Cascade comeback tops Signal

WARTRACE, Tenn. -- Cascade may never want to sit out the first week of the football playoffs again.

The 10th-ranked Champions could do no right in the first half but no wrong in the second on their way to a spine-tingling 25-24 Class 2A victory over Signal Mountain.

The Champions travel next week to Boyd-Buchanan, a 28-6 winner over Marion County.

With a bye last Friday, host Cascade used the extra time to heal and focus on itself, and its coaching staff got a firsthand look at fifth-ranked Signal Mountain.

The Champions combined the two -- at least in the second half -- to get past the visiting Eagles, whom they squeezed past to set up the quarterfinal date with Boyd-Buchanan.

It took a 35-yard desperation pass from Jared Carkuff to Ricky Hord with 1:42 left and the ensuing two-point conversion from Carkuff to Tyler Bowen to give Cascade its first and deciding lead.

The Champions reeled off 25 unanswered points to get the victory. And they didn't look like the same team that the Eagles hammered in the first half.

Cascade didn't get its initial first down until slightly more than three minutes remained in the second quarter, and Carkuff, harried and harassed throughout the first two periods, threw three interceptions.

"I think they were a little rusty. It took them some time to get their timing back," Signal Mountain coach Bill Price said.

The Eagles led 17-0 at halftime thanks to a 42-yard pass from Hogan Whitmire to Will Queen, a 2-yard run by Whit Sitton and a 42-yard field goal by Dane Dewet. They then came out and took the initial second-half possession 70 yards with Mitchell Hall getting the final 30 on a short pass from Whitmire.

The Champions responded with a fury. Carkuff found his rhythm and hooked up on back-to-back possessions with Bowen on passes of 25 and 40 yards. They got a two-point conversion on the first score on Carkuff's pass to Matt Henderson.

They cut the Eagles' lead to 24-17 with 6:40 left on Josh Molder's 22-yard field goal.

Signal Mountain couldn't run enough seconds off the clock, and the Cascade defense had an answer -- even if it was a shoestring tackle more than once -- to almost every play the Eagles ran.

Carkuff had been held to less than 100 passing yards in the first half, but he picked the Eagles apart in the second, finishing with 277 yards on a 14-of-20 evening.

"They got to our Achilles' heel in the second half," Price said. "I don't think anybody let up so much as they got their game together. That is a fine football team."

The Champions extended their win streak to seven games while cutting the Eagles' streak at six in their first year of varsity competition.

"I'm very proud of these kids," Price said. "When you get to the postseason, you either win it all or you lose one, but these kids have played well all year and there is no reason for any of them to hang their head."

It was the fifth win in 13 playoff games for Cascade, which advanced to the quarterfinals before falling last year.