Cedar Bluff Capitalizes on Collinsville Mistakes For Rivalry Win

Here we are at halfway through the 2017 regular season for high school football and Week 5 brought some more great action across our listening area here at WEIS. And we got a good taste of that action when we made our second trip of the year to LD Bruce Field in Cedar Bluff for another addition to the long time, hard-nosed rivalry between the Class 1A’s 2-2 Cedar Bluff Tigers and the Class 2A’s 2-2 Collinsville Panthers.

It’s no secret that among many of the county schools, Collinsville is that brother across the way in Dekalb County just outside of Sand Rock that always brings some great action whenever they play against our 5 schools in Cherokee County. This Friday was no different, especially when they were staring at a Cedar Bluff team coming off a couple of big Region wins while still trying to fully put together their identity through injuries to a few of their key players throughout the year. For Collinsville they themselves also have been in a bit of an identity crisis, dealing with a lot of younger players this year compared to recent years. So let’s go into this contest between these two teams in need of their identity, and let’s explore what we found out both good and bad from this matchup.

So the early game in the 1st between these two teams revolved around a couple of separate factors: defensive dominance on the run, and polar opposites for both sides on special teams. Both teams on defense did an excellent job of stuffing runs at the line of scrimmage several times, for Cedar Bluff a big focus of taking out the Panthers’ in-the-trenches game and for Collinsville taking out the Tigers’ outside perimeter runs, and this was certainly beneficial to both teams when it came to keeping both out the endzone in the 1st. But early woes for Collinsville made way for a record-breaking night on special teams for Cedar Bluff. The Panthers had their first two offensive drives end on early outs having to send out the punter, but sadly something must have been in the air that really messed with the Collinsville long snapper because the initial punt attempts by the Dekalb boys ended in similar ways: snaps right over the head of the punter, and said punter having to fall onto the ball just inside the 30 to give Cedar Bluff great field position to begin their first two offensive drives. And while Cedar Bluff did have problem finding the endzone thanks to the loss of their perimeter game by Collinsville’s defense, they actually got to shine on their chances at special teams, both with field goal attempts. In a rare scene for the Tiger faithful at LD Bruce Field, Cedar Bluff put onto the field a young man capable of hitting a pair of solid FG attempts from a record breaking 36 yards. The old Cedar Bluff record, according to sources, was 18 yards, and in one night senior Nathaniel Tomey not only broke the record with 5:20 left in the 1st, by wrote his name into the record books twice with a record-tying 36 yarder about 4 minutes later at 1:32 remaining to give CB a 6-0 lead as the 1st quarter came to a close.

Collinsville didn’t find much hope in the 2nd quarter, just as the 1st, and Cedar Bluff did manage to find ways to take advantage of that early when they once again game themselves good field position following a turnover by Collinsville early on. Using a mix of their hard-to-figure-out perimeter game and some inside hard nosed running by runners like their usual committee of Davion Fife, Travon Clifton, and Isaiha Jones, Cedar Bluff got down the field and soon enough into the endzone for the first time, with a 2 yard run coming from sophomore QB Luke Hampton. The extra point from Tomey helped the Tigers stretch their lead to 13-0, and following more defensive dominance from both sides and a mix of big plays with no results, we got to halftime after the 8:10 to go TD with the Tigers leading the way. And as a sidenote, Cedar Bluff’s Fife did hit a snug in the 2nd when he suffered a rough right knee injury that ended his night. There was no word on the severity of the injury, but hopefully things go well for the senior going forward.

Now with how well the first half was going for Cedar Bluff compared to Collinsville, it would have been no surprised if many people were already making their expectations of the Tigers riding away with a good win over their long-standing rival. That case could have even been solidified when early on into the 3rd, with the help of another power running drive, all around athlete Jones found his way into the endzone at the 9:33 mark from a yard out and extended that lead for Cedar Bluff to 20-0. But then, something for Collinsville ignited, and this is where our game got into a much different scene then what we saw in the past couple quarters, when Collinsville found a way to open up their running game with sophomore QB Kaleb Jones and sophomore RB Michael Tucker as they finally started moving down the field and Tucker managed to wrap up the drive with not only the first points of the night but it began Collinsville drive to get this game back into hand as they cut it back to a 2 possession game at 5:53 left in the 3rd. Cedar Bluff still lead though heading out of the 3rd, and that was helped by some mistakes by Collinsville involving penalties that kept the ball more in the hands of the Tigers. A scary scene did play out in the 3rd though with Jones going down with his own leg injury, and with how the game was just a non-region game it was understandable if Coach McWhorter for CB would pull the senior athlete for the rest of the game. As the 4th quarter would show though, Isaiha Jones was not finished yet, and that may have been a big blessing for the Tigers.

Collinsville’s momentum definitely carried over to the 4th quarter and the Panthers wasted little time getting Cedar Bluff backed into a corner once they jolted down the field once again. Not much longer, it was the QB Jones for the Panthers finding his way from a yard out, and 4th got off to a quick start for Collinsville as they cut the CB lead down to 6 at 20-14. However, as stated earlier, Cedar Bluff had the secret weapon to keep this game for themselves, and that was a supposedly weakened Isaiha Jones. I do say supposedly because the way the coaching staff for the Tigers ran the senior, combined with how powerful Jones ran through the middle, out of the wildcat as CB has become so familiar with over the past few seasons, and with his ability to burst through the lines he found his 2nd visit into the endzone at 4:51 remaining in the game for a 6 yard rushing TD. He even added on his own 2 point conversion attempt and with that, gave Cedar Bluff a 28-14 lead. But again, Collinsville was prepared, and a short time while it was a huge play from their elusive QB Jones that helped them get down the field once more (also thanks to a couple of Tiger penalties to keep the drive alive) and Jones eventually got into the endzone from 10 yards out to once again cut the lead back down, and once again Cedar Bluff was backed up to a 1 possession game as they led 28-21.

Isaiha Jones though was the star of the night in a big way as he had one more drive in him for Cedar Bluff, leading them smoothly down the field with power you wouldn’t expect from a guy that went down grasping his right leg in pain during the 3rd quarter. Instead, the young man was smiling, confident in his abilities, and that ultimately showed when with 42 seconds left in the game Jones bursted with a 23 yard bolt into the endzone to put the Tigers at 35-14. An easy turnover off a pass attempt by Collinsville after the kickoff, and Cedar Bluff rode into the sunset with a close victory that highlighted an amazing athlete despite a tough night for the Tigers with a lot of players hurting.

Cedar Bluff’s securing of the Week 5 victory was big for the Tigers to get themselves into an over .500 win percentage on their record for the first time this year, going to 3-2 on the year following the big rivalry win. Collinsville was not so lucky though, and despite fighting so hard they still ended up on the losing end in this contest and fell to 2-3 in the 2017 season. Cedar Bluff will look to take the week cleaning wounds before taking themselves back into Class 1A, Region 6 play as they head back on the road into a battle with the 1-3 (0-2) Valley Head Tigers who are coming off a bye week. For Collinsville, they will evaluate the mistakes of Week 5 and turn their attention to Class 2A, Region 6 play when they return home to take on the 2-3 (1-2) Westbrook Christian Warriors out of Rainbow City.

For WEIS, we get to once again make a trip over to the little town of Gaylesville and see if the 0-5 (0-2) Trojans can find their way to their 1st win of the year both overall and in 1A, Region 6 when they take on the 3-2 (1-2) Woodville Panthers boys. We will certainly be looking forward to that action and bringing it to all of you on the air this upcoming Friday, but until then thank you once again for reading!

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OFFENSIVE STATS

Cedar Bluff- 13 passing yds, 228 rushing yds
Collinsville- 68 passing yds, 153 rushing yds

PASSING LEADERS

Luke Hampton (Cedar Bluff)- 4-for-8, 13 yds (5 rushes, 0 yds, 1 TD)
Kaleb Jones (Collinsville)- 5-for-13, 68 yds

RUSHING LEADERS

Isaiha Jones (Cedar Bluff)- 19 rushes, 110 yds, 3 TDs; Travon Clifton- 14 rushes, 94 yds
Kaleb Jones (Collinsville)- 22 rushes, 100 yds, 2 TDs; Jarrod Barkley, Jr- 6 rushes, 30 yds

RECEIVING LEADERS

Isaiha Jones (Cedar Bluff)- 2 receptions, 8 yds; Ross Johnson- 2 receptions, 5 yds
Jarrod Barkley (Collinsville)- 2 receptions, 42 yds; Mason McKinney- 2 receptions, 25 yds

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OTHER COUNTY SCORES

Cherokee County Warriors (2-4, 2-1)- 41-13 Loss vs Carver-Birmingham
Gaylesville Trojans (0-5, 0-2)- 35-6 Loss vs Appalachian
Spring Garden (4-1, 3-0)- 34-14 Win vs Donoho
Sand Rock (4-1, 3-0)- 48-20 Win vs Pisgah