The Cascade Champions fell to the Cannon County Lions, 48-21, in their final road game of the regular season on Friday night.

Cannon County, who clinched their first playoff berth in almost a decade with Friday’s homecoming win, piled up nearly total yards with their warp-speed offensive attack. 222 of those yards came through the air while 349 came on the ground. Eli Garrett and Kolby Miller combined for 208 yards rushing and 1 TD on 17 attempts and going 14/21 for 222 yards and 4 TDs between them.

For Cascade, who is still alive in their hunt for a playoff berth with a win on Friday against Fayetteville, they rushed for 157 yards as a team, led by Kaden Hill’s 62 yards on seven attempts. The Champs were much more proficient through the air, with sophomore quarterback, Braxton Burris, going 14/23 for 206 yards with 1 TD and 2 INTs in just his third start under center in his career.

The Lions wasted no time once the game began, taking the opening kickoff all the way back to the Cascade 27-yard line. Two plays later, Eli Garrett found Matthew Bain in the back right corner of the end zone for the game’s first score at 7-0 with 11:38 to go in the opening period.

Cascade took their opening drive into plus-territory before facing a 4th-and-3 near the Lions’ 45-yard line. Head Coach Jared Carkuff decided to forgo going for the first down, taking a delay-of-game instead to make it 4th-and-8.

After forcing the punt, Cannon County’s Garrett found Dustin Keller Jr. on a 10-yard TD pass to cap off a 79-yard drive and double the hosts’ lead at 14-0 with 2:26 left in the first quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, a squib kick down the left sideline ended up with the Lions falling on the football at Cascade’s 35-yard line, but the Cascade defense rose up to the challenge, forcing a turnover-on-downs. 

However, Braxton Burris’ sixth pass attempt of the game was intercepted, giving Cannon County excellent field position on the Cascade side of the field. Brayden Smithson capped off the ensuing possession with a 5-yard TD run with 9:24 left in the second quarter to extend the lead to 21-0. After Cascade went three-and-out again, Kolby Miller capped off another Lions TD drive with a 35-yard scamper to grow the lead to 28-0 with 7:02 to go in the first half.

On the ensuing possession, Cascade finally found the end zone, ending their scoreless streak of two consecutive games on a 2-yard Burris keeper with 3:36 to go in the second quarter to cut the lead to the halftime score of 28-7. 

Cascade went 3-and-out on their opening possession of the second half, and Smithson took advantage with his second rushing TD of the night, this time from 21-yards out with 8:56 left in the third quarter to go up 35-7. 

The Champs responded with a TD drive of their own, capped off with a Christian Casey 1-yard TD  run with 5:49 to go in the third to make it 35-14. Casey finished with 32 yards rushing and the 1 TD on five attempts to go along with 3 receptions for 42 yards. 

Cannon County would respond yet again, this time with Bain’s second receiving TD of the night, this time from 9-yards out with 3:32 left in the third quarter to make it a 41-14 game. Cascade responded by driving all the way to the Lions’ 14-yard line, but ultimately turned the ball over on downs at the end of the third quarter. 

Zae Odom would cap off the scoring for Cannon County with a 66-yard TD reception on his 7th and final catch of the night with 7:59 to go to push the lead to 48-14. With a running clock momentarily in effect, Braxton Burris delivered a 66-yard TD pass of his own to Landon Kling on the very first play of the ensuing Cascade possession to get to the final score of 48-21.

Cannon County improves to 6-3 (1-2).

Cascade falls to 1-7 (0-2) and hosts Fayetteville in a crucial Region matchup to try and keep their postseason hopes alive, LIVE on The Zinger 100.9 and AM 1400 at 6:45 p.m.