CLEVELAND, Tenn. — It was fitting that the state’s second-oldest rivalry would wind up turning into an old-school slugfest.
Reminiscent of the long-gone “football in a phone booth” days, McMinn County used a stingy defense and a clock-draining offense to win 16-13 at Bradley Central in the season opener for both teams Thursday night, snapping the Bears’ streak of four straight wins in the series.
“It’s always good to start with a win, and a win over Bradley is really big, so this is a great starting point for us,” Cherokees coach Bo Cagle said. “Pretty much after their first drive, we did a really good job defensively. We turned the ball over offensively a few times and put our defense in a bad spot, but they just kept coming up big.”
Class 5A’s McMinn County ran the ball 50 times for 109 yards, throwing it just 11 times. Neither offense ever found much success, with the Cherokees finishing with 240 total yards and the Bears accounting for 211 of their 289 total through the air.
In the 101st meeting between the schools, Bradley — a state semifinalist in the Class 6A playoffs last year — opened the game with a 40-yard pass play from Tyler Cook to Tyrese Stovall. However, Cook would leave the game two plays later after taking a hit to his right knee and did not return.
Later on that first drive, freshman A.J. Nash lofted a 27-yard touchdown pass to the 6-foot-6 Stovall to convert on fourth-and-7.
After McMinn County countered with a big-play score of its own, a 57-yard pass from Luke Lawson to Marshall Goodner, the Cherokees then used a throwback-type drive — 18 plays covering 90 yards — capped by Cam Miller’s 1-yard touchdown to take the lead for good.
With McMinn ahead 16-6 entering the fourth quarter, though, Bradley closed the gap when Tucker Cook, younger brother of Tyler, entered the game and hit Brady Lewis on a 28-yard touchdown pass.
The Bears had multiple chances to either tie or take the lead in the closing minutes, but they were turned away each time.
After stopping the Cherokees on fourth-and-inches at midfield, a third-down conversion pass was wiped away by a holding penalty. Later, a 36-yard field-goal attempt was blocked, and even when the Bears had come up with what appeared to be a third-down stop to get the ball back once more, a personal-foul penalty allowed McMinn to continue the drive.
The teams combined for 28 penalties (15 on the Cherokees) and had seven fumbles between them, each team losing two.
Luke Lawson threw for 131 yards for McMinn, and Taylon White rushed for 67 on 20 carries. Stovall finished with six catches for 120 yards for Bradley, and Tucker Cook was 8-of-12 passing for 96 yards.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com.