Tennessee High holds off Dobyns-Bennett

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The road to the local Class 5-A conference football championship has long run through Kingsport. This year there may well be a detour.

Tennessee High showed it is on the right path Friday night, as the homestanding Vikings remained undefeated by spanking traditional power Dobyns-Bennett 27-12 at the Stone Castle.

The win lifted the state’s No.2-ranked team to 7-0 on the season and 4-0 in the Big 8 Conference.  D-B, coming off a 42-28 win over previously unbeaten Sullivan South, fell to 2-5 and 2-2.

“This is awesome,” said THS offensive guard Alex Taylor. “I think I was 4-years-old the last time Tennessee High beat Dobyns-Bennett, and now I get to experience it.  It’s just awesome.”

The Vikings were pretty awesome in the first half last night, grabbing D-B by the throat and not letting go until halftime. By then, THS led 27-0.

Longtime D-B coach Graham Clark, with a 201-44 record coming into the game, tipped his hat.

“They just took it to us in the first half,” said Clark, who may experience his only losing season in 19 years as head coach. “We were not as well-prepared as Coach [Greg] Stubbs and his team, and that’s Graham Clark’s fault.

“I guess we patted ourselves on the back for a big win last week, and somehow I didn’t get us ready to play tonight.”

From the first play of the game,  a 35-yard dash by bruising 6-foot-2, 240-pound running back Bradley Tallman, the Vikings served notice that they are the team to beat in the first year of the Big 8.

“Our plan coming in was to establish our running game between the tackles and I thought we did that,” said Stubbs, whose club must still play once-beatens South and Daniel Boone.  “We were able to come off that and make some throws out here on the edge, and it went pretty good there in the first half.”

THS played an almost-perfect first half, accumulating 167 yards rushing to D-B’s minus 3.  Defensively, the Vikings held junior running back Chris Sensabaugh, who ran for 201 yards against South, to two yards on five carries, while intercepting three passes.

“That was a big plan this week, to stop Sensabaugh,” said THS defensive back Cody Snyder.  “The guys up front did a great job clogging up the middle, and in the secondary we concentrated on stopping the long ball and keeping the ball in front of us.”

The Vikings opened the game with a seven-play, 50-yard drive that ended with a 43-yard field goal from Tyler Graham, who would later add a 34 yarder as well to end the first half.

Tennessee High scored on its next three possessions after grabbing its 3-0 lead.

Riding the broad shoulders of Tallman and the quick feet of Carlos Howard and T.J. Simmons, the Vikings put together drives of 71, 52 and 57 yards en route to three touchdowns and a 24-0 lead with 2:26 on the second quarter clock.

Tallman, who ran for 101 yards on 16 carries, scored on a 1-yard run, while Howard added TD runs of 5 and 14 yards.  Simmons finished the night with 62 of Tennessee High’s 232 yards on the ground.

The Vikings defense allowed D-B to make the score more respectable in the second half, but the damage was already done.

“This is a big step for us,” Snyder said. “We’ve been wanting them for a while.  They’ve had a big winning streak against us, but tonight everything came together for us really well.”