While Cleveland put a few scares into archrival Bradley Central, the top-ranked Bears were able to withstand the trick plays and the Raider determination for their ninth straight "Crosstown Clash" victory Friday evening, at "The Benny."
Although 15th-ranked Cleveland scored first and were able to cut the difference to just three points late in the fourth quarter, Tennessee commit "Boo" Carter was able to tack on a final TD with 91 ticks left on the clock for the 36-26 victory.
With their best start since the 13-0 TSSAA State Championship run in 1976, Bradley takes a perfect 9-0 overall mark, including four Region 2-6A wins, into Thursday's conference title tilt with sixth-ranked Bearden (7-2, 4-0) coming to Bear Stadium looking for the league crown.
Both teams have already secured TSSAA Playoff home games for the Nov. 3 opening round, but the victor will also have home field for the second round as well.
Meanwhile Cleveland (5-4, 1-3), who started the season with five wins in their first six games, dropped their third straight region battle, but a win over Hardin Valley (3-6, 0-4) in Friday's season finale at Benny Monroe Stadium, would secure a postseason berth.
The best the Blue Raiders can hope for is a fourth-place slot, meaning their would open the playoffs at Region 1-6A champ Jefferson County (8-1, 4-0).
If Bradley wins Friday's battle with Bearden, the first Region title tilt that isn't involving Maryville for the first time since 2001, then the Bears would host Region 1 fourth-seed, which will either be West Ridge (4-4, 1-3) or William Blount (6-3, 1-3), depending on Friday's results.
The Bear-Bulldog loser will entertain the loser of Friday's archrivalry battle between Science Hill (6-3, 3-1) or Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett (5-3, 3-1), who are tangling for the Region1 runner-up spot.
After Tennessee commit Marcus Goree Jr. pounced on a Raider fumble on the third play the game Friday, the "Legion of Blue" defense held the explosive Bears to a three-and-out.
Taking over on their own 20, Cleveland's own exciting offense slowed things down and put together a sustained nine-play drive, that was aided by a trio of Bradley encroachment penalties, with Virginia Tech baseball commit Mycah Jordan exploding for a 39-yard TD run for the game's initial score.
Sophomore Sloan Bolaños split the uprights for the extra point with 1:43 remaining in the opening quarter.
After a failed onside kick attempt, the Bear took possession at the CHS 49 and needed just four plays to find paydirt, with Miami (Ohio) commit Kaleb Martin breaking free on a 34-yard dash with 23 ticks left on the clock.
Taking a play out of Cleveland's playbook, Bradley faked the extra-point kick, with Martin jumping up from his holder position to hit freshman Zane McIntosh with a two-point conversion pass and the visitors never trailed again.
After giving up just one first down on the next possession, the "Black Hole Defense" forced the first of just two Raider punts, but the ball sliced out of bounds just eight yards from the line of scrimmage, setting the Bears up just 37 yards from the end zone.
Three plays later, Martin found fellow senior Max Wilson with a 28-yard scoring strike, with classmate Skylar Pirkle tacking on the PAT at the 8:47 mark, allowing Bradley to carry a 15-7 margin into the intermission.
Successful on the second of four onside kicks, the Raiders took the opening drive of the second half 48 yards in just five plays, with a 26-yard halfback pass from Jordan to junior Sam Sartin closing the gap to just two points.
The hosts tried to even the score, but were stopped a yard short on a trick run for a two-point conversion.
After the ensuing squib kick, pinned Bradley back on its own 18, a high snap forced Martin to fall on the ball for a nine-yard loss.
Starting over inside their own 10, an incomplete pass made it third-and-19 before Martin hit Northwestern commit Tito Williams for 18 yards.
Deciding to go for it on fourth down and a yard, Martin kept the ball for a 13-yard run to extend the drive.
Three plays later, the Bear gunslinger from Carter for a 69-yard gain, putting the ball at the 1 when he was ruled out of bounds just before the goalline.
Martin, who finished with 146 yards on 17 carries, plus completed 7-of-11 passes for another 136, punched ball in for the second of his three scores. Pirkle was true on the extra-point kick to push the edge back to eight points at the 4:39 mark of the third quarter.
Not willing to surrender, Cleveland answered with a quick three-play scoring drive, with senior signal caller LJ Adams hitting a wide open Jordan for an 88-yard scoring strike.
The Bolaños PAT kick trimmed the difference to just two points less than two minutes later.
Bradley once again got good field position after another failed onside kick, taking over the the Raider 41 after a penalty.
Four plays later the visitors were knocking at the door, just a yard away from paydirt, but back-to-back flags moved them back 10 yards before Adams picked off a Bear pass in the end zone to stall the drive.
The "Black Hole Defense" responded with a three-and-out, giving the ball back to the offense near midfield. Eight plays later Martin scampered in from seven yards out and Pirkle made it 29-20 with eight minutes to go.
Cleveland once again answered the bell with a 15-play drive, that was salvaged by a 17-yard flea-flicker from Jordan back to Adams to convert a fourth-and-10 situation.
Junior Lucas Szymborski toted the rock the final four plays for 15 yards, including the one-yard plunge to break the plane of the goalline.
Although the extra-point attempt hit off the left upright, the hosts were with three points with 3:18 remaining.
Expecting another onside attempt, Martin was on the front line of the Bear receiving team and covered the ball at the Raider 49. Five plays later Carter put the game on ice with his first rushing TD of the campaign, on an eight-yard run.
"Good hard fought win," proclaimed veteran "Papa Bear" Damon Floyd. "Once again when we were on offense, we saw a different defense than they (CHS) had ran in previous eight games.
"Some of the stuff we thought would be good in attacking them changed, because of the front and coverage that we saw. We did expect this, because of other teams doing it, but we only ran 35 plays the whole game. I think only 12 in first half. So I thought we played pretty well to put up 36 points in 35 plays."
Jordan led the Cleveland effort with 99 yards on 15 carries, plus the 88-yard scoring pass reception. He also completed 2-of-3 passes for another 43 yards.
Senior Brian Beard Jr. collected 64 yards on 13 rushes. Adams connected on a trio of passes for 102 yards, plus toted the rock nine times for another 22.
"I’m proud of the kids for their effort. They played as hard as possible until the final whistle," Cleveland head coach Chandler Tygard said of hist first experience in the heated rivalry.
"Bradley’s transfers were just too much to contain in the end and made the difference. We changed the entire game-plan for the week and I thought we did an excellent job of executing it all with only one week to practice it. Mycah Jordan gave an incredible effort. He ran, threw, and caught a touchdown."
Instead of the spread offense, snapping the ball every 10-12 seconds, the Raiders ran a two-tight in closed in formation, swapping the linemen from one side to the other just before the snap, resulting in pulling the Bears offsides seven times, five of which extended Cleveland drives with first downs.
"We knew they have ran 'heavy' sets in every game, but it was with different personnel. We had a different personnel group for the heavy package, so we had to adjust with our regular personnel and that gave us some problems," Coach Floyd he added of the out-of-character approach by the Raiders. "We were surprised they stayed in it all game and ran clock down each play."
In the end both teams were stymied by the laundry on the field, with the Bears drawing a dozen flags for 110 yards, while the Raiders drew 13 penalties for 100 yards.
Cleveland was able to put up 405 offensive yards on the "Black Hole Defense," which had been allowing less than 230 a game. The 26 points is also the largest amount of points scored against the Bears this season, which had surrenders just 84 in the previous eight contests.
The explosive Bradley offense averaged 9.2 yards per snap, leading to their fourth-highest point tally of the campaign.
The Bears' 36 points matched the second-largest amount allowed by the "Legion of Blue," which saw the Black-and-Gold offense put up 322 yards, compared to the 279 average they had allowed in the first eight games.
