The Tennessee state semifinals are set after this past weekends conference playoffs.

Christian Brothers defeated PCA and Germantown in impressive fashion to win the West Tn. Conference. South Doyle beat Bearden 41-0 to ensure their place into the semifinals, joining Ravenwood and Father Ryan.

South Doyle will play Father Ryan, and Christian Brothers will take on Ravenwood this weekend.

For Christian Brothers, it was an especially rewarding weekend, as their league is split into two pools, they really had no idea what they were up against. PCA had pushed Germantown in their pool, and both had won the remainder of their games.

“Nerves were on end, for sure,” said SBHS Head Coach Justin Whitmer. “Both PCA and Germantown are quality teams and our local games that we played against them went down to the wire.”

The Christian Brothers backs are still getting to know each other. Flyhalf Cameron Sanders is new and outside center Daniel Smisor has been out for months. Both Edgar Alba and Taylor Lachat were also coming back from injury.

So while the backs were more healthy, the forwards were struggling with injuries, specifically lock Donovan Humphrey, and that prompted some moves.

But it all worked out.

“We started the game at a very aggressive and high-paced approach,” said Whitmer. “We maintained ball control with at least 80% of the time. Power and speed thrust us forward.”

CBHS scored 24 points in the first 15 minutes and cantered away 50-0.

Later that same day, it was almost the same story against Germantown.

“We were gassed from a game less than two hours prior,” said Whitmer. “We were clearly winded with less impressive rucks and sprints. Defensively, we pressured less and and showed much less prowess in the rucks.”

And yet, CBHS won 33-0.

It will be interesting to see if upstarts Christian Brothers can knock off the more establishes squads such as Ravenwood or South Doyle.