The Copper Basin Cougars hosted the Tellico Plains Bears Friday, September 23, for Homecoming 2022. A great crowd was on hand, enjoying the first real taste of fall, Homecoming activities, and enjoying a very highly contested football game between two old rivals. The Cougars played hard all night, which has been the case all season, but fell just a little short, as Tellico escaped with a 27-14 win.
The Bears received the opening kickoff after Basin deferred the choice until the second half, and moved the ball into Cougar territory, but after freshman Tucker Rhodes batted away a pass, Tellico had to punt the ball away. Copper Basin also moved the ball before having to punt on fourth down, and on the Bears second
possession, they struck first on a 60-yard touchdown run to take a 6-0 lead with 3:52 left in the opening quarter, after the extra point try was no good.
Sophomore cornerback Mason Anderson got the second quarter started off the right way, as he picked off a Tellico pass, setting up the Cougars at their own 42 yard line. However, on second down, a Bear defender stripped the ball away from the Cougars and ran it in from 52 yards out with 10:50 to go before halftime. After the extra point was good this time, Tellico had a 13-0 lead.
Copper Basin would punt on their next possession, but senior defender Addison Hook blew up the first down play for a two-yard loss and sophomore lineman Zach Beach had a huge sack for minus eight yards, forcing a Tellico punt on fourth down.
Senior quarterback AJ Fitchett took over the drive, hitting sophomore Avery Crowder for eight yards and then calling his own number from 15 yards out, blasting into the end zone to cut the lead down to 13-6 with 4:49 left in the second quarter.
The Bears answered however, scoring on a 26-yard touchdown pass with just over a minute to go before the break, increasing their lead to 20-6 after another successful point after try. After a 25 yard kickoff return by senior Isaac Deal, the Cougars tried to get a quick score on the board, but ran out of time, trailing by 14 at the half.
Copper Basin opened the second half on their 35 yard line, but ended up punting on fourth down, but the Basin defense bowed its back early in the drive, as Rhodes dropped the runner for a four yard loss and Hook had another big tackle for loss for minus eight yards, but Tellico ended the drive with a 20 yard touchdown pass with 3:07 left in the third quarter to extend their lead to 27-6 after the extra point was good.
The two teams traded punts and in the fourth quarter, after another Bear punt, the Cougars took over at their own 48 yard line. The Cougars looked to trim the lead and had an 11 play drive that ended with Hook plowing into the end zone from two yards out with 4:20 to go in the ballgame. After he also added the two-point conversion, Basin had cut the lead down to 27-14.
Following the kickoff, Tellico took over at their 21 yard line and never gave the ball back up to the Cougars, and left Copper Basin with a hard fought 27-14 win.
Fitchett threw for 34 yards and ran for another 56 yards and scored a touchdown. Crowder had three catches for nine yards, while Rhodes had one grab for 11 yards. Deal finished with two receptions for 14 yards.
Crowder also had 44 yards on the ground, with Hook adding five yards to go with his touchdown.
On defense, Deal and Hook each were in on ten tackles. Deal had two TFL’s and Hook had three more for Copper Basin. Senior Joe Proffitt and fellow senior Krus Soto had five stops each, while Rhodes, Beach, and sophomore Talon Smith each had four. Rhodes also chipped in with one tackle for loss. Anderson had three tackles and sophomores Josh Burkett and Dawson Kelley, and freshmen Dalton Wrey had one each.
Head Coach Chad Grabowski continues to be proud of his team’s effort each week, and when asked about that, he said, “yeah I think they played extremely hard and gave everything they had. I’m very proud of all of them and how they played and finished the game.”
The Cougars head to Chattanooga Friday, September 30, for a big Region 3-A battle with the Lookout Valley Yellow Jackets. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Lookout Valley High School.
Scoring Summary:
1 2 3 4 - Final
TPHS 6 14 7 0 - 27
CBHS 0 6 0 8 - 14
Article written by John Spargo