Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The Upperman Bees rode the legs of Jaxson Rollins and Terrance Dedmon to a decisive 34-0 victory over the Cookeville Cavaliers on Thursday.
Despite the score, there were good moments where the Cavaliers showed progress from last season, such as their opening drive where they took almost seven minutes off the clock. The drive ended in a turnover-on-downs, and after back-to-back short possessions from both teams, the Bees finally cracked the scoreboard.
On a drive that took up the first 8:27 of the second quarter, junior Jaxson Rollins scored to break the scoreless tie and give the Bees a 7-0 lead.
On Cookeville’s first play of their next drive, Upperman forced and recovered a fumble with 3:23 remaining in the first half. With just 10 seconds remaining, Rollins scored his second touchdown and doubled the Bees’ lead heading into halftime at 14-0.
With the game hanging in the balance, the forced fumble turned into one of the biggest plays of the game for head coach Adam Caine’s squad.
“That was a big play, a huge play,” Caine said. “We were trying to see if we could bust a play and get a timeout, but Rollins is a special player. He said ‘give me the ball’ and I said ok.”
That opened the floodgates in the second half, as the Bees poured on 20 more points in the final two frames to close the game down in dominant fashion.
For the game, Rollins finished with 189 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries and an interception on defense. Fellow running back Terrance Dedmon finished with 52 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
Brock Owen paced Cookeville’s offense with 32 yards receiving on three catches, and quarterback Mace Thomsen finished with 82 yards on 9-19 passing.
As a whole, Upperman rushed for 382 yards on 55 attempts, and while Rollins and Dedmon will get all the attention, Caine was quick to give a lot of credit to his guys in the trenches.
“The style we play, a lot of it hinges on them,” Caine said. “It’s not always a quick-strike thing, it’s kind of four quarters of finding out how bad they want to come defend it…I felt like (Cookeville) played with some good effort on defense, but I’m telling you that style of play will wear you down. Fortunately, we were able to do that tonight.”
The Bees now find themselves at 1-0 after starting the season with a win over a county rival. For Caine, that’s always a good night at the office.
“I’m proud of my guys,” Caine said. “We work like this, and we try to play physical football…I was pleased. We’ve got some good ball-carries, and we imposed our will up front. That was a good opening night for us.”
The Bees will host Trousdale County next week, while the Cavaliers will hit the road to take on Livingston Academy.
