After Metro Nashville football's BlueCross Bowl first, expect a title breakthrough soon | Kreager

CHATTANOOGA – The gap is closing.

Metro Nashville Public Schools are inching toward winning a Tennessee high school football state championship — honest. But there is still work to be done.

East Nashville and Pearl-Cohn both reached TSSAA BlueCross Bowl state championship games this past weekend. It marked the first time in TSSAA history that two MNPS programs reached the title games in the same season.

Both finished as runner-up. Pearl-Cohn lost to Anderson County 34-30 in the Class 4A state championship game at Finley Stadium on Saturday. East Nashville lost 45-26 to eight-time defending state champion Alcoa on Friday after trailing just 31-26 after three quarters.

That in itself is a start. It's been 14 years since Hillsboro defeated Maryville 10-7 in the 2008 Class 4A state championship. Metro Nashville teams are 0-8 since that championship.

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But those of us who watched the games as well as previous ones can recognize that this weekend wasn't like past years. Many times we have watched Metro teams enter with eyes wide open, make early miscues and fall behind quickly.

Sure, there were mental breakdowns in both championship games this weekend at awful times. A Pearl-Cohn fumble at its own 4 led to Gavin Noe's 1-yard TD and a 27-24 lead with 44 seconds left in the third quarter.

East Nashville's loss included a missed kick on a kickoff when a kicker slipped. The Tornadoes quickly scored. And Alcoa got a field goal when it recovered a kickoff after a ball bounced over an East Nashville player.

"I feel good about our game plan and I feel like we were almost there," East Nashville coach Jamaal Stewart said. "But you can't make those special teams mistakes. Once again, we didn't make those types of mistakes all year long. Sometimes, once you get here and the lights are a little bit brighter and it's a different feel for them."

Those are misplays that just can't happen right now for programs trying to put Nashville high school football on the map.

"Anything could have happened," Pearl-Cohn coach Tony Brunetti said. "I'm just tired of losing. We all lost as a team. No one gets the blame."

Turning silver to gold

Pearl-Cohn should enter the 2023 season as the Class 4A favorite. The Firebirds return 18 starters. They have budding talent with sophomore Javion Kinnard and juniors D'Arious Reed and Keshawn Tarleton.

Brunetti said he plans to take a break before starting offseason conditioning. Injuries over the season and especially the past two weeks took a toll on the Firebirds. Reed missed a good portion of the season because of an injury. Kinnard injured his ankle in the championship and Tarleton had an upper-body injury prior to the final play of the game.

A break would do the Firebirds good after a season that kicked off in August. And if Pearl-Cohn expects another long season a break now is almost necessary.

Things trending up

The City of Nashville has launched a $15 million project that will bring turf to 13 high football fields and two soccer fields. The project provides each high school in the MNPS system $1 million toward building a new athletics field or improving athletic facilities based on each school's needs.

That will be a game-changer for programs like East Nashville, whose football field is torn up during the season due to the school having no practice field on campus.

Will that equate to a state championship run? Only time will tell. But if Metro's programs continue to move forward it's only a matter of time before a gold ball is raised.

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Metro Nashville getting closer to winning TSSAA football championships