FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — There is an old sports adage that says beating a team twice in one season is hard. The Cherokee Bluff football team does not subscribe to that maxim.
The No. 8-seed Bears beat region rival No. 25 Monroe Area 28-7 Friday in the first round of the Class 3-A playoffs at Yonah Field.
“I’m really proud of our young men for overcoming some adversity tonight,” Cherokee Bluff Coach Tommy Jones said. “We had some situations where we put our backs against the wall a little bit. We found some ways to rally around it.”
Cherokee Bluff will be at home for the second round next Friday. The Bears will face No. 24 Luella, which upset No. 9 Westover 25-24.
“We are playing good, but we made a lot of mistakes, and that’s huge that we made mistakes and could still beat a team that good,” Cherokee Bluff senior KT Thompson said. “We are going to fix those mistakes and come back next week.”
In the first meeting five weeks ago, the Bears outscored Monroe 31-7 in the second half for a 52-24 victory. The GHSA Postseason Ranking System paired the Bears (10-1) and the Hurricanes (5-5) once again.
Friday night, the first three drives of the second half were the difference in the game. Leading 14-7, the Bears drove 55 yards in 11 plays and took nearly eight minutes off the clock. Thompson returned the second-half kickoff 33 yards to the Bears’ 45. From there, they converted several third downs before Jackson Pirkle scored on a 1-yard run for a 21-7 lead.
“We told our kids at halftime that (the first drive) was the most important drive we’ve had the whole year,” Jones said. “We were able to chew some clock up and convert some big third downs there.”
The Hurricanes responded and were second-and-goal at the Bears’ 1-yard line when the Cherokee Bluff defense stopped them. Thompson and Conner Griffin made consecutive stops for no gain. On fourth down, Monroe was confused about the snap. After a scramble for the ball, the Bears had possession at their 20.
“I saw a crease, and I blitzed and got the sack in the backfield,” Thompson said. “On fourth down, they had a little miscommunication, which was big for us.”
Said Jones, “The goal line stand was tremendous and very timely. Our guys rose up.”
Cherokee Bluff took just five plays to cover the 80 yards, with Griffin covering the final 57 with a scoring run to put the Bears up 28-7 with 9:33 to play in the game. Monroe made one more push to get back in the game, but Dylan Haley stopped the Hurricanes with an interception in the end zone.
Cherokee Bluff quarterback Brooks Brien had 15-of-18 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns. He hit Malcolm Millsap with a 42-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and an 8-yarder to Pirkle in the second quarter. Millsap caught three passes for 51 yards, and Thompson added four receptions for 33 yards.
The Bears got their running game going in the second half and finished with 145 yards after only having 7 yards in the first half. Griffin led them with 94 yards.
“A big part of it was Monroe Area made some adjustments from the first time we played them,” Jones said. “They took away some stuff we do really well. They had a good game plan. It took us a little time to get settled in and figure out where some of those bubbles were so we could run the ball.”
