Voytik dazzles in playoff loss

When the season was finally done, there remained slightly more than half of the Cleveland Blue Raiders that started the year.

Those who left either didn't care for new coach E.K. Slaughter's physical demands that included a lot of running or his standards of self-discipline. Among those who stayed, though, were a sophomore quarterback named Chad Voytik and a senior wide receiver (Marcus Davis), and they and their teammates nearly pulled out one of the year's biggest upsets.

For his efforts -- a four-touchdown, 376-yard night -- Voytik earned Times Free Press player of the week honors. And if not for Davis, he might not have had that nearly that many yards.

"I guess you could say it was something of a coming-out party for him," Slaughter said of Voytik's efforts. "He has gotten better as the year's gone on."

Voytik was trying to rebound for a disappointing game against Soddy-Daisy and Trojans quarterback Scott Parrott, a former Slaughter student.

"He had a bad game mechanically against Soddy-Daisy and he worked hard last week in practice. He's the kind of kid that wants to bounce back, and if he has a mistake he wants to fix it," Slaughter said.

The Blue Raiders had two touchdowns called back and only a failed two-point conversion with 1:20 to play kept them from a win over fourth-ranked Columbia. Cleveland lost 28-27.

The game was Voytik's best to date and not just from a statistical standpoint.

"We needed him to throw it. They did a good job of stopping Terrell (Parks) but they couldn't stop the pass," Slaughter said. "This wasn't the easiest game plan for him to pick up. There were a decent amount of audibles and a lot of doubles and blitz checks, yet there were numerous times when he audibled into or checked into something that worked."

Voytik may take a little time off but Slaughter has plans for him since he plays no other sports. "He'll get in the weight room with the other guys and he'll be throwing the football. We'll probably get together once per week for film study," Slaughter said.

Davis had 11 catches for 258 yards of Voytik's passing yards, and Slaughter indicated that he couldn't be prouder of the senior whom he suspended for two games earlier in the season.

"He had to overcome a pretty bad rap and yet he grew up quite a bit over the season as a person," Slaughter said. "He was a question mark when I got here. How would he respond to me and my way of doing things? He had been really solid. He'd picked up on the leadership role and he really played hard."

Davis was ejected at McMinn County when, as Slaughter put it, "he lost his composure."

And Slaughter slapped him with an extra-game suspension.

"A lot of kids come back from that and hold a grudge. They're not what you want them to be or what they want to be. It was never an issue with Marcus. He came back and ran scout team offense and defense for two weeks. He worked hard and picked up where he had left off. He was solid. He grew up a ton this year as a person, and I look forward to watching his continued growth."