BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – The Cascade Champions (3-1) survived a furious second-half rally from the Eagleville Eagles (2-2) at The Stable on Thursday night, holding on to win 24-21 without their head coach, Jared Carkuff, on the sidelines following his late-game ejection at Summertown last week. 

After forcing a three-and-out and a punt while down by just three points late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles had the ball at their own 35-yard line with 2:37 on the clock and just one timeout. Surprisingly, Eagleville opened the drive with four consecutive pass attempts, but after an 18-yard catch-and-run to Marshall Fields along with a personal foul against Cascade, Eagleville found themselves at the Cascade 32-yard line with just under two minutes to play. After a pair of incompletions, Andrew Dowell made the biggest play of the night, torpedoing into the backfield unblocked to chop down Jordan in the backfield for the first and only time all night to bring up a 4th-and-12. Fox’s pass would fall incomplete on an 11-yard out route on the next play, and Cascade would kneel out the clock in victory formation.

Nate Zimmerman was the bellcow for Cascade, toting the rock 27 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns  to go with three receptions for 21 yards. Sam Bradley finished 14/25 through the air for 128 yards and one touchdown while adding 29 yards rushing on five carries. Delontae Clay led the Champs in receiving with four catches for 43 yards and one touchdown. 

For Eagleville, Jonathan Jordan was nearly unstoppable on the ground, finishing with 178 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Thomas Soloman, after a slow first half where he had only 10 yards rushing, finished the night with 15 carries for 69 yards and one touchdown. Benton Fox finished just 3/11 through the air for 24 yards and one interception.

The Champs held a 14-0 lead going into the halftime locker room after putting together touchdown drives both to start the game and finish the half. To open, Cascade put together a 12-play, 57-yard TD drive that took up 4:34, culminating in a Nate Zimmerman 3-yard touchdown plunge to take an early 7-0 lead. 

Eagleville responded with a long march of its own, but failed to convert a fourth down in the Cascade red zone and turned the ball over on downs. Neither team got much going until Braxtyn Burris came away with a spectacular over-the-shoulder interception halfway through the second quarter. However, both teams would be forced to punt on their ensuing drives before Cascade put together a 60-yard touchdown drive that took exactly 2:00 off the clock and ended with a 14-yard TD pass from Bradley to Clay on a slant over the middle with 41 seconds remaining in the first half.

Braxtyn Burris (0) tallied one interception in the win against Eagleville.

David Smith

In the second half, Eagleville would reach the end zone on its first three possessions by establishing the run with Jordan and Soloman. Jordan finished with 94 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the second half alone, and he got his first touchdown of the night from 10 yards out to cap a six-play, 62-yard drive that took 3:13 off the clock. After the extra point was blocked, Cascade was still in front, 14-6.

The Champions responded with a touchdown drive of their own, marching 70 yards in seven plays in 3:07 to grow the lead to 21-6 after Nate Zimmerman punched it in from a yard out.

Jordan responded with his second touchdown on the next possession, scampering to the end zone from 15 yards out. After Soloman ran in the two-point conversion, the Eagles were within seven points, 21-14, with 3:56 to go in the third quarter.

Cascade once again found themselves inside the Eagleville 5-yard line, but this time the Eagles defense bowed up and forced the hosts to settle for a 20-yard field goal with 9:25 to go in the game. Gabe Perez-Rubio converted the easy chip-shot, putting the Champions ahead by two scores, 24-14, after taking more than six minutes off the clock.

Eagleville, who went 9-4 a season ago and made it to the Class A State Quarterfinals, put together yet another response, taking the ball 71 yards in 4:40 to reach the end zone after Soloman crossed the goalline from five yards out, cutting the hosts’ lead to just three points, 24-21, with 4:38 to play. 

Cascade needed a couple of first downs to put the game away, but they could only pick up seven yards and were forced to punt the ball back to the visitors with 2:42 to play. 

However, for the second time already this season, the Cascade defense stood tall on the final drive of the game, getting the crucial fourth down stop to seal the first win over Eagleville since 2010.

Eagleville falls to 2-2.

Cascade improves to 3-1 and will dive into region play at Sequatchie County next Friday night, LIVE on WZNG The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 starting at 6:45 p.m.