CLEVELAND, Tenn. – It was fitting that the state’s second-oldest rivalry would turn into an old-school slugfest.

In a nod to the bygone days of “football in a phone booth,” McMinn County used stingy defense and time-wasting offense to win 16-13 at Bradley Central in both teams’ season opener Thursday night, ending the Bears’ four-straight winning streak in the series.

“It’s always good to start with a win, and a win over Bradley is really important, so that’s a great starting point for us,” Cherokees coach Bo Cagle said. “Even after their first drive, we did a really good job on defense. We lost the ball a couple times on offense and put our defense in a bad spot, but they just kept making it up.”

Class 5A’s McMinn County ran the ball 50 times for 109 yards and threw it just 11 times. Neither offense was particularly successful at any point. The Cherokees finished the game with 240 yards and the Bears got 211 of their 289 yards through the air.

In the 101st meeting between the schools, Bradley — a semifinalist in last year’s Class 6A playoffs — opened the game with a 40-yard pass from Tyler Cook to Tyrese Stovall. However, Cook left the game two plays later after taking a hit to his right knee and did not return.

Later in that first drive, freshman AJ Nash threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to the 6-foot-6 Stovall, who converted on fourth and seventh attempts.

After McMinn County countered with a big-play score of its own, a 57-yard pass from Luke Lawson to Marshall Goodner, the Cherokees then used a throwback-style drive – 18 plays for 90 yards – capped by Cam Miller’s 1-yard touchdown to take the lead for good.

With McMinn leading 16-6 early in the fourth quarter, Bradley was able to cut into the deficit when Tucker Cook, Tyler’s younger brother, came into the game and hit Brady Lewis with a 28-yard touchdown pass.

The Bears had several chances to equalize or take the lead in the final minutes, but they failed each time.

After stopping the Cherokees at the halfway line on a fourth-and-2 attempt, a third-down conversion pass was negated by a holding penalty. Later, a 36-yard field goal attempt was blocked, and even when the Bears got the ball back once again with an apparent third-down stop, a personal foul penalty allowed McMinn to continue the attack.

The teams combined for 28 penalties (15 to the Cherokees) and had a total of seven fumbles, with each team losing two.

Luke Lawson threw for 131 yards for McMinn and Taylon White rushed for 67 yards on 20 carries. Stovall finished with six catches for 120 yards for Bradley and Tucker Cook completed 8 of 12 passes for 96 yards.

Contact Stephen Hargis at [email protected].