High School Sports Saturday With Tate Mathews 11-14 -26 “Bad Night for Midstate 6A, but Smyrna Rolls and Brentwood Academy Grinds Toward a Lipscomb Rematch”
Round two of the Tennessee high school football playoffs is in the books, and host Tate Matthews and in-studio analyst Coach Will Hester of Blackman go through the results class by class. The biggest story is how rough the night was for Middle Tennessee in 6A. Antioch, Ravenwood, Brentwood, Clarksville and Green Hill all lost on the west side of the bracket, which guarantees a Memphis team will play in the 6A state final. On the east side, Smyrna and Riverdale kept the midstate alive. Smyrna’s Mark Williams calls in after his team’s buses rolled in at 2 a.m. following a 48–6 road rout of Dobyns-Bennett. He credits a veteran staff full of former head coaches, quarterback AJ Jackson’s leadership, and Yani Morales’s two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. Next up is a quarterfinal at Maryville, a disciplined program Williams last faced in the 2010 state championship.
In D2-AAA, Brentwood Academy’s Paul Wade talks through a 21–6 win over McCallie that he calls “ugly.” He explains why rematches are a chess match, since BA hosts Trent Dilfer’s Lipscomb Academy in the semifinals just weeks after beating them 20–14. He also shares how he sold senior dads on running one formation over and over: one look, six plays built in. The Tennessean’s Tom Crager (spelling unconfirmed) closes the show with his weekly look around the state. He says Memphis football is officially back, with four of its nine 6A teams still alive. He was surprised Lipscomb has come this far with such a young team. He also points to the classification debate around East Nashville and Pearl-Cohn. For games to watch next week, the panel picks Page at Beech, Lipscomb at BA, Greeneville at Alcoa, and Riverdale at a surprise Cleveland team that went from 1–9 to the quarterfinals.




