1 0 of 7

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders: TAD’s Peyton Vanover has plenty of green in front of him as he charges past Robinson defenders.

Star photo/Ivan Sanders Callan Reed sees a gap and heads toward the Jr. Cyclones’ goal line.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Carson Lyons (8) gets a timely block from Eli Phillips (30) and thus achieves a good ground gain.

Star photo/Ivan Sanders A blitz from behind by TAD’s Legend Pate knocks the ball out of the Robinson quarterback’s hand.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Legend Pate makes a great cut through the Robinson defense and scores a crucial fourth try.

Star photo/Ivan Sanders Jr. Cyclones quarterback Creed Baker runs in search of a free receiver.

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Anthony Orton continues his attack despite being pinned by one of Robinson’s potential tacklers.

Star Correspondent

KINGSPORT – The TA Dugger Jr. Cyclones traveled to the Model City Thursday night to face the home team Robinson Redskins at J. Fred Johnson Stadium looking to break their record this young season.

After a closer-than-usual first half that saw them lead by a slim 14-6 margin, the boys in orange and black came alive defensively like a Kansas Twister in the second half, taking the team from Kingsport to a 32-6 defeat and finishing the season 3-0.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Jr. Cyclones broke through when quarterback Creed Baker rushed from four yards out to give TAD a 6-0 lead. Baker found Max Fields for a two-point conversion to increase the lead to 8-0 with 6:18 left on the first half clock.

Robinson’s “Boys in Blue” struggled offensively on their next possession, giving the ball away to the Jr. Cyclones with less than a minute left in the first half.

However, a pass from Baker was intercepted by Robinson’s Eli Weaver, who ran 53 yards and made a pick-six that gave the Redskins a two-point conversion. The Jr. Cyclones held firm and thwarted the attempt, making the score 8-6 with 43 seconds left in the half.

That was too much time on the clock, as the Redskins would find out the hard way, as the Jr. Cyclones weren’t finished in the first half.

A key play occurred when Baker found Anthony Orton on a 39-yard pass to the 1-yard line from Robinson, where TAD called a timeout with :04 remaining on the scoreboard.

Baker took the point as time expired and extended the Jr. Cyclones’ lead to 14-6. The two-point conversion failed and both teams went into the break.

The Jr. Cyclones received the kickoff for the second half and didn’t wait long when Legend Pate sprinted 64 yards into the final play with 20 seconds left in the third quarter, making the game 20-6 after the two-point conversion failed once again.

After gaining possession on the ensuing kickoff, the Redskins ran into a wall in the TAD defense and were forced to drop back until Pate picked up a pass from Robinson and carried it 18 yards for the pick-six.

The extra point attempt hit the crossbar and the Jr. Cyclones extended their lead to 26-6 with 4:21 minutes left in the third quarter.

Dugger’s defense continued to hamper Robinson’s offense and once again put the ball in the hands of the Jr. Cyclones.

With a 25-yard run by Pate to the Redskins’ 9-yard line, ‘Betsy’s boys were back in action at the end of the third quarter.

Callan Reed completed the final two yards just four seconds into the fourth quarter, extending the lead to 32-6 as the conversion attempt failed.

From there, the Cyclone defense took the reins and kept the Redskins out of the end zone when a Reed interception with 19.5 seconds left decided the victory.

“We’re going to get the best chances of anybody and Kingsport will always be Kingsport,” said Brock Pittman, head coach of the Jr. Cyclone. “Robinson has some athletes and they outplayed us well on defense and our guys had to figure it out.”

“We just trust our guys to pull through. A big thank you to our fans who came out once again. We look forward to playing at home against Boone next week.”

Next Thursday, the Jr. Cyclones will play in front of a home crowd for the first time, as the undefeated team has been suspended for a period of time. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.