The Cascade Champions’ bid for a spot in the postseason was dashed on Friday night at the hands of the visiting Region 4-AA foe, the Fayetteville City Tigers, 60-11. 

Braxton Burris, having thrown for at least 200 yards each of the last two games coming into Friday night, was held to just 90 yards through the air with 1 TD and 1 INT. His senior counterpart, Samuel Willoughby, despite starting 4/10 for 62 yards in the first half, finished with 3 passing TDs and 192 yards. 

The Tigers did most of their damage on the ground against the Champs, rushing for over 300 yards and 4 TDs as a team. Senior tailback, K’Veon Henderson, led the way with 164 yards and 3 TDs on just seven carries in a dazzling display, and his teammate, Zyon Nnaji, finished with 78 yards and 1 TD on 10 attempts. Quasean Black tacked on with 63 yards rushing and 2 TD on just three carries.

For Cascade, it was tough sledding in the running game, Burris led the Champs with 50 yards rushing on eight attempts while Max Smith added 29 yards on seven carries. 

On the Champs’ opening drive, the hosts got down to the Tigers 26-yard line facing a 4th-and-3, but Fayetteville’s defense bowed up, forcing a turnover-on-downs after a Christian Casey handoff only gained a single yard. The Tigers then marched 75 yards on their first drive, punctuated by a 5-yard TD run by Henderson with 4:55 left in the opening period to go up 6-0 after Anthony Eslick missed the extra point.

After forcing a Cascade three-and-out, the Tigers put together a 53-yard drive that ended with a 15-yard TD pass over the middle to Quasean Black on Willoughby’s first pass attempt of the night with 1:33 left in the quarter. After Eslick connected on the extra point, Fayetteville took a 13-0 lead into the second period of play.

Cascade once again struggled to get much going on their next possession and had to punt the ball back to the Tigers once again. Fayetteville’s offense continued their workmanlike approach with a 12-yard TD from Fernando Leslie on a pop pass from Willoughby with 8:44 left in the second quarter to go up 20-0.

On the kickoff, sophomore Delonte Clay had a promising return out to midfield, but as he was being brought down, Fayetteville forced a fumble, enabling their offense to come back out on the field. A 25-yard completion to Henderson on 4th-and-10 put the ball at the five yard line, and Nnaji ran it in on the next play with 5:36 to go in the first half, extending the lead to 27-0. 

After forcing another punt, the Tigers added one more score on a 19-yard TD run by Black with 1:17 left to go up 34-0. 

Cascade’s offense finally started to click in the two-minute drill, and after Burris led the hosts down to the Tigers’ 15-yard line, Gabriel Perez-Rubio drilled a 33-yard FG to put the Champs on the board to end the first half, 34-3.

Fayetteville got the ball to start the second half, and continued their offensive onslaught with an incredible individual effort on a weaving 46-yard rushing TD by Henderson for his second score of the night to push the lead to 41-3 with 10:21 to go in the third quarter. After an interception by Leslie on the ensuing possession, Henderson found open grass once again on a 59-yard TD run to extend the lead to 47-3 after another missed extra point by Eslick.

Cascade’s offense did eventually find the end zone in the early stages of the fourth quarter when Burris found Landon Kling all alone in the left corner of the end zone for a 22-yard TD pass with 11:09 left in the final frame to cut the lead to 47-11 after a successful two-point conversion. 

On Fayetteville’s next possession, Jayden Owens joined in on the end zone party with a 65-yard TD of his own to make it 53-11 with 9:54 left in the fourth quarter. Black would cap things off after a 44-yard TD run with 2:26 to go to push the score to its final margain at 60-11.

Fayetteville improves to 3-6 (2-1).

Cascade falls to 1-8 (0-3) and will play its final game of the season on Halloween night at home against Marion County, LIVE on the The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 at 6:45 p.m.