CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Raekwon Bunion had waited three weeks for his first action of the football season. After a long battle with a broken hand, he was unleashed Friday night -- and at a perfect time for Cleveland.
Bunion won a spectacular running back battle with McMinn County's D.J. Kimpson on the scoreboard, as the Blue Raiders held on to win 23-21 in a District 5-AAA game at Raider Field.
Kimpson finished with 213 yards to Bunion's 204, and each had three touchdowns.
"I missed being on the team, and I had to help us get a win tonight," Bunion said. "I had a lot of emotions coming in; the past two games, we didn't have any hype out there, so I had to try and give us a lot. I knew that, from my first run, it would help turn up the team."
His three touchdowns Friday were two more than he had in all of 2013, when he rushed for 794 yards. He admitted he had a "lot of mistakes" last year.
"I felt like a lot of people didn't have confidence in me, and it gave me motivation," he said. "I had a chip on my shoulder coming in, and I knew what I had to do and did it."
With leading rusher T.J. Parker out multiple weeks with a foot injury, Cleveland coach Ron Crawford turned to the other half of his potent rushing duo, and Bunion responded with scoring runs of 14, 58 and 14 yards for the Raiders (1-2, 1-0).
"Raekwon Bunion was unbelievable tonight. To have practiced just for one week and come in and do what he did was just unbelievable," Crawford said. "I'm proud of our team's effort tonight. McMinn County came in, battled extremely hard and fought like they were undefeated. You have to give Bo [Cagle] and his football team a lot of credit.
"We were fortunate to come out on top tonight."
Bunion's final touchdown run came with 6:35 left in the game, but McMinn received good position on the kickoff and went 57 yards on nine plays, with a Kimpson score with 3:00 remaining trimming the deficit to 23-21. Cleveland quarterback Austin Massey, who had 102 yards passing, had a crucial completion to Eric Goodwin on a third down late, and Bunion ripped off 23 yards three plays later to seal the win.
McMinn (0-3, 0-1) made a number of errors. The Cherokees had two interceptions, one when the ball skidded through a receiver's hands into safety Eric Goodwin's. In addition, they penetrated deep into Cleveland territory in one third-quarter possession before losing 35 yards in bad snaps and penalties.
None of their miscues hurt as much as a botched pitch between Kimpson and quarterback Corbin Powers with 3:33 left in the first half. Kimpson was forced to fall on the ball in the end zone, and the safety was the difference on the scoreboard.
"Other than us messing up, I don't know if they stopped us all night," Cagle said. "We have to be able to make our opportunities last and not make mistakes. That's what's been getting us at this point, but we're getting better and cutting down mistakes, and the sign of a young team getting better is getting a little better each week.
"Realistically, our last five games matter. We're 0-1 in the district, but if we go 5-1, that was co-district champions in this district last year, and that's what we're looking at -- to be playing our best football at the end of the year."
Both teams have nondistrict games next week, Cleveland traveling to Wilson Central while McMinn County takes on Alcoa.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.