; TEAM 4-(-32) (BAY).

Passing: crew Jenkins 6 of 17 for 40 yards, 2 INTs (BA); Briggs Cherry 13 of 21 for 158 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs (BAY).

Receiving Eli ferguson 2-20; Kesean Bowman 2-14; Lex Baskin 2-6 (BA); Jamyan Theodore 5-62; David Gabriel Georges 3-60; Kaiden Dewey 3-22; Kolby Barrett 1-8; Braxton Rein 1-6 (BAY).

Most Valuable Player: David Gabriel Georges, Baylor.

Notable: Baylor wins third championship in school history.

Records: Brentwood Academy 11-1; Baylor 12-0.

(Contact John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Baylor Scores Late To Beat Brentwood Academy - Chattanoogan.com

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