Blue Raiders hold off Mustangs, 24-17

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Walker Valley never led Cleveland in their District 5-AAA high school football game Friday night at Cleveland's Benny Monroe Stadium. But Cleveland coach Ron Crawford had to have felt uneasy the whole time.

The coach likely let out a big exhale after the clock ran out on a 24-17 Blue Raiders victory that wasn't secured until Mustangs quarterback Kolten Gibson was dragged down late at Cleveland's 27 with Walker Valley out of timeouts.

Crawford said he believes because Soddy-Daisy lost to East Hamilton, it locks up at least the No. 2 state-playoff spot from the district for Cleveland (5-4, 4-1). The Blue Raiders' final regular-season game is next Friday at Ooltewah (8-0, 4-0).

"We really want to go to Ooltewah and see if we can compete against the best team in our league," Crawford said. "Our goal is to win the district championship, so we'll go there next week and take our swing at them."

It looked as though the Blue Raiders were going to have an easy time of it against Walker Valley (4-4, 1-3) in their opening possession -- a 16-play, 77-yard scoring march that took 6:57 off the clock. But coupled with Brandon Romero's extra point, that proved to be the only points in the first half.

The Mustangs then drove it 58 yards in 10 plays after the second-half kickoff and tied it with Donell Armour's 2-yard run up the middle and Kevin Sabany's extra point. Armour did not play in the first half but ended up their leading rusher with 49 yards on 10 carries. But he was also one of the Mustangs who had a crucial dropped pass.

"We saw a few things in the first half we finally adjusted, then made a few more adjustments at halftime," Walker Valley coach Glen Ryan said. "But mainly we just challenged the guys to go out and play. We were playing soft and they were running downhill on us. It was up to us to pick up the tempo."

Not only did the Mustangs score all their points in the second half, but they had other favorable chances to score. But Cleveland's Will Hilliker and Eric Goodwin each intercepted Walker Valley's freshman quarterback near the goal line with Hilliker, who had knee surgery and missed the first five games of the season, returning his for a touchdown.

"It's the mistakes that are killing us," Ryan said. "After eight weeks you can't say you're young anymore. You've got to grow up."

Cleveland ran for a season-low 124 yards, and it took 37 carries to get it. Walker Valley forced eight punts.

"Short yardage has been an issue for us," Crawford said. "We thought we had that worked out but apparently not. Third-and-shorts made it difficult on us."

T.J. Parker, whose late fumble recovery set up Romero's 30-yard tack-on field goal late, was Cleveland's leading rusher with 84 yards on 19 carries.

Gibson threw for 198 yards for the Mustangs with Zach Eslinger accounting for 97 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.

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