By: MTN Sports Reporter Noah Maddox
Football at Cascade used to be one of the staples of the school. An annual state playoff appearance accompanied with a winning season used to be the norm, however, it is a pleasant surprise this year.
In the COVID-stricken season that was 2020, the Cascade Champions went 5-5 in the regular season and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2014. In the 2021 season, coach Jake Tyre lead his alma mater to back-to-back postseason trips for the first time in seven years with one of the youngest teams he’s ever had.
“We had a really good offseason. We got a taste of it (playoffs) last year, but we also graduated a lot last year…we only have five seniors this year, so we’re really a young team that in my mind has overachieved,” Tyre said.
That “overachieving” that Tyre is referring to is the team’s 8-2 regular season record, and the fact that his team is getting ready to travel to 15th ranked Lewis County on Friday night for the first round of playoff games that the team expects to compete in and win.
Cascade started the season flying high, storming out of the gates to a 6-0 record but tapered off at the tail end of the regular season. However, the season has been a nice return to the successful years that Tyre and the Cascade community remembers.
“There were some low years here,” he said. “As a coach, and even back to when I was playing, I had never experienced a losing season until the 2015, 16, somewhere around in there.”
In 2014, the last time Cascade qualified for the playoffs before 2020, they went 4-6 in the regular season before traveling to White House Heritage to lose 47-7. Last season, they went 5-5 before losing at Bledsoe County 48-21. This year, they are hoping to do something that the program hasn’t done in nine years: win a playoff game.
Lewis County is no pushover. According to Tyre, all 32 teams left are solid, and the Panthers are no exception. There is a reason that they are hosting the game. The only common opponent between the two teams is the Summertown Eagles, who beat Lewis County 7-6 on October 21st. Cascade is travelling to Lewis County due to their 21-17 home loss this past week to the Eagles.
It will be a fascinating matchup, one that could potentially come down to one or two players making big plays. Tyre thinks one of his five seniors will be one of those game changers.
“Ryan Inmon has taken [a massive] leap,” Tyre said. “He probably played 20 percent of the offenses snaps last year, and he’s played 100 percent of the offensive and defensive snaps. He has taken that leap.”
Inmon has amassed over 1,800 total yards of offense as the starting quarterback for Cascade, including about 1,000 yards passing and almost 800 yards rushing. Despite the late turnover against Summertown, he has been the engine that makes this team go all season.
If Cascade can pull off the road win on Friday, they will face either Forrest or Adamsville. This means that there is a chance that two district rivals will play each other with a spot to the quarterfinals on the line.
“I don’t care who we are playing, I think we have a chance,” Tyre said. There is a reason his team started the season on a six game winning streak and expects to compete on Friday.
The game between the Panthers and the Champions will kick off at 7 p.m. on what is expected to be a cold Friday night in Lewis County.