ROGERSVILLE — The magic number was three in Big Red Valley Friday night in the Cherokee season opener.  The opposition (the Grainger Grizzlies) scored three touchdowns. Chief runningback Coleman Elliott scored three touchdowns. Chief runningback Landon House scored three touchdowns, and senior quarterback Brock Stroud, who got the starting nod over a banged up Hunter Hamilton, wore number three and directed traffic on offense beautifully in the 41-20 win.

“Just about everybody got a hand in the action.  Everybody played well,” said Chief Head Coach Mike Sivert after the win, Cherokee’s tenth straight season-opening win.

 

Of Friday’s starting QB, Stroud, Sivert said,  “He’s been getting pulls in practice all spring and fall.  We didn’t know it would come this quick that he would be put into action, but we planned all along to keep him up there.  He’s a gamer.  We knew he would give us everything he had and he did.”  Stroud started off his night connecting on his first three pass attempts, gaining 37 yards.  He finished up 4-of-8 for 65 yards.

Cherokee ran the ball with a number of players, but Josh Steward, Elliott and House did most of the damage.  Elliott, unofficially, had 10 carries for 95 yards and three scores.  Unofficially, House carried the ball seven times for 90 yards and three TDs.  Steward had 76 yards rushing.  All of that success, however, started with the Cherokee offensive line.  “We moved our center to left tackle and moved in a new center,” began Sivert.  “We moved our big tackle from last year, Zach Morris, over to guard and shored that up.  Adam Jones came over to offense.  The line is five seniors who have some strength and some football  savvy.  I look for good things out of them.  There’s a lot of pride there.”

Momentum see-sawed between the two teams throughout the first three periods until Cherokee finally seized it for good with just under four minutes left to play in the third.  That’s when Elliott capped a three-play, 71-yard drive with a seven yard scamper to paydirt to give the Chiefs a two touchdown advantage, 35-20.

Steward made the big play that set up the score.  On first and 10 from the Chief 29 he ripped off a 62-yard run, moving the ball down inside the Grainger 10.  Fullback Jon Linkous picked up a couple of yards on first and goal, then Elliott did the honors for his third score of the evening.  Kicker Jordan Cruz banged through his fifth PAT and the Chiefs were comfortably in control of things.  Still, Grainger had shown it could put up some offensive numbers earlier in the game and the Chiefs needed one more stop.  After the Cherokee score Grainger got the ball back at its own 41 and wasted little time reaching the Cherokee 25. 

On first and 10 House put down Skylar McBee after a four-yard gain.  On second and third downs from the Chief 22 McBee threw incompletions, taking the clock down to less than 30 seconds to go in the quarter, bringing up fourth and seven.  With it getting late and Grainger down two scores the Grizzlies had little choice but to go for it.  McBee, who had been respectable through the air since first-year Head Coach Mark Briscoe spread things  out in the second quarter, hitting 10 of 19 passes up to that point, threw his third consecutive incompletion, ending the scoring threat.

Stroud called his own number on the next play, picking up four yards in the middle of the field.  Linkous pounded out a tough yard on the first play of the fourth quarter, then Stroud connected with Matt Hale for a 28-yard pick-up, putting the ball at the Grainger 45.

The next play was executed beautifully.  House took the ball on a reverse and the entire Grainger defense bit.  House took off toward the right side of the field and rumbled 45 yards untouched for his third TD of the night.

Cruz, who had been perfect on extra points thus far, was unable to overcome a bad snap and missed the point after, but Cherokee was up by 21 with just 10:33 left in the game. 

The Chiefs first took the lead with 3:51 to go in the opening quarter.  On the team’s second possession Elliott finished off a nine play, 66-yard drive with a six yard run.  Cruz’ point after made it 7-0. 

Cherokee made one of its few mistakes on the ensuing kickoff.  A couple of missed tackles gave Grainger return man Tony Gill a little crease.  That was all he needed as he took the ball 86-yards for a touchdown.  Gill, however, was unable to equalize the score.  Also the team’s place kicker, he missed the point after wide left.

“We gave them the kick-off return.  Maybe we can stop that stuff,” said Sivert.  “We let them set up shop inside our 30 there too,” the head man observed.  That occurred late in the second period, letting the Grizzlies make the game close at intermission, 21-20.

After Grainger’s first score the home team didn’t need long to regain the momentum.  Just 3:14 later Cherokee was back in the endzone.  House polished off a 50-yard drive with a four yard TD run.  Cruz gave Cherokee an eight-point lead with his PAT.  Cherokee scored again to open the second period, going out front on the strength of House’s seven-yard run and Cruz’ third PAT.

Coming into the game Cherokee faced the prospect of having to shut down McBee’s ground game. 

In 2007 it was a loss to Cherokee that prevented McBee from going over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.  In last year’s season opener the Chief defense allowed the speedy QB just 14 yards on the ground.  McBee finished the campaign with 19 TDs on the ground and 947 yards rushing.

Cherokee did an outstanding job of taking away the run in the first period and Coach Briscoe made an adjustment, going to a spread to try to complete some passes and open things up for McBee.

In the short term Grainger had some success.  McBee found Justin Humphrey for a 32-yard pick-up down to the Cherokee 20 during the next drive.  Two plays later he dialed up Zach Blanken on a 19-yard scoring strike.

Cherokee was then unable to move the ball and Justin Fugate came on to punt for just the second time.  However, he had to deal with a bad snap.  By the time he recovered the ball all he could do was put his head down and get what he could on the ground.  Grainger took over the ball on the Cherokee 23.

McBee scrambled for a first down, then threw an incompletion and was sacked for a 12 yard loss.  But, the senior QB bailed the team out with a throw to Humphrey, who appeared to be tackled short of the endzone, but managed to inch his way in.  McBee found a crossing Josh Hart in heavy traffic on the two-point conversion to make it 21-20.

Cherokee forced a Grainger punt to start the second half, then needed just three plays to score its fourth touchdown, a 38-yard run by Elliott.  That opened the flood gates as Grainger seemed to run out of gas.

The Chiefs (1-0) will look for some payback when they visit Christian Academy of Knoxville  (0-1) Friday.  Last season CAK handed the Chiefs a 42-21 loss in Big Red Valley.