By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
TRINITY – Cherokee County High School senior defensive back Alex Johnson wanted redemption, and he finally got that opportunity.
Early in the second quarter in the Warriors’ Class 4A third round playoff game at West Morgan, Johnson tipped a Braxton Peters pass that bounced into the hands of Rebel receiver Ti’airrius Mosley for a 60-yard touchdown. The score gave West Morgan some much-needed momentum after the Warriors had gone up by two scores on their first two drives of the game.
Mosley later tied the game in the second quarter at 14 on a 53-yard scoring catch. The two teams went into halftime tied at 21.
With the Warriors clinging to a one-point lead late in the fourth quarter, Johnson finally found the opportunity he was looking for. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
West Morgan was driving late in the game for the potential go-ahead score. The Rebels were faced with a 2nd-and-12 at the Warrior 41-yard line. Peters was pressured on a pass which fell right into Johnson’s arms at the 22 with 2:59 remaining.
A 46-yard run by Jacob Cornejo on the next play gave the Warriors the ball at the Rebel 32. A 12-yard Tae Diamond run followed by a Cornejo 11-yard rush gave Cherokee County a first-and-goal at the 2. With West Morgan out of timeouts, Cornejo took a couple of kneel downs to preserve the Warriors’ dramatic 28-27 victory.
“It felt like it was in slow motion,” Johnson said of his interception. “I thought I read it pretty well. I didn’t know if I could jump that high or not. It all felt so unreal. Right when I caught it, it was like everything went back to fast motion and I just celebrated with my teammates.”
The win secures Cherokee County’s second straight state semifinal berth. The Warriors (12-1) travel to Westminster Christian (11-2), a 48-27 winner over Brooks in other third round playoff action on Friday.
“I don’t think any of us were ready for it to be over with,” Johnson said. “I think in crunch time we all just came together as a team. We said this was not it. It will not be over today. I just made a good play on the ball to help my teammates, and things worked out in our favor.”
Warrior coach Jacob Kelley was also glad Johnson was able to find redemption from earlier in the game.
“He had a pick dead to rights, but it just went right in 11’s (Mosley’s) hands,” Kelley said. “That’s what got them back into it. That gave them momentum back.
“They were trying to influence him with a post route (late in the game) and bring the tight end all the way back across. It’s very, very tough to do your job and do what you’re coached to do passing the post off to the safety. He saw what was coming his way. His eyes were exactly where they needed to be. The quarterback was getting pressured. Our D-line was doing their job, and he went in there and got the one he missed in the first half. I couldn’t have been happier for him.”
Something else that made Kelley happy was the rest of his defense’s play throughout the game. They held high-powered West Morgan (12-1) to just 280 total yards and well under its 53-point per game average.
“Our defense bent a little bit but they played their tails off down the stretch,” Kelley said. “It’s just one of those things where when it was crunch time at the end of the game, our guys made a decision what they were going to do. I couldn’t be more proud of them. West Morgan is a really good football team. They put up a lot of points. For us to just bow our neck there at the end and win by one, who would’ve thought it? I’m happy as heck. I’m proud of our guys.”
Leading the defensive charge was senior defensive lineman Tae Diamond. Diamond was seemingly in on every stop the Warrior defense had, including pressuring Peters on Johnson’s interception late in the game.
“On defense we just had to do what we had to do,” Diamond said. “We knew we had to execute. Everybody had to do their job. It was not just a one-man show. I can’t just say it was me. It was our whole defense, all 11 of us. That’s Cherokee County football.”
Diamond also delivered on offense as well. Not accustomed to many carries, Diamond ran for 102 yards on 12 totes to help provide a perfect compliment to Cornejo.
Cornejo – who lined up most of the game at quarterback following a torn ACL to quarterback Carson Tittle last week – led the Warriors with 203 yards on 38 carries with three touchdowns.
“They told me this week going in that Jacob was at quarterback and I was at running back,” Diamond said. “You’ve just got to step up and I did what they told me. The offensive line had some major blocks. I just hit the hole and we just executed the plays well.”
“We found out about Carson on Monday, and that’s when they started working me and Carson (Chesnut) at quarterback,” Cornejo said. “They started telling us to trust in the process, trust in what we do. We did and it worked.
“We knew this game was going to be a dogfight. We knew it was going to be a defensive game. We knew what we were going to have to deal with when it came to it. At the beginning of the fourth quarter where we were like ‘All right, it’s time’ and we did it.”
Cornejo gave the Warriors a 6-0 lead on a 58-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the game. The Rebels blocked Ben Frampton’s extra point.
After the Warrior defense forced a punt, Cornejo led another scoring drive, but this time Keyshawn Woods took the scoring honor from a yard out. Cornejo ran in for the ensuing 2-point conversion to provide the Warriors a 14-0 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
West Morgan finally got into a rhythm thanks to Peters’ connections to Mosley in the second to tie the game at 14, but the Warriors countered with Cornejo’s second touchdown – this one a 1-yard run – that gave them the lead back at 21-14.
The Rebels battled back to tie the game again at 21 on Jalen Fletcher’s 3-yard score with 1:11 remaining in the first half.
Cherokee County appeared as if it might regain the lead, but a Cornejo fumble near the West Morgan 20 killed the drive. However, the Warriors got the ball back on a Blake Butts fumble recovery as the half ended.
West Morgan took its first lead of the game in the third quarter on a Peters 8-yard touchdown run. However, Jacob Johnston’s extra point missed the mark, keeping the score at 27-21 with 4:14 remaining in the quarter.
The missed point-after proved crucial.
West Morgan was driving near midfield early in the fourth quarter, but a Diamond sack of Peters for a 2-yard loss made it a 4th-and-long, forcing a Rebel punt.
The Warriors cashed it in with an 11-play, 65-yard drive with resulted in Cornejo’s third touchdown of the game on another 1-yard run. Frampton’s extra point gave Cherokee County a 28-27 lead with just under 7 minutes to go.
That set the stage for Johnson’s interception redemption and a semifinal trip to Huntsville to face Westminster Christian.
“We’re going to be all locked in,” Johnson said. “We have to go back (to state). It’s the same thing – redemption. We need redemption from last year. We need to go back to state and win it all this year.”
Peters led West Morgan by completing 6 of 10 pass attempts for 150 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 59 yards on 15 carries and a score. Fletcher added 42 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them. They left it all out on the field,” West Morgan coach Drew Phillips said. “We got down 14-0 and you saw our resiliency. We were able to take the lead. We just couldn’t get it done.
“Any time you play a good team like that you’ve got to take care of the football. You can’t give them extra possessions as good as they are. They’re a well-coached team that plays extremely hard. They’ve played in some big games. I felt like they made plays when they needed to. That’s why we came up a little short.”
