BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – The Cascade Champions (3-3, 0-2) suffered their second-consecutive Region 4-AAA defeat at the hands of the visiting Giles County Bobcats (3-3, 1-1), 42-8, on Friday night.

In the first half, Cascade actually led at the end of the first quarter, and then looked poised to go into the halftime locker room within one score of the visitors. That is until Giles County’s Dereon London came bursting through the line to get a paw on the 35-yard FG attempt by Gabe Perez-Rubio, sending the ball directly into the path of Cooper White who returned the blocked kick 75 yards to the house for a backbreaking touchdown before the break to flip the game on its head. The hosts never truly recovered after that, falling behind 19-8 with the Bobcats set to receive the second-half kickoff.

In total, Giles County finished with 446 total yards offensively. 261 of those yards came on the ground with senior Pierson Collier, in just his second game back from a knee injury that forced him to miss the first four games of the season, leading the way with 174 yards rushing and one touchdown on 20 carries. Dallas Buckner, another senior, added 68 yards and one touchdown on just eight attempts, while the quarterback, Xavier Randolph, chipped in with the third rushing touchdown on a five-yard scraper. 

Randolph also finished 10/20 for 185 yards through the air with one passing touchdown after coming into Week 7 leading the region with nearly 1,000 passing yards on the season. His favorite target, Jaz Bentley, finished with five receptions for 54 yards while Damari Allen’s only catch of the night went for a 39-yard touchdown on the Bobcats’ first drive of the game.

For Cascade, the offense struggled mightily in the second half, finishing with just 159 total yards for the game. After starting out 8/16 for 77 yards in the first half, Sam Bradley finished just 13/24 for 88 yards and one interception as the Bobcats put the clamps down on the Champions’ passing attack. Cascade in particular struggled to get anything going on the ground with Nate Zimmerman finishing with just 17 yards rushing on 10 attempts. Zimmerman did find the Champs’ only touchdown of the game in the first half from one yard out to put the hosts in front after the first quarter.

To start the game, after Cascade went three-and-out, Giles County marched right down the field in 2:45 using six plays, capped off by Randolph’s 39-yard touchdown pass up the seam to Allen to give the Bobcats an early 7-0 lead with 8:54 left in the opening period.

In response, Cascade put together a rather disjointed scoring drive in response, taking advantage of two Giles County penalties on two separate fourth downs to keep the drive alive. Eventually, the Champs’ Zimmerman soared into the end zone from a yard out to finish off a 72-yard drive that took 7:16 off the clock. After Braxtyn Burris ran in the 2-point conversion, Cascade held an 8-7 lead with 1:35 remaining in the first quarter.

Giles County responded by reaching the Cascade 43-yard line, but the Champs’ defense forced a turnover-on-downs to give the ball back to its offense. The Bobcats forced a three-and-out, and then Randolph orchestrated a lightning-fast 61-yard touchdown drive that took just 1:09 off the clock, finishing it off with a 5-yard touchdown run to put the visitors back in front, 13-8, with 7:55 to go in the first half after the missed extra point.

Cascade responded with yet another long and time-consuming drive, reaching the Bobcats’ 17-yard line after using 6:24 off the clock. However, the visitors’ defense stood tall in the red zone, forcing Champs’ head coach, Jared Carkuff, to send out the field goal unit to try and make it a two-point game. Instead, London had other plans, blocking Perez-Rubio’s attempt into the arms of his teammate, Cooper White, who outran everyone in black to the end zone for what was effectively a game-sealing touchdown to give Giles County a 19-8 lead going into the halftime locker room. 

After staying within striking distance for 23 of the first 24 minutes, the Champions seemed to lose their energy in the second half as the Bobcats squeezed the life out of the hosts. 

To start the second half, Giles County drove 80 yards in 3:45 and capped it off with a five-yard touchdown run from Buckner to grow the lead to 27-8 after Randolph scrambled into the end zone for the two-point conversion. Then, after a Corey Gooch fumble at the Bobcats’ 46-yard line, Collier found the end zone from a yard out to put Giles County ahead 35-8 with 4:19 remaining in the third quarter. 

After Giles County missed a 35-yard field goal near the end of the third quarter, Bradley threw just his second interception of the season to Jakarious Reese at the start of the fourth quarter. After the two teams traded possessions, Giles County used up 5:19 to drive 85 yards for Collier’s second touchdown of the night – again from one yard out – to reach the final margin of 42-8.

Giles County travels to Community for another Region 4-AAA matchup on Friday night.

Cascade falls to 0-2 in the region, and is set to travel to Chapel Hill for a do-or-die Region 4-AAA contest on Friday night, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 at 6:45 p.m.