August 31, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The oar will remain in Baxter.
For the fourth straight year the Upperman Bees have won “The Battle of Center Hill” after knocking off the DeKalb County Tigers 27 to 21 in Smithville Thursday night.
The oar, a trophy instituted a few years ago between these two schools, is affectionately nicknamed “The Battle of Center Hill,” because the teams are on opposite sides of Center Hill Lake. The winner of the annual grudge match gets to keep the oar for a year until the next meeting.
The game was moved from Friday to Thursday night due to expected heavy rains and possible lightning moving in from the remnants of Hurricane Laura.
The Bees scored first on a 42 yard touchdown run by Terrance Dedmon with 4:50 left in the 2nd period. Joshua Manis added the extra point to give Upperman a 7-0 lead.
The Tigers answered with 2:09 left in the 2nd period on a 5 yard quarterback keeper by Axel Aldino capping a 47 yard drive. Jasper Kleparek split the uprights for the extra point and the game was tied 7-7 by halftime.
Daniel Metzgar extended the Upperman lead on an 82 yard kickoff return to open the second half. Manis tacked on the extra point and the Bees led 14-7 with 11:40 left in the 3rd period.
Upperman’s Ty Dutchess scored on a 57 yard touchdown run with 8:38 left in the 3rd period. Manis connected on the extra point and the Bees built a 21-7 advantage.
The Tigers cut into the Upperman lead with 6:02 left in the 3rd period on a 10 yard touchdown pass from Aldino to Desmond Nokes. Kleparek added the PAT and DeKalb County trailed 21-14.
Upperman quarterback Thomas Ensor scored on a keeper capping a 56 yard drive with 27 seconds left in the 3rd period. The PAT attempt was blocked but the Bees extended their lead to 27-14.
The Tigers got on the board with 1.5 seconds left in the game on a 10 yard pass from Aldino to Evan Jones for a touchdown. Kleparek tacked on the extra point but DeKalb County fell short losing 27 to 21.
DeKalb County (0-2) will travel to Stone Memorial (1-1) in Crossville for the 1st region game of the season Friday night, September 4. Kick-off is at 7 p.m. WJLE will have LIVE coverage. Upperman improves to 1-1. Stone Memorial opened their season with a 34 to 14 loss to Grace Christian of Knoxville last week but defeated Clay County 32-0 Thursday night.