Bradley gets revenge against Walker Valley, wins opener for Coach Damon Floyd

Bradley Central head football coach Damon Floyd

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Bradley Central's 2014 loss to Walker Valley hurt a lot of people in the Bradley community. It was the Bears' first loss in the 10-year history of the rivalry, and a lot of players, including quarterback Cole Copeland, felt the sting for quite some time.

The blow was softened a bit Friday night.

Copeland finished with 113 yards rushing and 106 passing, while Courtland Bradley added 65 yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Bears held on to defeat the Mustangs 34-27 at Walker Valley.

The Bears played without head coach Damon Floyd, who is suspended for the first two games of the season. Offensive coordinator Keith Freeman took over as acting coach, and said after the game that the team was headed back to Bear Stadium to celebrate with Floyd.

"We're going to park the bus at the gate, huddle at the 50-yard line and celebrate with our mentor and leader," Freeman said. "We're not going to celebrate here; we're going home to celebrate with our head coach."

The Bears finished with 192 yards rushing. Bradley scored on runs of 12, 16 and 22 yards, while Copeland threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Carpenter.

"I really haven't been the same person since the loss to Walker Valley," Copeland said. "It hurt worse than any loss I've had. That's our cross-town rival, so I'm glad to get that bad taste out of my mouth."

Alex King scored all four touchdowns for the Mustangs, three rushing and another on an 88-yard kickoff return. He finished with 95 yards rushing after having 160 in last year's game.

Quarterback Kolten Gibson threw for 209 yards on 22-for-31 passing.

It took 15 seconds for the Bears to jump out on front, because that's how long it took Cason Still to run the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown. The Mustangs answered with an 11-play, 75-yard drive, with King scoring from 7 yards out. His second touchdown tied the game at 13, then his third gave the Mustangs a 20-13 lead with 8:53 to go in the half.

Bradley responded with Bradley, who had scoring runs of 12 and 16 yards to put the Bears back on top, 27-20 at halftime.

The Mustangs had an 11-play, 73-yard drive to start the second half, with King finishing it from 3 yards out, but the Bears took advantage of great field position after a stop on fourth down, using only four plays to score what proved to be the game-winner on Bradley's 22-yard run.

"I wanted to do whatever to help my team out," Bradley said. "We lost to them last year and I just wanted to get the win just wanted to get revenge for my team."

Cooper Melton led the Mustangs with eight catches for 64 yards, while Bryce Nunnelly had six for 56.

Tyler Carpenter had 60 yards on four catches to lead the Bears.

"We made too many mistakes. We didn't do a good job up front, had some major breakdowns, didn't give ourselves time to throw and dropped balls early," Walker Valley coach Glen Ryan said. "Those are things that will come back and bite you in games like that. We didn't make things happen. They took advantage where we didn't, and that's the ballgame.

"It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's part of it. We'll get back to work and get better. We have nine ballgames left, so there's a lot of football to play. Hopefully we can bounce back and have a good season."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com and follow him at Twitter.com/genehenleytfp.