BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – Delontae Clay made an impressive pick-six to start the second half, Nate Zimmerman ran for 87 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries as well as recording 12 tackles, and quarterback Sam Bradley tallied 281 total yards and three touchdowns as the Cascade Champions (2-0) walloped Moore County (1-1) on Friday night, 35-0.

Defensively, the Champions’ front overwhelmed a young Raider offensive line from the jump, holding the visitors to just 59 yards at halftime and giving up just 137 total yards for the game en route to the shutout.

“We preach it every week, but when you physically dominate an offensive line, it is one of the toughest things to overcome,” Champions’ Head Coach Jared Carkuff said postgame, “Whenever your defensive line can do that, it’s really special, and it frees up everyone else. Allan [Blanton] had a great night at outside linebacker, but it’s because nobody is blocking him due to the defensive line. Our linebackers got to play great because of our front.”

Cascade opened the game on offense, but the hosts were eventually forced to punt on fourth down. However, Moore County ran into the kicker, giving the Champions a first down that they would take full advantage of with a Nate Zimmerman one-yard touchdown plunge to cap off the 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 5:26 off the clock to take a 7-0 lead.

After forcing a quick punt, Cascade found itself facing a 4th-and-3 from its own 47-yard line with every intention of going for the first down. Coming out of a timeout, Bradley pulled the ball from the belly of Zimmerman, sprinting past the entire Raiders’ defense untouched on his way to the end zone to double the hosts’ lead at 14-0 on the final play of the first quarter.

“Because we aren’t one-dimensional, and he [Sam Bradley] is not one-dimensional, if you try to stop one thing, he’ll do the other,” said Carkuff, “That’s the beauty about having him back there is we don’t have to call designed runs. He knows the offense so well that he can pull it. On the fourth down, we could have gone heavy, but we decided to let Sam make the decision between him and Nate [Zimmerman].”

The Champions’ defense then forced another three-and-out, and then the explosiveness of the Cascade offense showed up once again, this time through the air. Starting their third drive at the Moore County 48-yard line, Bradley found Lendon Gordon streaking down the right sideline all alone for a big-play touchdown to grow the lead to 21-0 with 8:57 left in the first half. Gordon would finish as the team’s leading receiver on the night with five receptions for 74 yards and one touchdown.

“Lendon is dynamic, he’s passionate, like you watch him and that guy loves football,” Carkuff said, “But, the thing is that all four of our receivers at any point can go. That’s the beauty of this offense is that they just get to play football and it might be your night or someone else’s.”

Moore County would turn the ball over on downs at the Cascade 38-yard line, but the Champions missed a 37-yard field goal on their ensuing drive to keep the score at 21-0 heading into the halftime locker room.

Coming out for the second half, the Raiders were set to receive the ball, but on the first play from scrimmage, freshman quarterback Austin Scherff, who finished 11-of-15 for 86 yards on the night through the air, threw his only interception of the game to Delonate Clay. Clay went up with an acrobatic interception to wrestle the ball away from the Moore County receiver, and then weaved his way past every white jersey en route to the end zone for a 45-yard pick-six.

“He [Delontae Clay] is special,” Carkuff said about his senior safety, “He sort of did the same thing last week, you could see him baiting the quarterback. He knows that he has the route over the middle, and he waits just long enough. He’s special with the ball in his hands. We were trying to get him the ball on offense because of that tonight, it just wasn’t working out, but then he just goes and does his own thing.”

After both teams traded punts, Moore County mounted its best drive of the night, but they were eventually stonewalled by the Champions defense on fourth down at the Cascade seven-yard line. The Champions’ offense responded with a long, methodical 93-yard touchdown drive that took 5:42 off the clock and culminated in a five-yard touchdown run from Bradley to reach the final score of 35-0. 

Bradley finished 14-of-19 for 155 yards and one touchdown pass through the air while running for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 12 attempts in a complete performance.

Cascade improves to 2-0. The Champions are set to host non-region foe Summertown on Friday night with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m.