ENGLEWOOD, Tenn. - Unbeaten McMinn Central came into Friday's District 5-AA high school football game against winless Polk County riding high. But this series has produced some wild games over the years, and this can be considered another one.
The Chargers, who have been underdogs more often than not since Derrick Davis took over as Polk County coach in 2000, were clearly the favorites this time. However, they needed an interception by linebacker Hunter Stokes in their own territory that enabled them to run out the final 1:09 of a 20-18 victory.
The loss ended a long streak of league domination for the Wildcats, who had won 21 consecutive conference games. Their last league loss was 16-0 to McMinn Central, one year after the Chargers won a 42-41 overtime game at Polk.
McMinn Central (5-0, 2-0) was in control in the first quarter, picking up seven first downs on the way to a 7-0 lead. Then things changed in the second quarter with Polk (0-4, 0-1) picking up seven first downs while holding the Chargers to one.
McMinn Central still managed to lead 13-12 at halftime, thanks in large part to Jordan Brooks' 78-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Polk missing one extra point and having a mishandled snap on the other.
The Chargers then extended their lead to 20-12 on the second-half kickoff when Cutler Lance made a takeaway and returned it for a TD.
McMinn Central coach Josh Goodin credited first-year special teams coach Andy Bailey, a former kicker at McMinn County and Georgia, for his attention to details in the kicking game.
"He came in and has really got us focused on special teams," Goodin said. "The kickoff return was huge. The strip at the first of the second half was big. It was things we work on. We're a little bit more focused this year on special teams and it won us the ballgame tonight."
Most of the Wildcats' success came on the ground -- three running backs had at least 50 yards, led by Ben Norwood's 94 -- but it was a 47-yard touchdown on a throwback screen from Isaac Smith to Ryan Rowland at 1:41 of the third quarter that got them within two. The attempt at a tying conversion failed when Smith was tackled short of the end zone on a rollout.
"Special teams will bite you in a game like this," Davis said. "And it bit us. They had the two returns. We missed an extra point and started chasing points. But the two special-teams returns killed us."
Rowland also had a fourth-quarter interception inside Polk's 10 and returned it to inside the Chargers' 10, but there the ball was stripped from him from behind and McMinn Central recovered.
"I saw a bunch of hurt tonight," said Davis, who did some consoling of Rowland after the game. "Hurt is in direct proportion to what you put into it. Maybe that will translate into something down the road."
Jackson Long led McMinn Central with 100 yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Jackson Guy started 4-for-4 and was 7-for-8 for 92 yards before throwing interceptions on his last two passes.
"You can never underestimate Polk County's kids," Goodin said. "They were tough and physical and gave us everything we wanted.
"I don't know if there's a direct effect, having played and won some close games, but maybe because we have before, our kids know we have the ability to close it out."
Luke Davis was a defensive leader and also scored the Chargers' first touchdown on a 14-yard run. And he was their leading receiver with four catches for 61 yards.
"It does feel good because we found a way to win," Davis said. "But we had a lot of blown assignments, myself included. We missed a lot of tackles. We were just not playing as a unit. We'll learn from it."
Said Goodin: "I give as much credit to to Polk County. They made us play bad. They took it to us for four quarters."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.