©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RUSSELL LAWS

Cocke County senior quarterback Casey Ragan (No. 10)
got good blocking from linemen Justin Stokley (No. 79)
and Jon Pierce (No. 55) for a nice gain Friday night against
Cherokee at Hedrick Field.

NEWPORT-The Cocke County Fighting Cocks closed the fourth quarter of Friday night's game with a bang.

It was the bang of Cherokee High School's attack in the game's first 18 minutes that made the difference in the outcome.

Cherokee raced out to a 34-0 lead midway through the second quarter of the season finale for both schools, en route to a 60-40 victory at Hedrick Field.

Cherokee (3-7, 2-5) scored two touchdowns in the opening two minutes of the game without taking an offensive snap, scoring off a blocked punt and an interception return.

The Chiefs also scored twice in the opening two minutes of the second half, taking advantage of another Cocke County (2-8, 1-6) turnover.

"Take away the first two minutes of the first quarter and the first two minutes of the third quarter, the ball game is a little bit different," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "We had a blocked punt and three turnovers in the first half early and then two blown assignments in a pass coverage that allowed easy touchdowns.

"Just if it could go wrong for us, it did go wrong; maybe that's a reflection of a lack of preparation on my part," Kelley said. "It was tough to watch tonight, it was tough to go through. Our team continued to battle back and I'm proud of them."

Once Cherokee's offense took the field, the results were no different as receiver Matt Hale hauled in first half touchdown receptions from 87, 31, and 19 yards out. Hale finished the night with four catches, all for touchdowns, and 231 yards.

The Chiefs came into Friday's game with an aerial assault that played off play action and burnt what had been a solid pass defense for the Fighting Cocks all season long. Cherokee threw for 272 yards on 7-of-10 passing using a variety of play fake passes.

Once establishing their passing attack, the Chiefs were then able to run the ball as they gained 240 yards, 223 on the back of senior back Landon House. The rushing attack saw Cocke County's total run defense yardage allowed rise to 2,545 yards capping one of the worst years defensively in school and conference history.

The rushing defense gave up the eighth most allowed yards and the total defense surrendered the fifth most yards in Inter Mountain Athletic Conference history dating back to 1977.

After being besieged and trailing Cherokee 47-8 early in the third quarter, Cocke County rallied back to make to the game's final margin respectable.

Kelley said that the lack of quit in the Fighting Cocks, despite the 39-point deficit was a message the coaching staff had driven home over the course of the season.

"We've tried to preach all year about 48 minutes," Kelley said. "We tried to preach all season, about continuing to give the effort, win or lose, no matter what the scoreboard says, the continued effort is going to make a man out of you and give you character for who you are and what you represent."

Cocke County quarterback Casey Ragan engineered the second half on the heels of a frightful first half including two interceptions leading to 14 points for the Chiefs.

In the second half, Ragan, who went over the 1,000-yard passing mark in the game, was much more efficient tossing four touchdown passes all over the length of 35 yards, completing a 13-of-22 night for 287 yards and five touchdown passes with two interceptions. Ragan was also the team's leading rusher in the game and the season, generating most of his rushing yards on busted plays.

Receiver Tyler Johnson was the go-to man for the Fighting Cocks in the second half, notching three touchdown receptions and totaling 196 yards on five catches.

The duo ranked as among two of the four reasons that Cocke County's offense went through a resurgence, finishing just shy of the 2,000-yard mark in total offense this season, after averaging 1,500 yards since the 2006 season.

Consecutive touchdown catches by Johnson made the score 47-24 with 6:36 remaining in the game. The Chiefs then capped off a four-play, 63-yard drive with a two-yard run by Zakk Parker with 4:22 to play to gain a 54-24 lead.

Then the Fighting Cocks made things interesting with a pair of quick strike scores. A 36-yard strike from Ragan to sophomore Krys Cates capped off a 58-yard, five-play drive to make the score 54-32 with 2:00 to play.

One play after a squib kick resulted in a Cocke County recovery, the Fighting Cocks pulled to within two touchdowns with 1:42 to play. Ragan hit Johnson 45-yards downfield to move the margin closer and his team back into the game.

Kelley credited the team and its senior class, who said farewell to 15 members on Friday night, for its character and heart for being able to keep fighting all season and in this game.

"This group overall and especially this senior group has laid the foundation of where we want to be as a program, and laid a foundation of how we want to be and how we want to act and who we are," Kelley said. "Our younger guys have to respond and carry that on."

The ensuing onside kick was pounced on by Cherokee, who seemed intent on running out the clock for the majority of the 1:42. However, they then moved House to a wildcat direct-snap formation and tried to run the ball for a touchdown to obtain a school-record for the senior tailback.

As time expired, House appeared to score from 37 yards out but a live-ball illegal procedure call on Cherokee brought the ball back five yards from the original spot and incorrectly the Chiefs received an untimed down. House, from the wildcat formation, then scored from 42-yards out on the untimed down to increase the final margin of victory.

The loss ends Cocke County's season at 2-8, marking the first time since 2004 that the program has had a multiple win season. The team also snapped a 22-game winless streak in the process of obtaining a win in the fifth week of the season at Union County.

Kelley acknowledged despite the handful of successes the team had in 2009, hard work is around the corner and will begin soon for the 2010 season.

"We've got a long ways to go," Kelley said. "There are a lot of things that will be changed for this next season and we've got to get busy on those changes."

CCHS begins the 2010 season at South Greene on August 27.

©2009 NPT PHOTO BY PAUL MEADOR

Cocke County junior Jared McGaha got the start at quarterback
Friday night against Morristown West with starter Casey Ragan
sidelined. But, McGaha suffered a broken collarbone in the first half.

NEWPORT-The tenth-ranked Morristown West Trojans defense is as advertised: Dominant.

The Trojans, who are the Inter Mountain Athletic Conference's (District 2-AAA) top-ranked defensive unit, held the Cocke County Fighting Cocks to 55 yards of total offense on Friday night.

The defensive performance powered the Trojans to a 49-0 victory at Hedrick Field. The loss eliminated the Fighting Cocks from post-season contention in playoff subdivision Class 5A.

"We knew coming in how good they were (defensively)," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "We knew what our limitations were going to be.

"Obviously we could not execute much of what we needed to tonight against a very strong offensive and defensive unit."

Already down its starting quarterback entering the game, the Fighting Cocks (2-7, 1-5) struggles continued offensively when junior quarterback Jared McGaha broke his collarbone in the game's first quarter. McGaha continued to play until telling the coaching staff of the injury at halftime.

"Jared broke his collarbone in the first quarter but was too tough a kid just how bad he was hurting, which very much limited his ability to make plays that he normally would and can make," Kelley said. "He told me he didn't want to disappoint me because he knew the team was riding on him to execute our offense. I love him to death and I'm heartbroken for him as much as I am proud of him."

McGaha had replaced starting quarterback Casey Ragan, who sat out the game after sustaining a Grade III concussion last week. Ragan's absence was figured to be a big blow, having accounted for nearly 70 percent of the team's total offense through the first eight games of the season.

Despite a poor start, which saw the Trojans (7-2, 5-1, No. 10 AP, Class 5A) score on their opening possession and their own offense endure four first quarter three-and-outs, the Fighting Cocks trailed only 7-0 at the end of the opening quarter. Cocke County forced a fumble by Morristown West and then held the Trojans to a 31-yard field goal attempt which was wide right.

The Trojans however broke the game open with a 28-point second quarter, taking advantage of two Cocke County turnovers deep in their own territory.

The Trojans drove 65 yards in six plays and scored with a four-yard run by Chad Brooks to extend their lead to 14-0 with 8:07 left in the half. After a fumble, the Trojans Wesley Goins scored on a 13-yard run with 7:10 remaining.

Morristown West then went to the air, as Justin Everhart hauled in a 20-yard pass from Andrew Lee with 4:00 to play. Then the four-touchdown barrage was capped off by an 11-yard fourth-down conversion from Patrick Ashford to KJ Kelley with 1:08 to play in the half.

Cocke County's injury-plagued team then again struggled in the second half, with each team only having three possessions due to a continuously running clock. The Fighting Cocks were unable to take advantage of a Trojans fumble to open the half. After punting back to West, the Trojans had a seven-play, 78-yard drive, capped off by a 26-yard run by Goins with 2:31 to play in the quarter.

Cocke County's next possession was their longest of the night, spanning 53 yards and picking up the only two first downs of the night.

Brandon Davis' five-yard run picked up the initial first down of the night for the Fighting Cocks late in the third period and then third-string quarterback Taylor Hawk hit Zac Holt down the sideline for a 38-yard pass to get into the opponents territory for the first time in the game.

The pass was into a darkened end of the field, as one bank of lights went out during the game leaving one section of the field unlit. However the game was not stopped due to the outage.

A Cocke County fumble ended the drive and then the Trojans marched 73 yards in nine plays to add their final touchdown of the night. Tyler Brooks got the score from five yards out to make the score 49-0 with 2:59 to play in the game.

The game left the Fighting Cocks with numerous injuries and personnel decisions to be made headed into the final game of the year against Cherokee next Friday (7:30 p.m., Radio: WLIK 1270-AM). The team had already sustained injuries headed into the game and was without several starters due to the flu.

"We're not deep enough and strong enough yet as a program to be able to rebound from injuries and lack of designated starters," Kelley said. "We have to regroup next week and maybe shuffle some people around to start executing our offense and defense better.

"We're going to have to study where we are as a football team in terms of personnel and try to get our people in the right spot."

©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RICK HOOPER

Cocke County's Logan Suggs (No. 12) uses some good
blocking from teammates Krys Cates (No. 17) and
Tim Maloney (No. 4) for some yardage in the Big Red's
loss at Morristown East Friday night.

MORRISTOWN-The Cocke County High School Fighting Cocks hoped to take advantage of a porous Morristown East defensive unit on Friday night.

Special teams miscues and turnovers kept them from their desired goal.

Four mistakes by the Cocke County special teams units - three leading to scores for Morristown East - and a pair of turnovers allowed the Hurricanes to run away with a 55-6 victory in District 2-AAA action at Burke Toney Stadium.

"Offensively we came out and executed our game plan to perfection," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "We had them off-balance on defense (and) we were able to move the football well.

"Some miscues in our kicking game cost us field position, (with) two blocked punts in the first half," Kelley said. "Then we had a couple of dropped ball (and) other small things.

"You take 3 or 4 plays and change them, it's a different first half; which in turn will create a whole different mindset going into the second half," Kelley said.

Cocke County's offense moved the ball well throughout most of the first half and tallied 202 yards of total offense in the game. Quarterback Casey Ragan engineered most of the team's offense, with 181 yards of the team's 202 yards of total offense in the game.

Ragan left the game in the second half with an apparent concussion, which leaves his status doubtful for the final two games of the season, after spending nearly 10 minutes on the turf after a hard tackle.

However a dropped pass on the first series of the game cost the Fighting Cocks (2-6, 1-4) a key first down and set the tone for the opponents.

Morristown East (5-3, 4-1) then ran the ball on their first possession and continued to do so with regularity throughout the game. The Hurricanes ran the ball 41 times for 450 yards in the game, after only attempting four passes the entire night.

The run game was dangerous for the Hurricanes as four players had over 70 yards on the ground, including all-everything athlete Tee Howell. Howell, who played most of the game at quarterback, led the team with 116 yards and a touchdown on six carries. Running back Tavin Blanton scored two touchdowns and 89 yards on 10 carries.

The one-two punch of the starting backfield gave the Hurricanes an edge speed-wise that the Fighting Cocks struggled to thwart. Once Morristown East broke the play beyond the tackles, the Hurricanes' speed showed up as Cocke County struggled to defend the plays that stretched the field.

"We knew we could not contain them speed wise, all we could do is hope our defense slowed them down to let our offense keep us in the football game," Kelley said.

With the Hurricanes holding an early 7-0 lead after Howell's touchdown run, the Hurricanes took advantage of a controversial fumble and then scored five plays later on a 45-yard run by Blanton to lead 14-0 with 53 seconds left in the first quarter.

With an early deficit, the Fighting Cocks could ill-afford many mistakes. The special teams unit cost them on consecutive chances.

Cocke County's next two punts were blocked, with one resulting in a three-yard return for a touchdown to extend the lead to 21-0 midway through the second quarter. The first punt block resulted in a Hurricanes drive inside the Cocke County red zone that resulted in a lost fumble.

The Fighting Cocks responded with their lone scoring drive of the night, a five-play, 63-yard drive that ended with a 48-yard connection between Ragan and receiver Krys Cates. The play was wide open against the Hurricanes cover-3 defensive look and was a play that Kelley said he thought of in the wee hours of Tuesday night.

The score gave the Fighting Cocks an optimistic outlook on the second half, pulling the team to within two possessions of the Hurricanes despite their mistake-laden opening half.

However, another critical special teams mistake opened the flood gates to open the second half. On the kickoff, Cocke County whiffed on the kick, which went less than five yards giving the Hurricanes good field position to start the half.

"At halftime we had a very good feeling," Kelley said. "Just a flat out mistake on our opening kickoff gave them good field position and the rest is history."

Dee Dee Johnson and Blanton scored a pair of touchdowns for East, sandwiched around a Cocke County three-and-out to make the lead 35-6 at the 5:21 mark of the third quarter.

Then came Cocke County's final special teams mistake of the night. The ensuing kickoff, moved to the Cocke County 45-yard line due to a roughing the holder penalty on the point-after, landed inside the Cocke County 5-yard line. After no one for Cocke County recovered the kickoff a scramble occurred and Morristown East's Dee Clark recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown that made the score 42-6.

East tacked on a pair of fourth quarter scores, to increase the lead to 55-6. The Hurricanes final two touchdowns also insured that they scored on every possession that did not end in a turnover, or result in the end of the first half. Morristown East had nine possessions in the game and scored on six of them, with their longest scoring drive being a 10-play, 79-yard drive early in the fourth quarter.

The win solidified Morristown East's playoff positioning; while putting the Fighting Cocks in a precarious spot with only two games remaining.

A 35-0 Seymour victory over South Doyle has the Fighting Cocks needing a Cherokee victory over Seymour next week and then has to upend the Chiefs in two weeks in order to secure a three-way tie for the final 5A subdivision playoff berth in order to have an outside chance to qualify for the playoffs.

Other District 2-AAA scores from Friday included a 36-19 Sevier County win over Cherokee to remain atop the standings. On Thursday night, Morristown West knocked off Jefferson County 10-3 to all but eliminate the Patriots from postseason contention.

Cocke County will return to action Friday night as they host Morristown West, as the Fighting Cocks begin a two-game homestand to close the 2009 campaign. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RUSSELL LAWS

The 2009 Cocke County High School Homecoming Court
included, from left, Morgan Ellis, Morgan Buda, Jessica Costner,
Randi Owenby, Macie Finchum, Jacqueline Poteete, Sarah Brown,
Erika Wild and Breanne Valentine. Erika Wild was crowned
Homecoming Queen.

NEWPORT-It was not easy. Nor was it pretty.

Yet the result was beautiful for the Cocke County High School Fighting Cocks.

After the Fighting Cocks struggled mightily on offense the entire night, senior quarterback Casey Ragan's 13-yard touchdown pass in overtime to receiver Logan Suggs gave Cocke County a 12-6 victory over South Doyle at Hedrick Field.

"It was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination," said Cocke County coach Casey Kelley. "It doesn't matter what it looked like, there is still a 'W' on the scoreboard.

"(Wins) have been few and far between for Cocke County High School in the last several years, it is an absolute great feeling to battle; it doesn't matter how ugly it was, we got a win tonight and we're going to celebrate and be very happy about it," Kelley said.

The win was the first home victory and Inter Mountain Athletic Conference (District 2-AAA) win since a September 7, 2007 win over Volunteer and marks the first time the Cocke County program has won multiple games in a season since 2004.

The Fighting Cocks (2-5, 1-3) were unable to generate much positive momentum on offense, netting only 78 yards in the game; but relied on a stingy defensive unit which turned in its finest performance of the season.

Cocke County's defense, which struggled to defend the run coming into Friday's game, limited the Cherokees (0-7, 0-4) to 119 yards of total offense and held South Doyle to 1.7 yards per carry. The defense held South Doyle tailback Lakeem Coach, the Inter Mountain Athletic Conference's third leading rusher, to only 62 yards on 24 carries in the game.

"Our focus this week has been on the (defensive) run game," Kelley said. "Everybody knows, that's watched us over this season - that we have not been a good run defender.

"It wasn't great tonight, but it was a heck of a lot better," Kelley said. "It was good enough for our defense to help our struggling offense."

While the Fighting Cocks surrendered some long plays to the Cherokees, including 43 yards of passing against a team that had tallied 17 coming into Friday's game, the defensive front seven played strong to stop the run.

Cocke County tallied 14 tackles for loss, including five sacks, for a loss of 61 yards in the game.

Senior linebacker Casey Jones again led the team in tackles with nine, and Dakota Langston and Darian France added eight apiece. Together, the three leading tacklers for coordinator Daniel Dudley's defense had 5.5 tackles for loss for 21 yards.

That defensive effort gave the offense opportunities to score and continually bailed the offense out when it stuck the defense with bad field position.

Cocke County's first possession resulted in minus-18 yards and had the Cherokees starting inside the Fighting Cocks 40 yard line. However, the defense held and set the tone for the evening.

South Doyle was held to 10 yards on their first three possessions and the change of possessions put the Fighting Cocks on the move early in the second quarter. CCHS moved the ball inside the South Doyle 30 and faced a fourth-and-three, when Brandon Davis, off of a block by Terrence Davidson, ran the ball 21 yards to set up the first touchdown of the night.

Ragan got the score from one-yard out with 7:37 to play in the first half to give Cocke County a 6-0 lead after Krys Cates' point-after was blocked.

After the anemic offenses, which combined for 50 yards of total offense at halftime, struggled for most of the rest of the game.

South Doyle, despite leading the Fighting Cocks in yardage most of the game, was unable to get back into the game until a turnover opened the door midway through the fourth quarter. A Cocke County fumble gave the ball to the Cherokees at the 25 yard line, setting up a 23-yard third-down scoring pass from quarterback Tyler Mason to Jordan Cormack with 7:16 to play. Mitchell Mascar missed the point-after and the score was tied 6-6.

Despite the late turnover and being burdened with poor field position the remainder of regulation, Cocke County remained poised as they fought to get the game to the end of regulation.

"We have preached all week about finishing what you start," said Kelley of his team's composure down the stretch.

South Doyle went backwards in their first possession of the overtime period and had to settle for a Mascar 32-yard field goal attempt, which sailed wide right.

Cocke County then had four plays from the 10-yard line to end the game, and facing a third-and-goal from the 13, Ragan's fade route to Suggs lofted softly in the hands of the team's leading receiver to give the Fighting Cocks the win.

"It was not pretty for us tonight," Kelley said. "We made a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball.

"A lot of things came together this evening and what a great feeling to go home with a 'W' tonight for Cocke County High School," Kelley said.

Cocke County returns to action next Friday when they travel to Burke-Toney Stadium in Morristown to battle Morristown East. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RICK HOOPER

Cocke County quarterback Casey Ragan is set
to throw in the Big Red's 34-0 victory at Union County
Friday night.

MAYNARDVILLE-Over the past 22 games many have wondered when the next win on the gridiron would come for Cocke County High School.

On Friday night, the Cocke County Fighting Cocks left no doubt as to when it would occur.

Cocke County dominated the Union County Patriots and snapped the school-record losing streak with a 34-0 win.

"We put everything together tonight," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "Our offense was clicking in the first half; our defense was flying to the football. I'm proud of my young men, I'm proud of my coaching staff. It's been a great night for Cocke County High School."

The Fighting Cocks (1-4) scored on their third play from scrimmage on a 55-yard pass from senior quarterback Casey Ragan to Tyler Johnson in the beginning of the onslaught on the District 3-AA Patriots (1-4).

Ragan was the centerpiece of clockwork for the offense all night long, having a hand in all five Cocke County touchdowns. He was 7-of-10 through the air for 198 yards and three touchdowns and carried the ball for 46 yards and two scores.

Ragan said the performance was part of a winning effort, resulting in the determination of the entire football team despite the lack of success the course of the past two seasons.

"I really think it is unbelievable," Ragan said. "The stuff we hear and the stuff we read on those high school web sites that rank everybody, we hear about how bad we are and how we shouldn't even play; I think it's unbelievable that we still have guys out here who want to play."

Kelley agreed with his quarterback, citing his team's discipline and character in preparing for each game the same way as they would had they won the previous week's game.

Despite the recent lack of success of the program, a four-some of playmaking receivers came to play Friday night which helped out the Cocke County quarterback.

Tyler Johnson, Krys Cates and Jared McGaha each caught touchdown passes in the victory and were an integral part of the team's success in the passing game.

"Running the option against the last few defenses we've faced, they just line up and come at you," Ragan said. "So having some playmakers out there just helps out.

"On the first series tonight, Tyler makes a huge catch down the sideline," Ragan said. "I'm real glad Krys decided to come out and play because he showed tonight he can really help this football team."

Cates hauled in a 65-yard touchdown on a slant route from Ragan to increase Cocke County's lead to 20-0 with 9:07 to play in the first half. The touchdown reception increased Cates' team-leading all-purpose yardage total to 239 yards after not being on the roster for the first two weeks.

In between the opening two touchdown receptions, Jared McGaha's 15-yard reception on fourth-and-six, gave Cocke County a 14-0 lead with 1:55 to play in the first quarter, capping off a 7-play, 51-yard drive.

Cocke County's success in the passing game was partly a beneficiary of the success of the offensive line, which gave Ragan time to operate and survey the field for wide receivers.

"We have talented receivers on the field and a quarterback that executes our offense perfectly," Kelley said. "What we have been building the last four games is an offensive line to go along with it.

"The offensive-line - we have stuck with them through some hard times," Kelley said. "The Seymour game was a hard time. We stuck with this offensive line. We've kept coaching and coaching and coaching and they're coming around. All points of this offense is coming around."

Following the aerial barrage on the Patriots, Cocke County then took to the ground to close out the first half scoring with a pair of touchdowns in the final minute of the half.

Ragan scored on touchdown runs of nine and three yards in the half's final two minutes. The first scoring run was set up by a 42-yard pass to Johnson, who had 98 yards on three catches in the game, inside the Union County 10-yard line. Ragan capped off the drive with an eight yard run on a sweep play with 1:41 to play.

Following a failed fake punt by Union County with under one-minute to play in the half, Ragan ran the ball three times in the final 50 seconds of the half for 38 yards, including a three-yard scoring run with six seconds to play in the half.

While Cocke County was rolling up 309 yards of total offense in the game, the defensive unit was putting forth their finest effort of the season in compiling their first shutout since a 39-0 win over South Greene on August 22, 2003.

The Fighting Cocks, who allowed 288 yards per game rushing coming into Friday's game, held the Patriots to 93 yards on the ground and to 59 yards through the air, as they kept Union County frustrated from the ouster.

Tailback Michael Hickman was bottled up all game, carrying the ball 19 times for 70 yards.

The defensive effort was the effort of an improved tackling effort, evident in the statistics. Linebackers Casey Jones and Darian France combined for 17 tackles to lead the team.

Jones was a brilliant run stopper most of the game, while France was in the backfield consistently, registering 3.5 of the 10 tackles for loss that the defense had during the game. Cocke County also tallied four sacks, representing the penetration the front seven got on the Union County offensive front.

Defensive backs Logan Suggs and Johnson had three interceptions between them, including 51 return yards on two picks by Johnson.

Kelley said that even with the resounding victory - the first since a 20-19 double overtime win over Volunteer on September 7, 2007 - the team will quickly get back to work for a key conference battle with rival Jefferson County next Friday.

"I'm very proud of this football team, the coaching staff and the fans that drove all this way to support us," Kelley said. "It was a great night for Cocke County High School football.

"The losing streak, I had forgot about it," Kelley said. "We had Union County (on our mind) tonight, I'm glad that monkey is off our back, (but) we've got to get right back to work, with Jefferson County next Friday night."

Kickoff of next week's District 2-AAA battle is set for 7:30 p.m. (Radio: WLIK 1270-AM) from Leroy Shannon Field in Dandridge.

©2009 NPT PHOTO BY RICK HOOPER

Cocke County's Logan Suggs finds some
running room in the Big Red's battle against
Sevier County Friday night.

NEWPORT-Faced with their toughest task of the 2009 seasonto date, the Cocke County High School Fighting Cocks succumbed to the SevierCounty Bears on Friday night.

Sevier County, the state's tenth ranked team in Class 6Aby the Associated Press, battled with the Fighting Cocks for a quarter, beforerunning away with 40 unanswered points to win 47-6 in an Inter MountainAthletic Conference (District 2-AAA) contest at Hedrick Field.

Cocke County (0-4, 0-2) challenged Sevier County (5-0,2-0) early on, before succumbing to a faster and stronger Bears team, whichcapitalized on quick scoring drives the entire game.

"What we did tonight was we came out tonight andspent our tank," Cocke County coach Casey Kelley said. "We played withheart, we played hard, we fought and we scrapped. We did absolutely everythingwe could to execute our offense tonight.

"We still had a couple of miscues on offense, acouple of fumbles that resulted in a score or two for them, but this teamfought hard," Kelley said. "Coach Brewer told me that we gave themeverything we wanted tonight, especially in the first half."

Cocke County fell behind 7-0 only 47 seconds into thegame after the Bears marched 65 yards in four plays. Quarterback Zach Flynn,who led Sevier County in rushing, scored from 23 yards out to cap off the firstof six scoring drives that took less than 2:30 off the clock.

After marching with their next possession inside theCocke County five, the Bears appeared to go for the early kill, only to fumblenear the goal line. The turnover allowed the Fighting Cocks to march 93 yardsin seven plays for their lone touchdown of the game.

The drive, aided by a pair of personal foul penalties bythe Bears, was capped off by a 58-yard pass from Casey Ragan to Krys Cates with2:26 to play in the first quarter.

Sevier County then scored on their next four drives toend the half, posting a 33-6 lead at intermission.

The Bears did most of their damage on the ground, runningfor 356 yards on 33 attempts in the game. Sevier County came into the game witha vaunted passing attack engineered by Flynn, something that Kelley thought histeam shut down in the game.

"We were able to shut down their passing game,"Kelley said. "Considering how strong their passing game is, we playedstrong against their passing game."

With the focal point of the Cocke County defense on theSevier County rushing attack, the Bears were able to strike early and oftenwith the read option attack with the quarterback operating out of the shotgun.Sevier County's rushing total marked the third consecutive week that CockeCounty has allowed over 300 yards on the ground.

"What we're unable to do is match-up speed withanybody," Kelley said. "Sevier County was a faster football team thanus.

"I think we underprepared a little bit for theirzone read option that they do out of the gun," said Kelley, who noted thatthe Bears were able to sustain drives, especially after converting on a pair ofkey third down conversions in the first half. "Their zone read optionquarterback keeping the football is what hurt us in the first half; I think wemade some adjustments in the second half to take care of that."

Despite trailing 33-6 after halftime, the Fighting Cockstook the opening kick and marched into the Sevier County red zone, whereanother event exacerbated the long run of struggles this season inside theopponent's 20-yard line.

Ragan was running for the end zone on an option play onfourth-and-two when a Sevier County defender put a helmet solidly on the ball,forcing it to land six yards deep in the end zone. Jeremiah Foster picked upthe fumble in the end zone, allowed his team to set up blocks and returned thefumble 106 yards to extend the lead to 40-6 with 8:05 to play in the thirdquarter.

Sevier County added their final score of the night with3:25 remaining, when backup quarterback Danny Chastain hit Brian Gilson from 21yards out to end a six-play, 85 yard drive that gave the Bears a 47-6 lead.

Cocke County did suffer a scare late in the game whenBrandon Davis had to be removed from the field in an ambulance after sustaininga neck injury. Kelley said after the game that the move was largelyprecautionary.

"(Davis) was fine, he had some tingling in the neckarea," Kelley said. "Anytime you have a situation like that, it isbetter to be safe than sorry. At that stage in the game, we weren't going totake any chances on him.

"He got a slight head injury last week and with twoweeks in a row, it was a no-brainer to send him to the hospital," Kelleysaid.

District 2-AAA Round-up: After two weeks of District2-AAA competition, the race is beginning to take shape. In other conferencegames on Friday, Morristown West blanked South Doyle 27-0, Jefferson County won7-3 over Seymour and Morristown East took down Cherokee 25-21.

Sevier County, Morristown West and Morristown East aretied for first overall in the district with a 2-0 record, with Jefferson Countyin a tie for fourth with Seymour at 1-1. Cocke County, Cherokee and South Doyleare tied for sixth at 0-2.

Up Next: Cocke County again hits the road for a two-gameroad trip. The first game on the road is a non-conference showdown inMaynardville with Union County High School.

Kickoff next Friday is set for 7:30 p.m.(Radio: WLIK 1270-AM).