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COOKEVILLE — Destin Wade doesn’t wear a lot of hats.
He was, however, more than happy to put on a BlueCross Bowl state champion cap after Summit won its first-ever state championship on Friday, defeating Oak Ridge 28-7 at Tennessee Tech’s Tucker Stadium.
Wade rushed for two touchdowns and threw another to earn Most Valuable Player honors, rushing for 93 yards and passing for 135 in the victory.
“It’s just special, coming through all that adversity,” Wade said. “It’s just so special, I just want to look around and take it all in.”
Summit (14-1) jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first half as Oak Ridge (11-4) struggled to find any offensive footing for most of the first 24 minutes. The Wildcats did, however, mount a drive late in the second quarter for what wound up being their only points of the night when Mitchell Gibbons hit Brandon Heyward for a 2-yard touchdown pass.
The Spartan defense held Oak Ridge to 145 yards of total offense and also put points on the board when Brady Pierce intercepted a Gibbons pass and went 29 yards for the game’s final score early in the fourth quarter. Pierce also caught Wade’s first-quarter touchdown pass and finished with 88 yards on three receptions to go with nine total tackles.
Pierce said he likes to think about how the game will play out in his mind.
“I was thinking about it all day,” Pierce said. “I saw myself catching a couple of touchdowns, but not like that.”
Summit won despite being flagged 16 times for 119 yards, while Oak Ridge had nine penalties for 64 yards.
The victory ends Summit’s time in Class 5A, as the Spartans will move up to 6A for at least the next two seasons, entering a region with fellow Williamson County foes Brentwood, Centennial, Franklin, Independence and Ravenwood.
“We’re familiar with all those teams,” Summit head coach Brian Coleman said. “Franklin was our only loss this year, we beat Independence and we scrimmage those other teams.”
Keaten Wade returned to the lineup in the Spartans’ semifinal win at Henry County, but really had a full workload on defense in the championship game, collecting eight tackles and a sack.
“It’s just so good to be back,” Keaten Wade said. “It means a lot and it shows how hard I’ve worked to get back after I got hurt. It’s special.”
