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IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
If you ask any of the Cloudland football players if they have ever hunted, more than likely you will find a handful that like to throw on the camo and go out into the surrounding hills and hollows of Roan Mountain and do a little hunting from squirrels and even deer and bear.

And possibly some have even done a little bobcat hunting.

However, every one of the boys in blue and gold will be looking to hang some Bobcat pelts as the Highlanders will be playing host to the Oliver Springs Bobcats in the second round of the 2020 TSSAA Class 1A football playoffs.

Cloudland advances to this week with a wild win over Midway 38-33 this past Friday while Oliver Springs easily took care of Jellico 60-22. In the regular season, the Bobcats (6-5) beat Midway 14-7 as a game for comparison.

Midway made it closer than what it should have been late in the game by recovering two onside kicks after scores.

Coach Scott Potter said that those recoveries were on the coaching staff and not his team.

“This past week’s game was on the coaches,” Potter said. “We didn’t have the guys prepared for onside kicks so that was nothing on the kids, it was on the coaches.

“We will definitely be prepared for onside kicks this week.”

The Highlanders will be looking to what has gotten them this far and that is the ground game as Seth Birchfield once again led the ‘Landers on the ground against Midway with 20 rushes covering 126 yards and two scores as Cloudland pounded out 213 yards on the ground.

Chase Shell has continued to gain confidence throughout the season and in his first start in the playoffs connected on 7-of-12 passes for 133 yards and two scores.

Gage McKinney was Shell’s favorite target catching three passes for 75 yards and the two scores.

Oliver Springs comes into the contest with a solid running attack that will challenge the Highlanders.

“I think they are pretty tough,” Potter said of the Bobcats. “They have a good running game and we will have to be on our game. We will have to keep our eye on Brandon Nation.”

Nation is a 5’9 senior running back for the Bobcats.

The Highlanders had been off their game after a solid start, but Potter said he feels that his team is getting back to the level that put them in the position to be where they are now.

“We want to play really well,” Potter commented. “We started out really well in our first seven games and let up the last three or four.

“We caught back on fire this week and I think we should be fired up for this game. There will be no excuses. We need to get after it.”

The kickoff at Orr Field will be at 7 pm Friday night in Roan Mountain.