Cloudland is once again the king of Region 1-A.
The ‘Landers clinched the Region 1-A title with a 52-28 victory at Jellico on Friday night. With the win, Cloudland secured a No. 1 seed for the upcoming playoffs.
The ‘Landers were dominant early.
Seth Birchfield opened the scoring with a three-yard run just over four minutes into the game. The ‘Landers pushed the lead to 14-0 with just under two minutes to play as Gage McKinney scored on a five-yard run and Chase Shell found Bentley Gilbert for the two-point conversion.
Cloudland got back on the scoreboard to end the first quarter as Shell hit Elijah Blair for a 22-yard touchdown to push the CHS lead to 20-0.
In the second quarter, Birchfield returned to the end zone – this time from four yards out – and Cloudland added the two-point conversion. After Jellico trimmed the lead to 28-8 with a long pass, McKinney caught a 25-yard pass from Shell for the score. The Blue Devils cut into the lead again after a blocked punt, but Cloudland answered as Birchfield scored on a four-yard and added the conversion as CHS held a 44-16 advantage.
Jellico ended the half with a hail mary as Cloudland maintained a 44-22 advantage at the break.
In the third quarter, Jellico trimmed the lead to 16 points, but Birchfield capped off the scoring with a 38-yard run with 11:11 to play in the game. From there, Cloudland took care of business to celebrate a regional crown.
Birchfield had 171 yards on 27 carries, while Caleb Sluder ended the game with 22 carries for 149 yards. McKinney had 93 yards on 11 carries.
Shell finished 3-of-6 passing for 47 yards.
