by Rusty Ellis
The Upperman Bees bounced back from an early pick-six to take down Chattanooga Central 34-7 in the first round of the TSSAA Playoffs.
After a Sebastian Stanfill field-goal opened the scoring for the Bees, Tristian Odom picked off a Jonathon Rushing pass and took it to the house for six points and a 7-3 Chattanooga Central lead.
From there on however, it was all Upperman. It began with a Jaxson Bush touchdown reception to give Upperman a 10-7 lead late in the second quarter.
7:20 Q2
Jaxson Bush catches this one and takes it to the house to give the Bees the lead.
Upperman 10
CC 7 pic.twitter.com/TNsa5h8tBf— Rusty Ellis (@RustyEllis_) November 5, 2022
Right before the game went to half, Terrance Dedmon added onto the lead with a three-yard touchdown run. This gave the Bees a 10-point advantage going into the halftime break.
Branson Turnbow delivered the gut-punch to open the second half, as he took the opening kickoff back 90 yards to put UHS up 24-7. A fumble by the Pounders just three plays into their next drive led to a Rushing touchdown, and another Stanfill field goal pushed the lead to its final total of 34-7.
For head coach Adam Caine, this was just the continuation of what his team has done since they were 3-2 and coming off a two-game losing streak earlier in the season.
“This is six wins in a row, and this team is playing fast and physical and confident,” Caine said. “You can’t come out and get upset about some things, so we’re just playing some really good football right now and I’m really proud to be the coach.”
The skill-positions had Caine and his staff’s full attention coming into the game, and his team did an excellent job of limiting the big play ability the Pounders offered.
“They’ve got some players that scared us coming into this game,” Caine said. “The number one thing we wanted to do was make them a one-dimensional team…we forced some early throws and we held on in the secondary, so that was good to see. We made some plays, so this was a really good defensive performance.”
The main focus going into next week’s game against East Hamilton for Caine is limiting self-inflicted wounds, as a pair of Upperman turnovers on Friday didn’t come back to roost. Caine is fully aware that the further they go in the playoffs, the more they can’t afford those mistakes.
“You can’t win in the playoffs if you turn the ball over,” Caine said. “Our guys have to execute the plays we call, so those are things we have to clean up.”
