Tyner won the sprint. Boyd-Buchanan won the marathon.

Tyner defeated Boyd-Buchanan 20-18 on Friday in their Region 3-2A high school football game at Boyd-Buchanan.

The Rams had to win to have any chance at earning the region title. If nothing else, they needed to win to guarantee a spot in the state playoffs.

“I was real pleased with our effort,” Tyner coach Wayne Turner said. “We may not be first this time, but the team knows and the coaches know what we’ve got. We still feel like the region champions. Nobody’s taken anything from us.”

The Bucs had already secured at least a first-round postseason home game and could’ve won the region championship as long as Marion County defeated Sequatchie County. That’s what happened.

“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Grant Reynolds said. “We did what we needed to do earlier, even though we didn’t do it tonight. You can’t take that away from the kids. Maybe if we can get a playoff win next week, you’ll see a little more celebration.”

Boyd-Buchanan scored first on Joey Glisson’s 29-yard field goal with 5:11 left in the first quarter. The Rams scored the next 20 points — the last touchdown a 7-yard run by Michael Poarch with 10:54 remaining.

The Bucs rallied in the fourth quarter with Nic Hughes throwing touchdown passes to Taylor Shull and Glisson and a conversion pass to Ben Beasley.

“We played three quarters really solid and led 20-3,” Turner said. “Then we got lackadaisical and lazy and forgot what we were doing. We made some mistakes and let them back in the game. Luckily we survived.”

Boyd-Buchanan went for an onside kick after Glisson’s TD, but Tyner’s Shannon Kelsey recovered it at Boyd-Buchanan’s 49. Faced with a fourth-and-1 at the 40, Dalvin Mason bulled into the line and picked up the game-clinching first down by the nose of the football.

“Nobody’s going to stop Tank on fourth-and-short,” Turner said of his fullback. “He’s just made for that. He’s too powerful and has too much drive to be stopped when all he needs is a few inches. You can mark that down.”

Reynolds had hoped to get a running game established, but runs of 45 and 41 yards by Beasley were about the extent of the Bucs’ ground attack. Hughes ended up throwing 32 times, completing 11 for 198 yards, and caught one from Beasley for 18 yards. Corbin Norwood intercepted him once and Travis Jones intercepted him twice.

Quarterback Brandon Scott led Tyner with 19 carries for 67 yards and two TDs.

“The score dictated what we had to do after we got behind,” Reynolds said. “We’ve got to get back to winning in the trenches. I want to give Tyner all the credit. They were ready to go and played us hard. We turned the ball over too many times — most of that they forced. We can’t make mistakes like that against that kind of team and expect to win.”

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