DANDRIDGE – Just four years ago, Jefferson County football coach Spencer Riley, his coaching staff and a group of freshmen were on their way to an 0-10 season to extend the program’s losing streak to 17 games in-a-row.

On Friday night and early Saturday morning, Riley, a lot of that coaching staff and that same group of freshmen took the Jefferson County football program to a place it’s never been before.

Taking on Dobyns-Bennett after an almost three-hour lightning delay, Jefferson County overcame a halftime deficit to pound past the Indians 25-14.

The win gave the Patriots victories over Science Hill and D-B in back-to-back weeks. Just two weeks ago, Jefferson County had never even beaten those two teams in the same season.

“They were at the lowest of lows and now where we sit today they are at the highest of highs during my tenure here,” Riley said. “I tip my hat to those kids because they bought in and believed. They believed from day one. I knew that if we could get to where we could turn the corner and have great leadership, we’d be in good shape. I can’t thank our administration enough for what they do for our students and athletes.”

It was that senior class that led the charge on Friday night for Jefferson County, starting with Omarian Mills and Bryson Letterman. Mills had 208 rushing yards and the game-clinching touchdown when he broke an 83-yard touchdown run with just three minutes remaining to put Jeff Co. up 25-14.

Meanwhile, Letterman did it on both sides of the ball with 137 receiving yards, a touchdown and collected five bone-crushing tackles.

“That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Riley said. “That’s why we practice our butt off every single day. They executed and did their job. (Bryson) was laying the wood.”

However, it wasn’t just those two seniors that stepped up but the entire class. The front seven for the Patriots, led by seniors Destin Adams, Emmitt Newman, Hayden Churchwell and Bradon Griffin held D-B to 64 rushing yards on 26 attempts.

On the flipside, Jefferson County had 217 rushing yards.

“We tell everybody that the front seven is the strength of our program,” Riley said. “Now our receiving core, our defensive back and quarterback are coming along with them. If we can put it all together, we can be pretty dangerous.”

Offensively, Riley’s sophomore quarterback Mason Henderson continues to grow up as well. Henderson had his best game statistically, going 12-16 for 169 yards and two touchdowns.

The biggest play of the game for Henderson came late in the fourth quarter. With the Patriots trailing 14-12 and facing fourth-and-three from the six, Henderson found Shawn Jackson out of the backfield for the game-winning touchdown.

“He keeps getting better,” Riley said. “As he continues to take steps forward as we move towards the season, it will be huge for us. He dropped some dimes tonight, and Bryson Letterman made some great catches. We just did some really, really good things in the passing game tonight.”

It was a dominant start for the Patriots defense, forcing a three-and-out to open up the game. The defense gave way to a strong ground attack for Jefferson County as they used 10 plays to march 78 yards. The final play was a handoff to Skylar Thomas that covered 18 yards as Thomas found his way into the end zone to give Jefferson County the early lead.

However, the Patriots struggled on offense following the touchdown as the D-B defense stiffened. The Patriots best chance came late in the first quarter/early in the second quarter as Mason Henderson connected with Letterman for 37 yards on 3rd-and-eight to the D-B. But the Patriots went backwards from there as two bad snaps forced them to punt.

For D-B, they took advantage of the Patriots’ mistakes as they scored their first touchdown on a fumble in the end zone and then ran right at a tired defense, eventually finding paydirt from two yards out to make it 14-6.

However, coming out for the second half the defense tightened up and pitched a shutout for the final 24 minutes.

“That defense kept us in it in the first half,” Riley said. “That’s what championship football is all about. You have to win the close ones and battle through the adversity. When it doesn’t go your way in the first half, you have to keep grinding. When the breaks go against you don’t let up, put on more steam.”

While the defense was holding their own, the offense finally began to click again midway through the third quarter as Henderson connected with Letterman for a 53-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 14-12.

Following multiple defensive stops, the Patriots went to work again in the fourth quarter. Jefferson County ran it all the way to the 11 but seemingly stalled out and faced fourth-and-eight. But an offsides penalty allowed the Patriots to go for it and that’s when Henderson connected with Jackson for the go-ahead score.

Following another three-and-out by the defense, Jefferson County took over at their own 17 and needed just one play to put the game to rest as Mills broke free for the 83-yard score to make it 25-14.

From there, the defense got one more stop and the offense picked up a first down before going into the victory formation.

The win puts Jefferson County at 3-1 for the season but more importantly 2-0 in Region 1-6A play.

“They’re a salty bunch,” Riley said about his team. “They’re fun to be around. We had a physical week of practice and it was so much fun being out here with these guys tonight.”

While the Region 1-6A race is far from over, the Patriots now sit in the driver’s seat with games against West Ridge, Morristown East and William Blount remaining.

For Riley, he wants to see his team continue to fight and not slow down until they wrap up their first outright region title since 1993.

“We have a chance to be pretty good,” Riley said. “It’s a hard road to hold in this region. We have some tests later on and some tests coming up. We just have to continue to get better every week and not take anyone for granted and just keep on pounding.”