CLEVELAND, Tenn -- Maryville quarterback Will Jones said the bus ride to Cleveland High School Friday night was a quiet one. They usually are according to the Rebels' triggerman.
"Our coaches had told us it was business as usual coming down here, but they expected it to be a fun ride home. They had a lot of confidence in us, and we wanted to reward that with a happy ride home. Other than that, we didn't really talk a lot about any of our recent trips down here, but we understood," said Jones among an unusually rowdy celebration following Maryville's 34-7 thumping of the Blue Raiders last night.
Maryville is not the type to hype regular season wins, a custom so predictable that 10-win seasons are the norm rather than the exception. But in some ways, the perception has been there was a giant crack in the armor of the state's top football program given it already had three losses in the 2023 campaign with two of those being Region 2-6A setbacks.
For perspective, the Rebels have to go all the way back to the 2000 season to find that many region losses in a season and won 144 straight such games between that fateful season and last year when these same Cleveland Blue Raiders ended that streak. There won't be a 27th consecutive region title for the Maryville trophy case, but none of that mattered last night.
It was all about getting back to Maryville football, and finally enjoying a bus ride home from Bradley County following a game after losing to Bradley Central earlier this season to make it 0-2 on its last two such trips down Interstate 75.
And Maryville football was on prime display from the onset last night, thoroughly dominating Cleveland in the first half in which it had the ball nearly 18 of the first half's 24 minutes, scored on all four of its possessions and took a 24-0 lead into the locker room.
"They outcoached, and they outplayed us and we just need to own that," said Cleveland coach Chandler Tygard afterwards. "That was about as embarrassing of a first half as I've seen, but give them credit because they did it to us."
The Rebels took the opening kick and set the tone with a six play, 69-yard drive with all 69 yards coming on the ground, culminating with Price Davis' seven-yard sprint into the end zone for the 7-0 lead. Cleveland's Mycah Jordan took the ensuing kickoff 88 yards to the Rebel 6, but a penalty brought it back to the 27 where the Blue Raiders got it inside the 10 on Lavante Adams' 16-yard carry on the first play. From there, though, four straight runs netted them just eight yards and they needed nine for the tying score.
Cleveland went for it on a fourth-and-goal at the 2, but Maryville's defensive line stood tall and the Rebels took over at the 1.
"Yeah there wasn't any question we weren't going to go for it there. If you can't get two yards then you don't deserve it," added Tygard.
From there, the Rebels put together a methodical 19-play march all the way down to the Cleveland 18, picking up seven first down along the way before settling for a Hudson Jamerson 35-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
"Yeah, that was a fun drive. We converted third downs when we had to and really leaned on them some. I think it set a tone for the rest of the game after that," said Jones, who completed 8-of-12 passes on the night for 108 yards and rushed for another 111 on 10 carries.
Cleveland moved the ball at times in the initial half crossing into Maryville territory on all four of its drives, but penalties killed a couple of promising drives and the Rebels got after them in some third-and-long situations. After driving it to the Rebels' 30, a pair of holding penalties and a procedure call thwarted the next drive, and a 15-yard punt set Maryville up at its own 40.
The Rebels needed eight plays and were aided by a pass interference and a face mask call to travel the 60 yards with Jones going in untouched from the seven for a 17-0 lead. Cleveland had eight yellow flags in the half for 83 yards and finished with 10 for 108 on the night.
"Yeah the penalties hurt, but honestly it wouldn't have mattered tonight with the way they played. All these people who are saying Maryville is down don't know what they are talking about. They had a bye week so they had two weeks to prepare for this one and it showed. In this region, every team is capable of beating anyone on a given night," said Tygard.
The Blue Raiders turned it over on downs with just 1:10 left in the half, but it only took one play after another pass interference penalty set Maryville up at the 34. Jones found Price Davis on a screen pass and he went untouched for the score to make it 24-0 at the break.
Davis wound up with 129 rushing yards to go along with the one catch as Maryville put up 383 yards of offense. The Rebels' Achilles heel, though, had been their inability to stop a quality rushing attack, but they fixed those problems on this night, limiting Cleveland's potent ground attack to 36 in the first half and 105 for the game.
The Blue Raiders finally finished a drive to open the final half, going 67 yards in nine plays with Isaiah Davis breaking a 17-yard run to the 2 where Adams finished it off. Maryville added another Jamerson field goal to push it back to 27-7 and then held Cleveland on downs at midfield. Jones faked a pitch and went straight up the gut for a 40-yard score to close out the scoring afterwards.
The final period saw a lot of backups and three turnovers between the squads as both teams looked ahead to big games next week. For Cleveland, it will be rival Bradley Central, the state's top-ranked team visiting for the annual bash while Maryville takes on Alcoa.
"We won't have time to dwell on this one, and that's good. I don't think anyone expects much of us against the top-ranked team," added Tygard of Bears' visit.
Brian Beard, Jr. led the Blue Raiders with six carries for 43 yards while Adams and Chase Stephens had 69 and 65 passing yards, respectively. Lucas Szymborski caught three passes for 72 yards in the second half.
SUMMARY
|
MARYVILLE
|
7
|
17
|
10
|
0
|
-- 34
|
|
CLEVELAND
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
0
|
-- 7
|
M -- Price Davis 7 run (Hudson Jamerson kick) (9:21, 1st)
M -- Hudson Jamerson 35 field goal (10:02, 2nd)
M -- Will Jones 7 run (Hudson Jamerson kick) (2:59, 2nd)
M -- Price Davis 34 pass from Will Jones (Hudson Jamerson kick) (0:51, 2nd)
C -- Lavante Adams 2 run (Sloan Bolanos kick) (9:21, 3rd)
M -- Hudson Jamerson 25 field goal (4:33, 3rd)
M -- Will Jones 40 run (Hudson Jamerson kick) (3:07, 3rd)
|
STATS
|
M
|
C
|
|
First Downs
|
24
|
12
|
|
Rushes-Yards
|
49-275
|
28-105
|
|
Passing Yards
|
108
|
138
|
|
Total yards
|
383
|
243
|
|
Passing (Comp-Att-Int)
|
8-12-0
|
13-22-2
|
|
Penalties-Yards
|
7-45
|
10-108
|
|
Punts-Average
|
1-39.0
|
1-15.0
|
|
Fumbles-Lost
|
1-1
|
2-1
|
Individual Stats
RUSHING: Price Davis 23-129, Will Jones10-111, Graham Coulter 7-3, Cohen Babelay 5-24 (M); Lavante Adams 16-38, Brian Beard, Jr. 6-43, Isaiah Davis 4-20, Mycah Jordan 1-12 (C).
PASSING: Will Jones 8-12-0 108 yards (M); Lavante Adams 7-10-0 69 yards, Chase Stephens 6-12-2 65 yards (C).
RECEIVING: Britton Barrett 1-7, Eli Elkins 5-46, Price Davis 1-34, Jac Carter 1-16 (M); Brayden Carroll 6-25, Lucas Szymborski 3-72, Isaiah Davis 1-21, Lavante Adams 3-20 (C).
RECORDS: Maryville (5-3, 2-2 2-6A), Cleveland (5-3, 1-2 2-6A).
UP NEXT: Cleveland hosts Bradley Central and Maryville at Alcoa.
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)