CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A sleeping giant of a high school football program seems to be wide awake.
The Cleveland Blue Raiders put on a nearly perfect performance Friday night at Benny Monroe Stadium behind a well-balanced offense and an elite defensive showing.
The end result was a 38-0 shutout for coach Marty Wheeler's emerging Class 6A program over Class 5A's sixth-ranked Walker Valley.
"Heading into the season, the general public didn't have a high expectation of us because of the past several seasons, but we certainly had high expectations of ourselves," Cleveland senior linebacker Tate O'Bryan said. "We really have changed the culture here. We have been a good defense all year, and we wanted to make a jump to being elite. Tonight we did our job, read our keys, trusted each other and did what we are coached to do."
O'Bryan has been a machine coming off the edge all season with 15 tackles for loss. The host Blue Raiders received standout performances from Jaden Acevedo and Edward Couvillon, who made it tough for the Mustangs (4-2) to gain much ground in the matchup of Bradley County rivals.
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area high school football games)
Destun Thomas, DJ Adams and Leo Palelei all had interceptions for Cleveland (5-1), which has picked off eight passes and allowed just one touchdown throw this year.
Thomas was locked in with his quarterback, too, as the Memphis-committed standout had seven catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns, which included the game's first score as Drew Lambert rolled to the right sideline to find him in the back of the end zone.
Lambert was 13-of-20 passing for 223 yards and three scores. His last was a 67-yard quick pass to Rodney Broadnax Jr. on the left sideline that the 6-foot-5 junior athlete took off with, starting a running clock with the home team up up 38-0 with 1:14 left in the third quarter.
"We were all together and played as a team," Lambert said. "We are very dynamic as an offense and can build off this. We can throw the ball well, and we have one of the best running backs in 6A, too. We did a little bit of everything right tonight and were really pumped up to come out here and show out."
Senior running back Tetoe Boyd ran with steam again as he took the first carry of the game for 49 yards as he plowed through the middle and kept his knee off the ground as he rolled over a defender. Boyd followed his school-record rushing performance (332 yards) in last week's region victory against Farragut with 162 yards on 18 carries while scoring twice against the Mustangs.
As they head into a daunting contest with perennial state power Maryville next week, the Blue Raiders believe they can compete in the Region 2-6A matchup between what most likely will be two teams with top-eight state rankings.
"We have great athletes in great positions," O'Bryan said. "Our secondary has played lockdown this whole season. I feel like we match up well on the perimeter with anyone. As long as we play disciplined football and don't jump silly passes, we will be extremely tough to beat in the air. Our run defense stepped up tonight, and we want to keep that going, too."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.