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NEW TAZEWELL – It was throwback night on Friday as the Claiborne Bulldogs became the Blue Devils and Union County wore their old Red Devil jerseys from the Horace Maynard days.

The Blue Devils found themselves down 20-6 late in the third quarter before rallying to tie the game and force overtime but Union County was able to prevail 28-26 in the extra frame.

The Red Devils took advantage of a mistake by the Claiborne special teams when a bad punt attempt set them up deep in Claiborne territory. Union County scored a few plays later but missed the point after. Austin Murrell tied things up with a three-yard run but the CHS extra point was also unsuccessful.

After the Red Devils scored again and converted the two-point conversion, the game went into a lightning delay with 2:30 remaining before halftime. When the two teams resumed play, no one scored the rest of the quarter and Union County took a 14-6 lead to the locker room.

Another special teams snafu set the Pats up in good position, this time at the Claiborne five yard line, and they took advantage with a score on the next play but the conversion failed. The Blue Devils got one of the scores back when Jake Smith broke off a 70-yard kickoff return to the two and then Murrell scored from that same spot. Cole Jones was good on the conversion to make it a 20-14 game late in the third.

After Jaris Bunch picked off a pass for Claiborne to end a possible Union County scoring threat, the Red Devils returned the favor with an interception in the end one on the home team’s next possession that would have tied the game. The Blue Devils weren’t done yet as quarterback Isaac Daniels found Korbin Hatfield for a 30-yard TD pass to tie the game at 20-20 with 66 seconds remaining in regulation. The Red Devils prevented a successful two-point conversion, however, and the game went to overtime.

Claiborne struck first in the extra frame as Daniels and Hatfield hooked up again for a throw and catch for the score but the two-pointer failed. Union County won the game when they had a 10-yard touchdown run and were able to tack on their conversion to prevail 28-26.

Daniels threw for 130 yards and two scores for the Blue Devils with Hatfield ending the game with 65 receiving yards. Cole Jones carried the ball 13 times for 54 yards and Murrell rushed for 39 yards.

Claiborne will welcome Johnson County to The Pound next Friday.