Jordyn Potts (5), Jayden Collins and the Powell Panthers faced the Page Patriots in the TSSAA Division I Class 5A state championship at W. Max Finley Stadium on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Powell won 42-34. (Photo by Danny Parker)
CHATTANOOGA — Jordyn Potts, the Powell starting quarterback, didn’t let last year’s tough performance in a first-round playoff loss define him.
The 6-foot junior chose to grow from the situation instead.
“I got a lot of crap after that game,” said Potts, referring to a turnover-filled, 21-16 loss to Walker Valley on Nov. 6, 2020.
“All I did was come in the next day and worked harder.”
All the extra effort paid off Friday night.
Potts completed 24 of 30 passes in the Class 5A BlueCross Bowl championship against Page, and his 324 yards and four touchdowns not only earned him game MVP honors but also catapulted Powell to a 42-34 victory.
“He is that playmaker. He is going to find ways to put you in position to win — whether it’s throwing it over the top or whether it’s reading the coverage and putting it where it needs to be or avoiding the rush to make a play,” Powell coach Matt Lowe said of Potts.
“I’ve had some great ones over the years: some guys who have gone on to have great college careers and some guys who did some amazing things. But Jordyn is certainly up there with the best of them, if not sitting right there at the top.”
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That win Friday gave Powell (13-2) its first-ever state football championship after runner-up finishes in 1991 and 2011. And, it marked just the second state championship for Powell in a boys sport, the first being the 1995 boys track team.
But as soundly as Potts played in the second half, the Panthers still had to defend to the last play Friday against a scrappy Page team (13-2).
Powell got an all-important score coming out of halftime, one it needed desperately after surrendering 20 unanswered in the second quarter.
Potts led a seven-play, 51-yard scoring drive, punctuating it with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Collins (nine catches, 79 yards). The score bumped Powell’s lead to 28-20 with 8 minutes, 43 seconds left in the third.
After Page dropped an open touchdown catch on the next possession and Powell ultimately stopped them on downs, Potts struck again.
His perfectly placed 25-yard strike to Adarius Redmond bumped the lead to 15 with 56 seconds left in the third. Potts set up the score with a 52-yard bomb to Redmond two plays prior. Redmond, a junior, finished with six catches for 139 yards
“Me and my receivers have known each other for a long time now,” said Potts. “We have so many offseason workouts. And now that chemistry is like night and day.”
Jake McNamara, a senior QB at Page and Colorado State commit, answered with a 9-yard scoring strike — a third-down pass with 8:51 to play. That trimmed the Powell lead to 35-27.
Powell faced a fourth-and-2 at midfield with roughly 6 minutes to go, and Potts delivered on the money to Collins for a first down, keeping Page’s comeback hopes at bay for a touch longer.
And when Potts tossed a 33-yard touchdown to Ayden Greene with 5:52 to go, the Powell lead grew to 42-27 and looked to be safe.
Nope.
Even when Carson Whitehead intercepted a tipped ball with 3:01 left, that didn’t seal it, either.
Page got a TD pass with 49 seconds remaining to get within eight points.
And then the Patriots recovered the onside kick. McNamara led Page to the Powell 32 with 6 seconds left.
His final pass, though, was batted away by a leaping Greene in the end zone.
A massive Powell celebration spewed forth onto the field.
“I’m feeling great. This is the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life, honestly,” said Powell linebacker Cannon Lusby, who led the Panthers with 12 tackles Friday.
“I was supposed to play back (on the final play), which I’m not used to because I’m a linebacker. I saw the ball in the air. I saw Ayden Greene bat it down. I saw zeroes on the clock. It was the best feeling of my life.”
Powell couldn’t have asked for a better start in its wildest of dreams. The Panthers dominated the first quarter, storming to a 21-0 lead.
They scored three times in a four-minute span. Potts got it started with a 24-yard strike to J.J. Foust at the 6:37 mark of the first quarter. Jarvis Stockton made it 14-0 with 2:44 left in the quarter on an 11-yard touchdown run.
And then Page botched the ensuing kickoff, and Powell’s Connor Wheeler recovered the kick at the Page 3.
Walter Nolen carried it in from there to go ahead by 21, scoring his sixth rushing touchdown in eight attempts this season.
Page had trouble against Nolen defensively, too. While he had no sacks in the first half, his presence forced the Patriots to get rid of the ball quickly with short throws and modest run attempts away from the 6-5, 325-pound force. But when Nolen exited the game a couple times with injuries in the first half, scoring lanes opened for Page.
He limped off the field with 6:35 left in the first half and didn’t return in the second quarter. He did return in the second half and finished with six tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks.
Still, Page scored twice in that span when Nolen was out. McNamara threw a four-yard, third-down touchdown pass to cut the lead to 21-14.
Page’s 1-yard scoring run on fourth down cut Powell’s lead to 21-20 with 22 seconds left in the half.
Their two-point try failed.
Still, a team that rallied from 17 points in the fourth quarter to win a state semifinal the week before had all the momentum going into the halftime break.
Powell didn’t wilt. Instead, the Panthers followed the resolve of Potts.
“It’s huge,” Lowe said of the championship. “It’s what I’ve been chasing since I was a freshman in high school (at Powell).
“In 2011, I got a small taste of it and watched it disappear. So to come back 10 years later, it’s a huge thing to me and my family. It’s something I’ll never forget. We’re so blessed to have this group of coaches and this group of players to share it with.”
5STAR PHOTOS: Powell Panthers vs. Page Patriots – Class 5A BlueCross Bowl (2021)