Ooltewah’s T. J. Davis scores the go-ahead touchdown over Cleveland at home with 2:21 left in the first half.Cleveland coach Ron Crawford may have best described what happened in Friday’s District 5-AAA high school football game at Ooltewah when afterward he said, “I thought both teams made a lot mistakes. We had probably fewer at the end.”
As a result, the Blue Raiders won for the first time under Crawford, escaping with a 27-26 victory.
Cleveland (1-2, 1-0) was penalized nine times for 75 yards and lost two of its five fumbles, but that paled in comparison to the Owls’ mistakes.
They were penalized 14 times for 118 yards and lost four of their five fumbles. A shanked 8-yard punt set up the Blue Raiders’ 44-yard drive for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:14 to play. C.J. Bryant’s diving interception of a Brody Binder pass with 41 seconds left sealed it.
“You can’t beat a good team making mistakes like that,” Ooltewah coach Shannon Williams said. “We knew we were in for a challenge, coming off an emotional win last week. I didn’t do a good enough job having us ready to play. We made too many mistakes early. It seemed like every time we had the chance to do something good, we made a mistake.”