By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
CENTRE – Cherokee County High School senior running back/defensive end Tae Diamond missed last week’s Class 4A football state quarterfinal game at Brooks.
On Friday night against West Morgan, he made up for lost time.
Diamond played with a chip on shoulder, saying he felt like he had something to prove to everyone. He ran for 150 yards and scored three touchdowns, and was also a force on defense in the Warriors’ 35-19 victory.
The win clinched third-ranked Cherokee County’s third straight trip to the state title game. The Warriors face No. 1 Jackson in the 4A championship game at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium on Friday at 11 a.m.
“He had a great week of practice,” said Warrior coach Jacob Kelley, who said Diamond “wasn’t available to us” in last week’s 21-14 win at Brooks. “It was good to have him back. His presence, his ability to run the football, his ability to put pressure on offenses as a defender … he’s a touchdown machine. He ran possessed tonight.”
Diamond said he was determined to “get things done” on Friday night, but he says there’s still work to be done.
“The job’s not done,” he said. “We’ve still got to go through a whole week of practice. We can’t get too excited. We’ve got to stay focused. We’ve got to stay locked in. Hopefully we’ll come out with a state championship.”
The Warriors (13-1) were a little too excited to begin their state semifinal game against West Morgan (13-1). The Rebels received the opening kickoff and drove the ball down to Warrior 12-yard line. The 14-play drive ate up over nine minutes of the first quarter, but Cherokee County’s defense stiffened in the red zone, forcing West Morgan to attempt a field goal. Jacob Johnston’s 28-yard attempt was good, and it gave the Rebels a 3-0 advantage.
Cherokee County’s offense went three-and-out on its first possession and was forced to punt, but after that, the Warriors began to get in their groove – especially Diamond.
“I felt like after their first possession and our first possession we calmed down,” Kelley said. “I think I had them a little too amped up. That was probably my fault.
“West Morgan is a great football team, and I know they were hungry. Coach (Drew) Phillips does a great job. We’re not surprised at all that we see each other (in the playoffs). We felt like last year we left a lot on the table. We wanted to prove a point that we were better than we showed last year (in a third-round 28-27 Warrior win). After those first two series, we settled down. Our line did a great job and our backs did a great job.”
Diamond ran for 98 of his 150 yards in the first half. He scored Cherokee County’s first touchdown on a 3-yard run with 9:39 to go in the second quarter to put the Warriors in front 7-3. On that scoring drive, Diamond also broke free on runs of 23 and 22 yards.
After West Morgan turned the ball over on downs on its next possession near midfield, Diamond, Keyshawn Woods and Tristan Brown churned out the yardage on a 9-play drive which resulted in Woods’ 1-yard score. Ben Frampton’s extra point extended Cherokee County’s lead to 14-3 with 3:20 remaining in the first half.
Another West Morgan punt yielded another Warrior touchdown. This time, Diamond scored on a 13-yard run with 14.4 seconds left in the first half. The touchdown put Cherokee County up 21-3 at the break.
The Warriors put the game out of reach on the opening possession of the third quarter behind the passing game. Adam Griffith connected with Ben Moseley on a 49-yard score over the middle. Frampton’s extra point made it a 28-3 game.
“We saw the looks they were giving us,” Kelley said. “We knew they didn’t have a free safety and we’ve got some guys who can stretch the field, so we dialed in some stuff that we had already worked on. We came out and it worked.”
Desperate to score points, the Rebels went for a fourth-and-7 on their next drive at the Warrior 38, but quarterback Titan Partlow’s pass was broken up to turn the ball over on downs.
Following the turnover on downs, Diamond scored again early in the fourth quarter on a 14-yard run to make the score 35-3.
West Morgan attempted a late comeback, but it came too little too late. Partlow connected with running back MaCarri Johnson on a 63-yard touchdown pass. Ty Jones ran in for the 2-point conversion to trim Cherokee County’s lead to 35-11.
The Rebels then blocked a Warrior punt and Partlow capitalized with a 10-yard touchdown toss to Tyshon Tucker. Jones again ran for the 2-point conversion with 7:21 remaining for what proved to be the final.
Partlow passed for 145 yards and two scores, connecting on 11 of 17 of his pass attempts. Johnson was his top receiver with three catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. Johnson also ran for 39 yards on 15 carries.
Brown added 65 yards on 11 carries for the Warriors. Woods finished with 33 yards on 14 totes with a touchdown.
The Warriors will now prepare for their third straight state title game against the Jackson Aggies. Jackson defeated St. Michael 49-28 in the other 4A semifinal on Friday. The Aggies’ lone loss this season came at Class 6A state championship participant Saraland in their season opener 35-27.
Cherokee County defeated the Aggies 31-27 to win the 2009 Class 4A state title.
Both Kelley and Diamond know the Warriors will have to play their best game of the season against the Aggies.
“I know they’re extremely athletic,” Kelley said. “They’ve scored a lot of points and have been really dominant in the playoffs. They’ve got aspirations and goals of winning state too, so we’ve got to break them down, see who they are, and get our guys ready to play a really good football team.”
“Next Friday, mark your calendars to be there at 11 o’clock because it’s going to be a good game between two very good programs going head-to-head,” added Diamond, who was 3 years old when the Warriors defeated Jackson for their first state title in 2009. “I hope we come out on top.”
