Cleveland remembered, knocks off Walker Valley

BY JEFF CATE (TEAM FYN SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR)

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Cleveland head coach Chandler Tygard told myself and Justin Sims that it had been 362 days since Walker Valley knocked off his Blue Raiders 20-14 last season on Tuesday’s edition of “Off the Bench Radio” on WGOW FM in Chattanooga. Pepperidge Farm remembers (look it up kids) and so did the Blue Raiders when that hit 365 days on game day. CHS scored 29 unanswered points in the second half to rally and defeat the Mustangs 51-23 Friday night in front of a packed house at Benny Monroe Stadium.

Cleveland came out of the blocks strong when Nate Shropshire, Jr. took the opening kickoff deep into Walker Valley territory. Even with various penalties on the return, CHS would get points 2 minute and 10 seconds into the game. Isaiah Davis, who came into the game with over 400 yards of total offense in the Blue Raiders’ first 2 games, hit a hole opened up by Nate Carter, Stonewall Shurette, and Josther Canales and raced into the end zone. After the 2-point conversion, Cleveland led 8-0 with 9:50 left in the first quarter.

The Blue Raiders’ “Fastest Show on Turf” picked up where it left off on their first possession the next time they got the ball. Kason McGowan would come in after Chase Stephens was behind center the first time around and would hit Brayden Carroll with a 46 yard bomb down to the Mustangs’ 1 yard line. Carroll would line up and take the direct snap on the next play and score to extend the Cleveland lead to 15-0 with 7:17 remaining. Stephens would take the reins on the Blue Raiders’ 3^rd offensive possession of the opening quarter & finding Sawyer Boyd in the corner of the end zone from 11 yards out, pushing the Blue Raider lead to 22-0 with 2:10 left on the clock.

Walker Valley would get their first points of the game near the midway point of the second quarter when Mustangs head coach Drew Akins opened up the bag of tricks. Dosen Stum found Tate Roundtree behind the Cleveland secondary after the flea flicker was executed perfectly as he hauled in a 32-yard missile from Stum, cutting the CHS lead to 22-7 with 6:27 left until halftime. The Blue Raiders scored on 3 consecutive possessions in the first quarter, but in the second quarter it was the total opposite. 3 turnovers on 3 consecutive Cleveland possessions would lead to 2 more Walker Valley touchdowns to end the first half, which were Aiden Burns’s 41-yard fumble recovery and Spencer Makuch’s 18-yard run. A 22-0 Cleveland lead after the first quarter was now a 22-20 lead when both bands hit the field for halftime.

The Mustangs carried that momentum into the third quarter and taking their first lead of the night, 23-22, on a 22-yard Noah Campbell field with just under 3 minutes left in the third quarter. The mojo didn’t last 2 minutes as McGowan threw a 43-yard touchdown to Jay’un Smith. After Boyd added the 2-point conversion, Cleveland led 30-23 with 1:25 left in the quarter. The new LED light show at “The Benny” went on and in the fourth quarter, the Blue Raiders turned out the lights.

Carroll would add touchdown’s 2 and 3 to the stat sheet early in the fourth quarter, scoring on runs of 11 and 8 yards to extend the Cleveland to 44-23 with 8:28 remaining in the game. Stephens would connect with Boyd for the final touchdown of the night from about 50 yards out with 5:04 left. AJ Westfield would put an exclamation point on the night with a sack. The number 0 on Westfield’s jersey would fittingly be the amount of 3^rd downs that Walker Valley would convert on the night on the Cleveland defense, going 0 out of 11 attempts while being held to 136 yards of total offense. The Blue Raiders would have 456 yards of total offense despite 183 yards of penalties (15 total penalties for CHS).

Cleveland stays undefeated with the win at 3-0, and opens up region play when they host Farragut on September 13^th. Walker Valley is now 2-1 and will finish it’s Bradley County tour when they visit Bradley Central next week before opening region play on September 20^th with a home tilt against Ooltewah.

Follow Jeff Cate on “X” at @TheJeffCate