Tellico Plains snaps three-game skid with win over Harriman

Tellico Plains ended a three-game skid on Friday night behind a bruising defense that outlasted Harriman’s key players in a 14-6 homecoming win.

The Bears’ non-region victory pushes them back ahead of .500 (4-3) with a must-win bout at Oneida this upcoming Friday.

“It is extremely important for the confidence of the kids and to keep them invested. It was extremely important for us to get back in the win column,” Tellico Plains coach Bobby White said.

Tallying 204 yards of total offense, the Bears’ run game led the charge Friday while the team capitalized on crucial Harriman mistakes.

“I thought Friday night we were as physical as we have been all year. That is something that we pushed them on all week to be more physical up front and they answered the call,” White said.

Physicality had been one of the Bears’ plagues during the three-game skid that started at Polk County and carried to Pikeville last week.

Tellico’s sizable line was able to reestablish itself and lead the Bears’ run-heavy offense.

The defense neared their first shutout since Week 3, but a late score from the Blue Devils (4-3) negated the chance. Tellico held Harriman’s scrambling quarterback, Cameron Anderson, and another offensive weapon, Grayson Kreis, in check for the full night.

“Just playing contain and bottling up (Anderson) and (Kreis) was a difficult task. They have a lot of speed and wiggle to them. We were able to slow them down and bottle them up and make them do long drives,” White said. “Normally when they have to have long drives and sustained drives they do something to shoot themselves in the foot. It was a bend and don’t break mentality and I thought our defense did a good job of that.”

After remaining deadlocked for nearly the first 12 minutes, the first major Harriman error created a window of opportunity.

Tellico reacted to a muffed punt, recovering the ball after a Bears drive initially stalled and retaining possession at the Harriman 21.

Chance Shapiro then carried the ball to the 12 yard line, pushing deeper into Harriman territory. Not afraid to trust the offense on fourth and short, Tellico picked up the one-yard needed to create a 1st and goal.

Braden Reed faked a toss and hammered down to the Harriman two yard line before Ryan Shaffer broke up the middle and to the right to find the endzone on a third down carry.

“We were able to be more physical this week and we did a good job of running the football hard. They have a ton of speed and it is hard to get outside on them,” White said. “We were able to have some success running between the tackles and do a few things in the run game with Braden Reed at quarterback. Since they were keying in on Ryan Shaffer so much, that allowed us to get some misdirection in.”

The main carrier in the Tellico offense, Shaffer rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, followed by 49 yards from Reed and 28 yards for Shapiro.

Tellico’s second touchdown of the night came off Shaffer’s longest run of the day.

The senior busted up the middle to flip the field and carry the ball down to the Harriman 19. The drive ended with Shaffer plunging in from the one yard line.

Reed’s keeper on the conversion put Tellico up 14-0.

Harriman was able to create longer possessions, partly due to the Bears limiting explosive plays.

One possession saw the guests drive down the field with a pass to the end zone intercepted by Reed. Another saw Anderson overthrow an open target in the endzone as the half ended.

Harriman’s only score came in the fourth quarter off another long possession.

A pair of big quarterback runs moved the Blue Devils inside the Tellico four yard line before penalties moved them back.

From the 20 yard line, Anderson took a snap and weaved through defenders before busting up the middle to paydirt.

The point after attempt went wide right.

“In practice, we put some different players in those roles. We knew that (Anderson) and (Kreis) was pretty much ttheir entire offense and that is what makes their offense go,” White said. “We believed we could be more physical than them and win the line of scrimmage. I believe we did that and our linebackers did a good job of keying in on (Anderson) and (Kreis) and we were able to stop them.”

Reed totaled 41 yards on two punt returns while Bradyn Enterline averaged 37.5 yards across five punts with a long of 45.

Shaffer led Tellico with 14 tackles, followed by 12 from Shapiro and Reed’s seven tackles, interception and tackle for loss.

Bryson Collette notched six tackles with a tackle for loss, followed by four for Gabe Sherwood, including a tackle for a loss.

Jesse Winger and Nathaniel Bivens both recorded three tackles each while Kibler notched two to go with his interception.

Tellico’s playoff hopes require a win at Oneida on Oct. 11. The Indians (3-3) fell 28-0 at the York Institute on Oct. 4, their second consecutive loss.

Oneida has a game up on Tellico in the region standings with a 6-0 win over Wartburg Central — who the Bears will face in Week 11.

“We will have our normal routine that we always do, look at what they are doing, and try to defend them the best we can. They like to throw it quite a bit so we will have to be disciplined on the back end,” White said. “We will have to be physical up front to stop the line of scrimmage to be able to stop the run game.”

Polk County beat Wartburg 38-8 in Region 2-2A play while Bledsoe County picked up a 28-12 nonregion win at Whitwell.