A late surge of heat proved to heat up the two students sections for Friday nights battle of region foes Cherokee and Woodstock. Cherokee came into the game friday night looking for their first region win in over two years. Coach Shaw had the Warriors ready and dressed in black this night. The packed house on both sides of the field were treated to a thrilling game between two cross county rivals.
Cherokee opened up the scoring in the 1st quarter with a 4 yard pass to Senior WR Blaise Brown (8) from Junior QB Spencer Ashley (4) at the 8:12 mark.
Woodstock responded just :45 seconds later with a 80 yard pass from QB Justin Agner (3).
Cherokee then returned with another punch back with a brilliant 80 yard kick-off return by Junior WR Andrew Harris (10) to make the score 14 - 7 with 7:16 left in the 1st quarter.
Cherokee finished off the quarter with a 6 yard run by Sophomore RB Dwayne Tiller (11) with :16 seconds left. Neither team managed to score in the second quarter and the half ended with Cherokee on top 21 - 7.
Halftime saw both bands playing their full performances and Cherokee making sure they got on and off the field quickly by running into position and running off the field out of respect for the teams coming back out after the half. Kudos to the Band of Warriors for a fantastic performance, they also are in competition Saturday and again on Tuesday.
The Second half started slow on both sides with defenses making adjustments to what had been working against them in the first half. Woodstock broke through with a score on a 2 yard run by Agner (3) to bring the Wolverines to within 7. Then the 4th quarter brought the struggle to a head when Woodstock scored on a nice 38 yard run by Aaron Robinson (11) to tie the score with 9:32 seconds left in the game. The two teams would go back and forth until Woodstock would take their first lead of the game after a 21 yard TD pass from Agner (3) with 3:23 left in the game. Woodstock would miss the extra point to make the score Woodstock 27 Cherokee 21. This is where the Warriors could have hung their heads and folded, but this night they did not let down their pink flavored student section. Ashely (4) hit Brown (8) on a pass for a 21 yard Touchdown, the extra point was good and Cherokee took a one point lead. After a turnover, Brown (8) and Ashley (4) again connected this time for an 8 yard pass with :45 seconds left and ended the hopes of the Woodstock faithful with a satisfying 35 - 27 win.
After the game Coach Shaw pointed his players to the student section to go thank them for cheering them on without losing hope, shortly after the students came onto the field to celebrate with the team for their first region win in over two years. It was a great win and showed that the Warriors will not give up even after some banged up players and losing the lead late. Another sign of a rising program and a team that believes in themselves and their coaches.
The evening that started off with some heat and humidity in the air finished with a hard fought win for the Warrior Nation on a cold damp field.
