Page Falls Just Short in Quest for Class 5A State Championship

The Page High School Patriots fell short of a Class 5A state championship for the fourth straight season after losing to the Sevier County High School Smoky Bears 27-20 on Friday night.

The Patriots (14-1), who only surrendered 31 points all season, gave up 24 unanswered to the Smoky Bears including a crushing blocked field goal return for touchdown as time expired to put Sevier County up 17-7 at halftime.

Earlier in the drive, a potential long touchdown pass to Knight Wilson got negated by an illegal formation penalty on the Patriots.

Sevier County came out in the second half and took over six minutes off the clock before scoring a touchdown to go up 24-7 with 5:48 left to play in the third quarter.

The Patriots pulled within 11, 24-13, on the next drive thanks to big runs by Tennessee signee Brenden Anes and Wake Forrest signee William Wiebush. Wiebush finished off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:54 left to play in the third quarter.

Page forced a three-and-out but fumbled on the first play of the ensuing drive, giving the ball back to the Smoky Bears. That drive resulted in a field goal.

The Patriots had some opportunities in the next couple drives, but Sevier County kept them off the scoreboard and forced the Patriots to start using their timeouts early.

Not much went the Patriots’ way down the stretch, until a long pass reception by Knight Wilson led to another 1-yard Wiebush touchdown with 1:28 left to play in the game.

Wiebush accounted for all three Patriots touchdowns on the evening, including a 9-yard touchdown to open the scoring late in the first quarter.

Sevier County recovered the ensuing onside kick, and ran out the clock to complete an undefeated season and win its first state title win since 1999.

This class of Patriots seniors, despite four runner-up finishes in the state title game, will finish with an overall record of 42-8 and a regular-season region record of 20-1 over the last four seasons.