Upperman Clinches Region 4-4A Championship With 42-0 Victory Over White County

By Michael Lindsay

The Class 4A #5-ranked Upperman Bees (7-2, 4-0) clinched the Region 4-4A championship Friday in Baxter as they defeated #9 White County (7-2, 3-1), 42-0.

“We talked about jumping them off the bus,” said Upperman head coach Adam Caine. “They (White County) have a good club and had a lot of momentum coming in, so let’s make sure we start fast.”

Upperman’s offense racked up 395 yards on 8.4 yards per play, while the Bee defense held White County to 62 total yards and forced 3 turnovers.

“I’m a defensive guy, and some of the games earlier in the year were hurting my heart,” said Caine. “We watched them on film and knew they were going to try and bully us around, so we challenged our defense and they answered.”

Bee senior quarterback Bronzden Chaffin went 14-19 for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air while rushing for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns on 17 carries. Elijah Fitts caught two passes for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns in the win.

After forcing a fumble on White County’s opening possession, Upperman took their first drive of the contest to the house as Chaffin punched in a 4-yard touchdown t give Upperman a 7-0 lead with 5:01 remaining in the first quarter.

The Bees struck again early in the second period as Chaffin rushed in his second touchdown of the game from 2 yards out to extend Upperman’s lead to 14-0 with 10:11 remaining until halftime.

Upperman’s offense took advantage of the deep ball in the final 7 minutes of the second quarter as Chaffin hit Fitts on a pair of touchdown passes from 52 and 40 yards out to give the Bees a 28-0 lead at halftime.

Carmine Phillips put the game out of reach in the second half as he rushed in a touchdown in the third and fourth quarters to secure Upperman’s 42-0 victory over White County.

Upperman clinched the overall #1 seed in Region 4-4A with the victory. Up next for the Bees is their regular season finale against Region 4-4A foe and defending Class 4A state champion Macon County (7-2, 2-2).

“The prize for winning the region is you get to play the defending state champions,” said Caine. “I have a lot of respect for them. They beat us and physically whipped us about as bad as we’ve been beat by anybody last November 15. Hopefully our kids have a little pride about them and come out and play like we did tonight.”