CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland's Blue Raiders seemed to be battling two opponents in Friday night's homecoming football game - Maryville Heritage and themselves.
Looking at the statistics put up by the Blue Raiders' top rusher, passer and receiver, one might think they ran the Mountaineers off the field. But instead, it took Chase Oliver recovering an onside kick with 2:45 to play and the last of their 22 first downs to put away a 47-34 victory.
Running back Keegan Jones had 172 rushing yards by halftime and ended up with 258 on 17 carries that included scoring runs of 60 and 69 yards. Quarterback Kellye Cawood was 17-for-25 passing for 280 yards and also scored on a 55-yard run. Add to that Micaleous Elder catching Cawood's three touchdown passes as he totaled eight receptions for 156 yards, and he also scored Cleveland's final touchdown on a 4-yard run.
"We're capable of that all the time," Cleveland coach Scott Cummings said.
Yet his team had to hang on at the end.
To begin with, the Blue Raiders (5-2, 2-1 Region 2-6A) basically spotted Heritage three touchdowns. The Mountaineers (3-4, 2-1) had 21 points with one first down.
Cummings pointed to "three special teams blunders" in the first half that Cleveland had to overcome to take a six-point lead at the break. An overrun on the coverage allowed the opening kickoff to be returned to the Blue Raiders' 30, and the Mountaineers drove it in from there.
Then on Cleveland's first play from scrimmage, a pass went in and out of the hands of the receiver for an interception that was returned from the 26 to the 5.
The second miscue in the kicking game was a high snap on a punt that led to another goal-to-go situation for Heritage. The other was mishandling the snap on the extra point on the fourth touchdown.
"We've just got to get back to work and figure out some things," Cummings said. "If we don't get detail-oriented, it's going to be a long night next Friday. We've got Maryville coming to town."
The Blue Raiders did the job stuffing Heritage's running game. The Mountaineers' first 24 rushes netted 54 yards, and it took run No. 39 to get to an even 100 rushing yards.
But the Blue Raiders yielded 196 passing yards in the second half, including a 73-yard bomb for a touchdown and two other completions covering 54 and 48 yards.
"We've got to defend the pass," Cummings said. "There are multiple ways of doing that. We've got to figure some things out."
It looked as though the Blue Raiders may have had things in hand with a 19-point lead early in the fourth quarter, so Cummings substituted in some second-unit players. But a fumble inside their own 10 set up Heritage for another extremely short field.
"Our young kids have got to execute, too," Cummings said. "We've got to make it easier on ourselves. That's what we're not doing."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.