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The Coffee County Red Raiders put an end to their four game losing streak with a 35-0 win in their final non-region contest of the year at Ooltewah on Friday night.

At the start, Ooltewah would receive the opening kick on their own 30-yard line and the Owls offense would go backwards with a three-and-out and a punt from their own 22.

The Red Raiders would only manage three yards on their first drive of the game, ending with a three-and-out of their own and a punt from their own 38.

The Owls would go three-and-out again on their next turn with the football, punting the ball down to their own 40 and giving the Red Raiders excellent field position.

On the first play of the drive, Jayden Carter punched through the Owl defense for a 40-yard touchdown run, giving Coffee County a 7-0 lead after the extra point with 5:43 to go in the first.

Ooltewah’s next drive would start at their own 42 and end at the Coffee County 42 after a turnover on downs.

The Red Raiders wouldn’t take much more time to add to their lead, as Deontae Short scampered away on the first play of the drive for a 58-yard touchdown run, putting the Red Raiders up 14-0 with 2:27 remaining in the opening quarter.

Coffee County’s defense would have to wait a little bit longer to get back on the field, as the Owls bobbled the kick return, coughing the ball up on their own 42.

This time, the Red Raiders would not come away with any points. The Owl defense would get to Raider quarterback Kaysen Lowery on third down, bringing him down on a sack at the Ooltewah 25.

Jayden Silva would trot out for a 42-yard field goal attempt, but the kick landed well short of the cross bar, giving the Owls the ball back at their own 20 on the touchback rule.

The Red Raider defense would come up big, as Jayden Carter snagged an Ooltewah passing attempt out of the air and rumbled through for his second total touchdown of the night. With 10:03 left in the second quarter, the Red Raiders led 21-0.

Ooltewah’s next drive would end in a three-and-out, and when the Coffee County offense took the field, Jon Massengill would be the one under center, replacing Lowery.

The Red Raiders would make it down to the Ooltewah 22, but the drive would end in a turnover on downs, and Ooltewah would run the clock out on their turn with the football to take the game into halftime.

The Red Raiders would receive the ball to begin the second half and Kaysen Lowery would return as the quarterback.

Coffee County would extend their lead on the drive with Jayden Carter’s second rushing touchdown and third total touchdown of the night, and with 8:16 remaining in the third, the Red Raiders assumed a 28-0 advantage.

Ooltewah would go three-and-out for the fourth time of the night on their next drive, and Coffee County’s offense would go to work from their own 44.

The Red Raiders would score again, this time on a 60-yard run from Deontae Short, who scored his second rushing touchdown of the game to give Coffee County a 35-0 lead with 5:10 remaining in the third. From that point, the clock would run and the Red Raiders would hold the Owls scoreless for the remainder of the game to capture their fourth win of the season.

“I thought our first half effort was pretty bad,” said Coach Roger Haynes. “I thought our offensive line picked it up at halftime and I thought the running backs ran a lot harder in the second half. Our receiving game was pretty bad. There was bad blocking on the perimeter, they didn’t line up well and they didn’t block well after the play; we have a lot of issues with the receivers that we need to clean up.”

Coffee County’s next game will be another Thursday night outing against the Blackman Blaze, and a win for Coffee County would help their chances of making the state playoffs.

“We need to prepare,” Haynes said. “We play on a Thursday next week, so we have one less day to prepare for a really good football team. Blackman’s a really physical football team and a really athletic football team just like the last four weeks of teams we’ve played, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We tend to play a team’s record and what logo is on the side of their helmets instead of lining up and doing our job, and that’s something we need to get better at as a program.”

Coffee County (4-5, 1-3 in region play) will play host to Blackman (5-4, 2-2 in region play) for their regular season finale. The Blaze will be coming off of a 42-0 region win over Rockvale.

While a win over Blackman would increase Coffee County’s chances of making the State Playoffs, the Red Raiders would need Siegel to beat Rockvale on Friday, Nov. 1 to lock them in.

Kickoff for Coffee County’s contest with Blackman will be at 7 p.m on Halloween Night, Thursday, Oct. 31 at Carden-Jarrell Field. Senior Night festivities will take place before kickoff.