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The first high school football game I ever attended was in 1990, and living in Lafayette those were some lean times. That night, Macon County suffered a 41-18 loss to Trousdale County and although the Tigers finished with a winning record that season, they weren’t anywhere close to being in the position they were Saturday.
On Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium turf Saturday afternoon, Macon County added a gold ball to their trophy case with a 45-14 thrashing of Melrose to claim their first Class 4A BlueCross Bowl state title.
“There’s no better feeling than being able to walk out these doors into a state championship,” Macon County head coach Kyle Shoulders said. “And for our community to make it a home game, this is what high school football is about.”
GALLERY: Macon County vs. Melrose in BlueCross Bowl 4A title game
And that Tiger section had an impact on the game – Melrose was flagged for several false starts because it was simply very hard to hear.
“They’re extremely supportive,” Zach Borders said of the Macon County crowd. “Whether it’s three hours away or 30 minutes away, they’re going to be there for us.”
That’s the type of atmosphere you get walking into Pat Parker Field on a typical fall Friday night, but they brought it on the road during a playoff run that required three road games just to even earn a home contest in the semifinal round. In beating Soddy Daisy, Upperman and White County, the Tigers left no doubt, avenging their two earlier region losses to the Bees and Warriors that put them in the No. 3 seed in the first place.
Program resting on broad Shoulders
Kyle Shoulders will tell you that his time at Red Boiling Springs – just a few miles east of Macon County High School – helped prepare him for leading a program. Shoulders spent eight years at RBS, and although only one of those seasons ended with a winning record, he led that program to a place nobody else had before – the playoffs, doing so in 2014 with a 6-5 mark.
“When you have a small program like the one over there, you see every aspect of running a program,” Shoulders said. “If you’re a young coach, it’s good experience to take a small job so you get to know how it all works.”
A year on Kevin Creasy’s staff at Oakland in 2017 preceded his tenure in Lafayette, and since taking over at his alma mater, Shoulders has a 57-26 record heading the Tigers.
Two Borders better than one
A full season of a healthy Gabe and Zach Borders paid dividends for the Tigers as well, as was evident through Saturday’s contest. The game’s Most Valuable Player, Zach Borders rushed for 249 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries as the Golden Wildcats turned their attention toward Gabe Borders, who still ended up with 117 yards on 18 carries. Gabe threw a touchdown pass to quarterback Luke Gammon to get the scoring started and set Macon County off on a 17-point second quarter outburst to take control of the game.
“I’m speechless, really,” Gabe Borders said. “It’s just a great feeling. It’s special – Zach had a great game. We haven’t been able to play together all four years – this was the first full year for us to play together (in high school), and to see him play like that was amazing.”
Even when Melrose scored twice in the third quarter to pull within 10 points, the Tigers had a resounding answer and slammed the door shut on any Golden Wildcat comeback efforts with 21 fourth-quarter points.
The Borders twins rushed for a combined 3,501 yards and 45 touchdowns in 2024, with Zach accumulating 1,917 rushing yards and 22 scores. They both played extensively on defense as well, with each of them amassing more than 40 total tackles during the season from their positions in the Tiger secondary.
Defense provides the kick-start
The title game could have gone much differently had the Tiger defense not made a play deep in its own end on Melrose’s initial drive.
The Golden Wildcats had gotten inside the Tigers’ 5-yard line when Ty Young forced Melrose’s Jamarion Morrow into fumbling near the goal line. Young came away with the loose ball, and with it, gave the Tigers the lift they needed to get the rest of the team going. From there, seven of Melrose’s next nine drives gained 20 or fewer yards.
Young also had seven total tackles, second only to Corbin Stephens’ eight-tackle performance. In all, 16 different Tigers put a Golden Wildcat player on the turf.
Offense finishes the job
In contrast, the Tigers’ final seven possessions all gained at least 36 yards, with only the one at the end of the second quarter not ending up in the end zone. But that might have been the most important one, as Eli Gammon’s 35-yard field goal split the uprights and gave the Tigers a 17-0 halftime lead.
All four of Zach Borders’ touchdowns came in the second half, including a 47-yard romp early in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers a 31-14 lead and set off the countdown to a state title that, until 2024, had been only a dream.
On a day where the sky was nearly as blue as Macon County’s home uniforms, the Tigers struck gold in the Chattanooga sun.
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