CLEVELAND, Tenn. — After a thorough beating at the hands of Farragut last week, Cleveland football coach Marty Wheeler knew his team needed something good to happen early in Friday’s trip to intracounty rival Walker Valley.
It doesn’t get much earlier than the opening kickoff, which Rodney Broadnax returned 83 yards for a touchdown to set the tone for the Blue Raiders, who scored 20 points in the first 15 minutes and cruised to a 34-3 win over the Mustangs.
A smile cracked across Wheeler’s face when he was asked about the importance of the quick strike on special teams by Broadnax, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound senior’s first score of the year.
“We’ve been close a few times this year to breaking one on a kickoff return. It just lined up really good for us,” said Wheeler, whose Blue Raiders lost 42-13 at Farragut. “Maybe early in the year he might not have hit it right, he might have looked to bounce outside, but he saw it and hit it.
“The thing about Rod is he’s gaining ground pretty quick as long as he is. It doesn’t look like it, but he gains ground quickly, and once he broke it, you’re not going to catch him. It set the tone for us.”