Leon-led Ooltewah Owls knock off Indians

photo Ooltewah's passes in the face of defensive pressure from Dobyns-Bennett. Photo by Ned Jilton II

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Ooltewah scored 14 points in the final four minutes of the game and stopped Dobyns-Bennett twice to preserve a hard-fought 42-34 come-from-behind win over the previously undefeated Indians at a packed J. Fred Johnson Stadium on Friday night.

Owls quarterback Kelvin Leon keyed the victory, completing 23 of 37 passes for 347 yards and five touchdowns.

After Dobyns-Bennett (5-1) kicked a 23-yard field goal to go out front 34-28 with 5:16 left in the game, the Owls (6-0) drove 80 yards in eight plays. Leon connected with Edward Hayes for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 3:39 to go, putting Ooltewah up 35-34.

On the Owls' first play after they stopped the Indians on fourth-and-20, Brandon Byrd raced 39 yards to give Ooltewah a 42-34 advantage.

Dobyns-Bennett took over on its 20-yard line with 2:07 left in the contest. Two roughing-the-passer penalties against Ooltewah got the ball to the 50, but the Indians had four straight incompletions and the Owls were able to run out the clock and come away with the win.

"D-B did a heck of a job against us tonight," said Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan. "At halftime we didn't talk about changing much. The plays were there; we just needed to make them."

Indians coach Graham Clark could only think about what might have been.

"They just made one more play than we did," Clark said. "We needed a little more time there at the end. We had a couple of dropped balls late, and that hurt us.

"All in all, I just have to get us one more call and things could have turned out different."

Hayes finished the game with three TD catches. His other two went for 3 and 49 yards.

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