Robbinsville Mites extend title reign to 4 straight years, end Devils’ unblemished season
Murphy – Saturday’s Mites championship game proved that the deeply chronicled rivalry between Swain County and Robbinsville shows no signs of slowing down.
This time, it was a Cracker Bowl championship on the line -- the pinnacle of a season-long journey through the Smoky Mountain Youth Conference. The concrete and aluminum bleachers on the respective home and away sides of Bob Hendrix Memorial Stadium were awash with maroon and black, as the two rabid fanbases witnessed the most up-to-date reason a sports fan should never miss a game between Swain and Robbinsville – no matter the sport.
With the high-noon matchup came all the expected intensity, stubborn defenses and heart-stopping thrills many had predicted would play out. But the showdown also proved that the quickest to the draw would win.
For the fourth time in a row, Robbinsville won the duel and rode off into the sunset with the league championship, leaving the previously unbeaten Maroon Devils stunned after a 22-14 win.
“We knew we had to come out and play lights out to start,” Robbinsville Mites head coach Andy Blevins said. “We had to be physical and show them what Black Knight football is all about. Swain is an excellent team; they’re stacked and very well-coached, so our mindset was to come out and play the best quarter of football we have played all year on defense and offense.”
Marching onto David Gentry Field with something to prove – after Swain County jousted the Knights in the Aug. 19 season opener, 36-0 – Robbinsville was more than willing to take full advantage of the Devils’ choice to defer receiving the ball until after halftime. Swain booted an onside kick; three plays later, Canon Menard found an open hole and dashed 34 yards to the end zone. Brayden Allison crossed the threshold with the conversion and the Black Knights led, 8-0.
Plagued by penalty trouble all day, the Maroon Devils later found themselves needing to convert on fourth-and-long; a 13-yard pass from Elijah Cochran to Braelyn Lambert failed to do the trick. Swain was quick to regain possession; however, Bowen Delfino dropped Robbinsville gunslinger Walker Lane for a loss just two plays before Maroon Devil Easton Randall swooped atop a Knights fumble.
The second possession ended the same as the first: this time, Kyson Carpenter penalized Cochran for lingering too long in the backfield and promptly dropped him for a third-down loss at the end of the first. Cochran found Lambert again on fourth down to start the second, but the 18-yard completion still wasn’t enough to move the chains.
In the aftermath, Robbinsville caught the reeling Devils off-guard with a 53-yard scamper from Conner Hyde to punch six more into the score column. Lane then broke the plane for the conversion and the Knights led 16-0 with 6:18 left in the half.
Swain finally navigated its way to the end zone on the next drive, with a 5-play series culminating in a 5-yard scoring rush from Tyran Parker. Cochran toted the conversion into the end zone, loping Robbinsville’s lead in half.
The Knights later failed on a fourth-down conversion of their own, but Hyde made sure the Devils stayed one step behind by picking off Cochran at the Robbinsville 8 in the waning moments of the second.
Out of the break, Swain County successfully cashed in on its deferred opportunity, with Cochran ending a 7-play drive on an 8-yard touchdown run. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful, but the Devils had
turned up the heat enough to have the Knights perspiring as they held onto a 16-14 nod.
The momentum shift continued when Lane found Hyde on a 35-yard completion; the ball popped loose on contact and Judah Glaspie was right there to afford the Devils a re-possession.
Swain’s next attempt spilled into the fourth, but was exorcised when Menard toppled Cochran for a loss on fourth down. Two plays later, Menard rumbled 24 yards for the final score of the ballgame; a pass attempt fell incomplete on the conversion.
Robbinsville had one final obstacle to overcome: curbing the Devils’ temptation to rally and win.
The Black Knights spent the next 6:26 doing just that; Swain County had 70 yards to cover to have a chance and – following a myriad of conversion and timeouts – stood at the Robbinsville 8 once again, with yet another buzzer looming in the background.
Lambert was tasked with the final carry; Menard refused to let him go anywhere but in reverse. It was a 2-yard loss as the clock expired on the Maroon Devils’ pursuit of perfection.
But for Robbinsville, it was a 2-yard loss that maintained its perfect streak of Cracker Bowl titles. The same group won the 2019 Peewees championship; there was no season in 2020 and the 2021 campaign did not feature a Cracker Bowl, though the Knights were the only undefeated team left in the Termites division at season’s end.
“We knew we had to get back to Black Swarm football and put a drive together as we started the fourth quarter; that’s when our hometown crowd – which had been behind us all game being loud, cheering us on – took it to another level,” Blevins said. “But the difference between this game and the last game is that we flexed our muscles behind a stout defense.”
Last year resulted in another Robbinsville crown; its Mites title came in the form of an 8-6 win in the championship games at Jackson County.
The opponent? Swain, which defeated the Black Knights 32-18 in the 2022 regular-season finale.
“Winning one championship is hard – just getting there is a feat in itself,” Blevins said. “But back-to-back is special; and for some kids to have basically four in a row says a lot about the talent that’s coming up. It feels awesome to know our Black Knight football is going to be right there every year, for years to come.
“It’s been a privilege to have got to know these kids and all the memories they have made for us. I can’t wait for what the future holds for this group; they are amazing.”
Both programs finish the 2023 slate with a 9-1 mark; their only losses came at opposite ends of the calendar – to each other.
Cracker Bowl 2023
Nov. 4, 2023
Bob Hendrix Stadium, Murphy
* Peewees: Copper Basin (No. 1, 10-0) defeated Cherokee (No. 3, 6-4), 26-0.
* Termites: Cherokee (No. 1, 10-0) beat Swain County (No. 2, 8-2), 16-8.
* Mites: Robbinsville (No. 2, 9-1) defeated Swain County (No. 1, 9-1), 22-14.
* Midgets: Swain County (No. 2, 9-1) downed Copper Basin (No. 1, 9-1), 34-14.