Every year it seems there is a shocker in the first round of the Tennessee high school football playoffs.

It could be no more fitting that McMinn County, the only seven-win team excluded from last year’s postseason, should be the one to fill that role Friday night.

The unranked Cherokees finished 6-4 this year but managed the No. 4 spot out of Region 2-5A. They were given very little chance of doing more than getting off the bus, taking their lumps at Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett, and coming back home to shelve their pads and start working on next year.

But next year has been put on hold.

The Cherokees, taking advantage of an intentional safety, returned the ensuing kick by Dobyns-Bennett 60 yards to take the lead and eventually a 28-24 win over the state’s top-ranked Class 5A team. And Dobyns-Bennett hadn’t lost a game all year.

While McMinn County’s win over Dobyns-Bennett was likely the biggest surprise of the first night of Tennessee’s prep postseason, there were others.

Who would have thought that Region 3-3A would be shut out and over and done after Playoffs Week 1?

Howard? The region champions were loaded with speed and balance. Unfortunately, they weren’t prepared for Sycamore’s triple option offense, which had been shelved the past two weeks with its coaches knowing a traditional film swap of their last two games would show the more athletic Tigers nothing.

The triple option calls for assignment defense rather than the often free-swinging, fumble-jumping, tackle-for-loss approach that had endeared the Tigers defense to their fans.

The Tigers could hold nothing back the last week, having to expend all to push McMinn Central out of the champion’s chair, and ditto for Central, whose last two regular season games were against Polk County, and arch-rival and the region’s eventual third-place finisher, and Howard.

East Ridge, which took Central to the final seconds before falling 17-16, was devastated in a loss to Region 3-4A champion White House while Central lost to No. 3 DeKalb County.

Polk had the best showing of the bunch with Derrick Davis’ defensive guys coming up with another strong showing in a 14-7 loss to Station Camp.

And Region 4-4A is down to one team – Rhea County, which pulled away from a 14-7 halftime lead for a 41-21 victory over Clinton.

You had to know that Cleveland was in trouble. The Blue Raiders were trying to bounce back from an upset loss to Walker Valley against defending state champion Maryville, and they had to attempt it without quarterback Tucker Tipton, who was relegated to the sidelines with torn thumb ligaments. They lost 35-12.

The aforementioned Walker Valley rallied in the second half but came up short against Powell, while Red Bank suffered a triple-overtime loss to Knox West (31-24).

In Class 2A, Tyner lost one late to Westmoreland 21-20 after missing its first extra-point kick and Sequatchie got shut out by Smith County 45-0. But Boyd-Buchanan and Marion County, Region 3-2A’s top pair, advanced and rather easily.

The Buccaneers fell behind 7-0 but rallied with a fury on their way to a 30-7 win over Donelson Christian. Marion County had to play York Institute, a team it manhandled earlier in the year, and the score was closer but they still won 21-12.

Only South Pittsburg advanced out of Region 3-1A and even the Pirates were sluggish, leading only 21-6 at the half before closing with a third-quarter flurry in a 41-6 victory.

It sets the stage for some interesting games, including some rematches.

McMinn has to go on the road to Farragut, which beat the Cherokees earlier this year, and Soddy-Daisy is going back to Ooltewah hoping to improve on a 55-21 loss. Too, Boyd-Buchanan, which lost to Tyner in the regular-season finale but still won the region, avoided a rematch with the Rams, but is hosting Westmoreland, which ended the Rams’ season. Marion County also will be at home, hosting Smith County, the Region 4-2A winner.

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