ATHENS, Tenn. - Three long scoring drives and a dominating defensive performance gave Maryville enough to secure a 21-2 victory at McMinn County and the Region 2-6A championship Friday night.
For McMinn County (8-1, 4-1), the loss ended the Cherokees' region title hopes, but coach Bo Cagle was pleased with the effort and determination of his team despite trailing for most of the game.
"We showed we can persevere tonight," he said. "You know, we haven't had any kind of adversity all year until tonight. We've played games and been ahead and been in mercy rule games until tonight, but our guys played hard and they didn't quit and never gave up."
The Rebels still haven't lost to a region opponent in more than 20 years, and they haven't lost to a Chattanooga-area team since falling to Cleveland on Oct. 7, 1994.
Maryville (9-0, 5-0) took the opening kickoff Friday and drove 89 yards on 10 plays, capped by a 2-yard quarterback keeper by Carson Jones for the touchdown with 6:43 remaining in the first quarter. The big play on the drive was a 35-yard pass from Jones to running back Parker McGill to get the ball to the Cherokees' 3-yard line.
After that, the defenses took over and the teams traded punts until late in the half, when McMinn County put together a six-play drive to get into Maryville territory, with running back Jalen Hunt's 40-yard scamper getting the Cherokees into position to put some points on the board. However, a penalty and two negative plays pushed them back, and they missed a long field-goal attempt with 10 seconds left in the half.
McMinn County went three-and-out to open the third quarter, and Maryville marched 70 yards on 12 plays to take a 14-0 lead on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Jones to DJ Burks. Jones did much of his damage through the air on the drive, throwing seven times for 69 yards to extend the Rebels' advantage.
I thought in the second half we needed to throw it a little bit more on first down," Maryville coach Derek Hunt said. "(McMinn County) is so good up front with their front seven. What we want to do as Maryville is always run the football, but they make it hard. And we still tried to pick our spots and do that, but we had to be smart and throw the football a little bit more."
McMinn County tried to answer with a long drive of its own, but the 13-play march ended when quarterback Jaden Miller threw an interception at the 9:39 mark in the third quarter. The Cherokees worked hard to get senior standout Jalen Hunt going, giving him 26 carries he turned into 170 yards, but the Rebels kept McMinn from ever getting truly settled in on offense.
"The defense did such a good job," Derek Hunt said. "McMinn does such a good job of moving the line of scrimmage and giving Jalen Hunt space to run the football. But our defense rallied to the ball. We executed and did what we are coached to do, but at the end of the day I think our kids just played hard.
After a nine-play Maryville drive ended with a McGill 2-yard score for a 21-0 lead, McMinn County stalled again and turned the ball over on downs, but the defense held and forced a punt that was mishandled, resulting in a safety with 2:05 remaining to give the Cherokees their only points.
McMinn County will wrap up the regular season next week against Bradley Central, and Cagle said he thinks his team will bounce back from the loss and be ready to face one of its biggest rivals.
"We made some mistakes, and that's fine," he said. "We can fix those mistakes, and that's what we intend to do. Next week is the last game of the season at Bradley, and we have been playing them for about 90 years straight. This town loves that game, and we do, too."
Maryville's victory was all the more impressive considering the Rebels were without 12 players Friday because of exposure or positive tests for COVID-19, and Coach Hunt emphasized to his team the importance of being smart and safe in the coming days as they prepare for postseason play.
"That's one thing 12 months ago I never dreamed I'd be telling my team, but that's reality," he said. "It's the world we live in right now. That's what makes you so nervous as a coach, because you're wondering who's going to show up at practice on Monday."
Contact Jim Tanner at sports@timesfreepress.com.