PIKEVILLE — Against top-tiered competition, mistakes can't happen.

Unfortunately for Cascade on Friday night in the opening round of the Class AA playoffs, the Champs were bitten by the turnover bug that led to four first-half Bledsoe County touchdowns.

By the half, Cascade (5-6) fell behind 41-0, but rallied to a 48-21 final score in the final outing during the 2020 campaign.

The first half was anything but pretty for the Champions.

Four fumbles and an interception plagued Cascade's offense in the first half, which could have set the stage for any team to fold up shop and mail in the rest of the game—only they didn't.

“We did everything in the world to shoot ourselves in the foot in the first half. I told them at halftime they needed to come out and play with some pride. They never quit—that's something they've done all year. I've never seen them lay down and I knew they weren't going to quit tonight,” Cascade coach Jake Tyre said.

Bledsoe County took the game's opening drive 73 yards over nine plays for the game's first score.

After a 27-yard touchdown run to cap the opening drive by Cadillac Siever, disaster struck the Champs.

Cascade fumbled on its following two possessions, setting up Bledsoe County on short fields.

The Warriors took over on the 29-yard line and the 35-yard line and made the turnovers hurt with a pair of touchdowns to bump the score to 21-0 by the end of the first quarter.

After forcing a punt early in the second quarter, the Warriors continued their onslaught with a 33-yard touchdown run by Dylan Robeck.

Turnovers continued to plague the Champions with a fumble and an interception—which Bledsoe County converted into points on the board.

By the end of the first half, the Warriors held a 41-0 advantage.

Cascade, however, didn't lay down.

In fact, came out calm, cool collected in the second half and ran its offense to near perfection.

With a running clock, Cascade's opening drive of the third quarter went 67 yards before senior Seth Countess found a crease and broke loose o a 44-yard touchdown run, cutting the Warriors' lead to 41-7.

Bledsoe County answered with a scoring drive that lasted just two minutes before Dylan Robeck scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the night from 33-yards out.

Countess added to his totals late in the fourth quarter when he took an outside hand off and streaked down the sideline 80 yards for his second touchdown of the night.

While Bledsoe County converted four turnovers into touchdowns in the first half, the turnover bug struck the Warriors late in the fourth.

With the Bledsoe County on the march, it was Cascade's turn to pounce on a fumble, which was recovered by Adam Reeves on the 45-yard line.

Time continued to wind inside a minute due to the running clock, but Cascade utilized chunk plays to set up shop in the red zone.

On the drive, Logan McDonald added a 21-yard run, followed by a 22-yard run by James Toney, putting the Champions on the five-yard line with less than 30 seconds in regulation.

Cascade finished the drive with 20 seconds left with a five-yard burst into the end zone by Toney for the third Cascade score of the night.

Bledsoe County is a well-oiled machine that proved quite efficient on both sides of the ball.

Even with short fields, the Warriors totaled 432 total yards of offense, with 351 coming on the ground.

The two-pronged running back attack was led by Robeck, totaled 166 yards on the ground with four rushing touchdowns to his credit.

Siever also eclipsed the century mark and piled up 115 yards and added a touchdown as well.

“They were quick and they were good. That's a really good football team. They're a great 10-0 football team. They're going to do some things in the playoffs,” Tyre said.

Through the first half, Cascade managed just 23 yards of offense.

While the first half was a complete struggle, Cascade refocused at the half and was able to win the second half with a steady run game.

As a team, Cascade finished with 227 yards of offense, led by Countess' 146 yards on 10 carries.

McDonald also carried the ball 10 times for 41 yards.

Friday night's game was also cleanly played from a penalty perspective.

Cascade was whistled just once for 15 yards, while Bledsoe County had two penalties for 10 yards.

Friday night's game marked the end of what's been a turnaround season for the Cascade football program.

After being absent from the playoffs since 2014, the Champions bought into the coaching philosophy and battled through arguably the toughest Class AA region in the state.

Having led Cascade back to the playoffs, Tyre was quick to credit his senior class for showing the leadership on and off the field that helped the Champions end the playoff drought.

“They're family. They put Cascade back where we're supposed to be in the playoffs. They made football fun for a lot of these kids,” he said.

While Cascade graduates several players at key positions, but having played several underclassmen on both sides of the ball, Tyre hopes the excitement of the return to the playoffs has given the younger players a taste of success.

“They're going to come out and be ready to work in a couple of weeks. We're going to get back to work after a couple of weeks off and get ready for 2021,” he said.

Cascade 0 0 7 14 — 21

Bledsoe Co. 21 20 7 0 — 48

First Quarter

B — Cadillac Siever 27 run, (kick failed), 7:34.

B — Gunner Sweatt 29 pass from Harmon Keith, (Siever 2pt. run), 6:23.

B — Dylan Robeck 2 run, (Triston Boring kick), 2:57.

Second Quarter

B — Robeck 33 run, (kick failed), 8:29.

B — Robeck 5 run, (Boring kick), 2:43.

B — Siever 39 run, (Boring kick), 1:42.

Third Quarter

C — Seth Countess 44 run, (Drake Hodge kick), 4:22.

B — Robeck 33 run, (Boring kick), 2:36.

Fourth Quarter

C — Countess 80 run, (Hodge kick), 4:43.

C — James Toney 5 run, (Hodge kick), :20.