CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Will Estes promised.
Will Estes delivered.
And with his goal in the second minute of the Region 3-AAA championship match Thursday night, the Cleveland senior midfielder helped set the tone for the program's first region title in seven seasons.
Cleveland, the third-ranked team in Class AAA, used first-half goals from Estes and Dillon Alexander to defeat fifth-ranked Cookeville 2-0 at the Greater Cleveland Soccer Complex.
The Blue Raiders (20-0-2) will host Oakland, which fell 2-1 to Blackman in the Region 4-AAA final, in a sectional match Saturday, while the Cavaliers (18-2-2) will travel to Blackman. Winners advance to next week's state tournament.
Estes had told friends before the match that if he scored he was going to take his shirt off. He even had made sure that the penalty for a celebration would be a yellow card, which just meant he had to come out of the game momentarily, and not a red card, which would have meant an automatic ejection.
So when he scored on a follow of a Tommy Marino shot, the reaction was no surprise to anyone, as he twirled the shirt around, accepted his penalty and went to the bench.
"I don't score a ton of goals, so when I do I like to celebrate, because who knows when the next one could be the last one," Estes said. "It happened in the second minute, so maybe it was not ideal, but I figured, 'Why not?'"
Said Cleveland coach John Brose: "We're not thrilled about that one. We don't ever want to show up the other team with a celebration. Obviously we're thrilled he scored the goal; he put himself in a great spot and finished it early."
And with his team's defensive effort, it was enough. The Cavaliers were shut out for the first time this season despite having the better of the possession for the match, with the Cleveland back four holding their own. Goalkeeper Braxton Wiggins had three saves, including one on a Bralen Clouse penalty kick in the 51st minute. The defenders also contributed offensively, with Alexander scoring on a free kick from about 30 yards out.
The Blue Raiders had their 2013 and 2015 seasons end at the hands of the Cavaliers, and last season's region championship loss sent them to Murfreesboro, where they suffered a sectional loss.
The Cavaliers missed on a couple of opportunities in the box right at the beginning of the match. They also had Clouse's miss and another shot that glanced off the side post.
"That's how soccer goes sometimes," Cookeville coach Sam Matson said. "The ball wasn't bouncing our way all night; we have games like that sometimes. We figured we would score a couple this game and rely on our defense, but we have ourselves to blame for some things.
"That's the way it goes."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.