Explosive plays hand Wildcats first setback
Branson Newberry turns on the speed and races away from a Cleveland defender on his way to the end zone Friday night. The Oak Ridge senior scored one of the Wildcats’ two touchdowns in a 35-14 loss to the Blue Raiders in Cleveland. (photo:Izzy Smith | ORHS Sports Media )
“It’s 28-14 at halftime, and we had given up basically four explosive plays over 50 yards, and two of those were just on missed assignments, and we give them two one-play drives,” ORHS Coach Derek Rang said.
Two of those explosive plays were long Blue Raiders touchdown passes of 89 and 84 yards, both coming on blown coverages.
“So, defensively, there’s just a lot to clean up,” Rang said. “And, obviously with the Dobyns-Bennett game and then Cleveland, we’re just giving up way too many big plays on defense.
“When you play a team that’s much improved like Cleveland, you just can’t afford to make those mistakes in that game,” Rang said. “We just have to do a better job of playing our assignment and being in the right spot.”
Wildcats senior quarterback Brody Sparks completed 28 of 40 passes for 332 yards and two touchdowns.
Both scoring passes went to Zayden Williams, covering 29 and 14 yards. Williams finished with 12 catches for 119 yards, while Branson Newberry caught seven passes for 114 yards.
“And then, offensively, obviously we did some good things,” Rang said. “We threw the ball really effectively.
“But, we had a fumble off a big play, and then we had a couple of times we bogged down in the red zone,” he said.
While Oak Ridge piled up yards through the air, its running game never found its footing.
The Wildcats finished with just 26 net rushing yards.
Oak Ridge fell to 4-1 overall and 0-1 in region play.
Cleveland improved to 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the region.
