CHATTANOOGA — The drive home on I-24
must have seemed like an eternity.
Riverdale (1-1) had a two touchdown
lead late in the fourth quarter but put the ball in the hands of
Division II Mr. Football and UT-committment B.J. Coleman three times in
the final 2:24 and it led to a heart-breaking finish.
Calmly and precisely, Coleman led
Division II No. 5 McCallie (1-0) to a remarkable 33-27 come-from-behind
win over the No. 1 ranked Class 5A Warriors at Finley Stadium Friday.
On the final play of the game from the
Riverdale 48, Coleman’s Hail Mary bounced off the hands of two Warrior
defenders and into the grasp of wide receiver Walter Dozier for the win.
“I put my hands on it,” said
Riverdale defensive back Jeremy McClain. “I don’t know what
happened. I was too busy caught up into thinking, ‘it’s overtime,
it’s overtime.’”
Coleman, who finished with 270 passing
yards and three touchdowns, completed a TD pass to Dozier with 1:35 left
to cut Riverdale’s lead to 27-20.
With McCallie out of timeouts, the
Warriors ran a quarterback sneak and Scott Thomas, who had rushed for
125 yards and two touchdowns, lost a fumble.
The Blue Tornado scored again with 22
seconds left on a two-yard pass to Johnny Newman for the tie. The
Warriors tried one last chance to score in regulation — and it
back-fired.
Thomas’s pass was intercepted by
linebacker Thomas Green giving McCallie two shots at the end zone with
only eight seconds left in the game.
“That wasn’t a wise decision on my
part,” said Riverdale coach Ron Aydelott of the pass play that was
picked off by Green. “(Thomas) was the reason for where we were.
That’s on me. I made bad decisions and that’s the bottom line.
I’ll accept full responsibility.”
Riverdale’s offense amassed 449
rushing yards and had three backs (McClain had 128 yards and Monty
Newsom added 114) over 100 yards.
Riverdale scored two touchdowns
in the second half before McCallie had the football. Thomas scored on a
3-yard run for a 13-6 lead. After the Blue Tornado fumbled the kickoff
Thomas scored from seven yards out.
