BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – In the first Region 4-AAA matchup of the season, the Cascade Champions (3-2, 0-1) came up short in their upset bid against Sequatchie County (3-2, 1-0) on Friday night, 31-14.

After trailing by 17 points halfway through the fourth quarter, the Champions found the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown run by Sam Bradley with 5:30 left in the game to cut the Sequatchie Co. lead to 24-14. Cascade’s defense forced a three-and-out, and Xykaiah Dixon’s explosive punt return from midfield set up the Champions at the five-yard line with a chance to make it a one-score game.

Instead, misfortune struck at the worst possible time for Cascade.

“We were going to run Power up the gut with Sam [Bradley],” Cascade Head Coach Jared Carkuff said, “but the snap never got back to him. It’s something that you see once in a blue moon and it just happened at the worst possible time.”

The dribbled snap was kicked around as both teams fought to recover the football, and ultimately Sequatchie Co. found the ball, picked it up, and ran it all the way back for the game-sealing touchdown with less than four minutes to go.

Calling a run for their star quarterback was a great idea, as Bradley finished the game with 129 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 14 carries, including a 72-yard sprint to the end zone that got Cascade on the board in the first half. Bradley also went 10-of-21 passing for 81 yards. The Champions’ were without their star tailback and middle linebacker, Nate Zimmerman, after he suffered an unfortunate set of practice circumstances that forced him to miss this game.

Sequatchie County was also without their star senior quarterback, Hunter Minton, but his younger brother, Austin Minton, started in his place and did well enough to stave off the upset bid. Minton did throw two interceptions, but he also threw two touchdown passes while leading a third touchdown drive as well as another two possessions that ended in field goal attempts.

Cascade struggled to run the ball outside of Bradley against a stout Sequatchie defense with Josh Cunningham finishing with just 15 yards rushing on eight carries in Zimmerman’s place.

Early on, the Champions struggled to get out of their own way at times, turning the ball over on downs twice as well as being forced to punt after committing a penalty the other two times. This resulted in Sequatchie County taking a 14-0 lead behind a 31-yard touchdown pass from Minton to Jack Evitts on their second drive of the night. Cascade picked off Minton on the next Sequatchie drive, but Zaryk Grant found the end zone with a four-yard rushing touchdown on the following possession to go up two in the second quarter.

Bradley responded with his 72-yard scamper on 3rd-and-2 to cut the lead in half. 

“We just called a play that was designed to get five yards and the first down,” Carkuff admitted, “but it was so well-blocked and Sam [Bradley] is so fast in the open field that he was able to score.”

Cascade came away with a second interception on the next Sequatchie drive, this time from Deshawn Ferrell on a screen pass to keep the score at 14-7 heading into the halftime locker room.

After a Sequatchie fumble on the first drive of the second half, Cascade couldn’t capitalize and was forced to punt the ball back to the visitors. Minton took advantage of the opportunity, finding Brayden Lewis for a 57-yard touchdown pass to go in front 21-7 with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter.

After both teams traded scoreless possessions, the Champions put together an 11-play drive, but turned the ball over on downs for the third time on the night. Sequatchie County put together a short drive of their own, and after missing a 33-yard field goal on the prior possession, the visitors connected on a 26-yarder to take a seemingly insurmountable 24-7 lead in the fourth quarter.

Despite the odds stacked against them, the Champions finally were able to find the end zone on Bradley’s 15-yard touchdown run to cap an eight-play drive with 5:40 to go, setting the stage for the improbable turn of events that took place during the ensuing 90 seconds of game time.

Cascade falls to 3-2 overall. The Champions take their bye week before traveling to Giles County on Friday, Oct. 2nd.