Dobyns-Bennett bashes Bearden

KINGSPORT — Dobyns-Bennett scored on its first four possessions and its defense pitched a shutout until the final five seconds on a milestone night for the football program and its head coach The Indians won 28-7 Friday night as the defense dominated and the offense played well early. Dobyns-Bennett (6-3) honored 16 seniors in its last game before a showdown next Friday with Science Hill for the Region 1-6A title. After the game, it marked the 850th win for the D-B program, and it was the 100th game for Coach Joey Christian. "I looked at the 849 a time or two this week in practice," Christian said. "It says so much about our program. A lot of people have toiled a lot of blood and sweat in this program. It's a special place to coach. In the state of Tennessee, it doesn't get any better than here. To think we've been in charge of this program for nine years, it's amazing." Emmitt Starnes rushed for 104 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries before going down in the third quarter with an elbow injury. Kedrick Harris added 87 more rushing yards and a touchdown. SCORING SUMMARY Dobyns-Bennett scored on its first offensive play. Levi Chappell found Brayden Blakley open down the right sideline for a 70-yard passing touchdown. The Indians started their next drive on the Bearden 31 after a punt return by Gabe Edwards. Chappell hit Blakley on a 20-yard pass play, which set up a 6-yard touchdown run up the middle by Starnes. Dobyns-Bennett went around the right side for the next touchdown, a 9-yard run by Harris. Chappell ran in the 2-point conversion for a 21-0 lead with 11:19 left in the second quarter. Chappell kept the ball again for a 5-yard touchdown run with 8:02 left in the second quarter. It capped off a 5-play, 54-yard drive that included runs of 21 and 19 yards for Starnes. The Indians failed to convert on their final possession of the half as Connor Gilbreath intercepted Chappell's pass in the end zone with 40 seconds left. It was the first of three straight possessions where Dobyns-Bennett got the ball deep in Bearden territory only to have the drives stopped by interceptions. "We had some bad breaks on those, but we have to be able to punch it in," Christian said. "Hopefully, we cannot have the tipped balls or have them go our way. But, defensively our guys played their tails off. They had a hard time running the ball, and we got after our passer a lot." Bearden scored in the closing seconds after quarterback Aidan Thacker completed a 32-yard contested pass to Connor Gilbreath. It set up another 50/50 ball where Taejon Ramey came down with a touchdown with 5.2 seconds on the clock. Despite the interceptions, Christian felt Chappell, who had 121 passing yards, had a good game running the offense. "I thought Levi played his best game tonight. He was in there filling it up," Christian said. "We have to run some better routes and help him on some things. But, it started out really good. The first play to Blakley, he knows what to do. A good win for our guys." Unicoi County 46, West Greene 14 MOSHEIM — Gunner Peterson threw four touchdown passes with two receiving touchdowns for Avery Hatcher and Tanner White as the Blue Devils rolled over the Buffaloes. Blaze Rice finished with two rushing touchdowns. Brady Hendrix also had a touchdown pass to Zach Jenkins. Dobyns-Bennett 28, Bearden 7 Bearden 0 0 0 7 — 7 Dobyns-Bennett 13 15 0 0 — 28 First Quarter D-B—Blakley 70 pass from Chappell (Fuller kick) D-B—Starnes 6 run (kick blocked) Second Quarter D-B—Harris 9 run (Chappell run) D-B—Chappell 5 run (Fuller kick) Fourth Quarter B—Ramey 18 pass from Thacker (Campbell kick)