The Tellico Plains Bears came up short in their bid to become just the second team in school history to reach the second round of the state playoffs with a 26-12 loss to the Hampton Bulldogs on Friday night.

Untimely penalties and turnovers killed the sixth-seeded Bears' opportunities to pull the upset over the top-seeded Bulldogs.
With the loss, the Bears' playoff run and season is over.
Tellico finishes the 2009 campaign with an 8-4 record, its best showing in 15 years.
The Bears' offense once again had trouble getting into gear as Tellico only gained 197 total yards in the game, 132 of which came in the second half.

Junior Deion O'Dell had his usual big game, rushing for 154 yards on 26 carries with a touchdown and going 2 of 4 through the air for 46 yards and a score.
Josh Stinnett was 3 of 8 passing for 21 yards with two interceptions and Dale Phillips threw an interception on his only passing attempt.

Donovan McKenzie caught two passes for 34 yards and one touchdown.
The Bears were penalty prone on the opening drive of the game on both sides of the ball.
Stinnett recorded a sack on the Bears' first defensive series that would've left Hampton with a fourth-and-10, but Zeke Massingail was flagged for a personal foul to keep the Bulldogs drive alive again.
The Bears held Hampton out of the end zone, though, thanks in part to a sack by Massingail and a 35-yard field goal attempt was short.

Tellico couldn't get anything going on their first offensive series as a holding penalty wiped out a big run by O'Dell and forced the Bears to punt.
The Bulldogs took advantage of a short field and marched 51 yards in 2:34, capped by a 22-yard run to go up 6-0.
The extra point try was no good.

Tellico looked to have an immediate answer to that score as Stinnett hooked up with Butch McMinn for what appeared to be a 45-yard completion that put the Bears in prime scoring position.
However, McMinn was ruled an ineligible receiver on the play and was flagged for illegal touching.
Tellico was forced to punt, but got the ball back on the ensuing series when Cody Yates recovered a fumble.

Neither team could gain the upper hand on the next couple of drives, which included a big stop on fourth-and-1 at the Tellico 22-yard line by the Bears.
However, Hampton took advantage of a questionable roughing the kicker penalty late in the second quarter to keep a drive alive.

A few plays later, the Bulldogs scored a touchdown on a 29-yard halfback pass.
The extra point was true to make the score 13-0 with 19 seconds to play in the half.
The Bears were not content to take a knee and trail by two scores at halftime, though.
After a good return to the Tellico 39, O'Dell struck from the Wild Bear formation.

O'Dell hit Stinnett with a 16-yard strike on the second play of the drive and, combined with a Hampton personal foul, set up Tellico just 30 yards from the goal line.
O'Dell then found McKenzie on the last play of the half to cut the deficit to 13-6.
McKenzie missed the extra point attempt.

Both teams went three-and-out on their first drives in the second half, but the Bears used O'Dell as their workhorse on the second drive.
O'Dell carried the ball on 11 consecutive plays, picking up 54 yards on the drive before McKenzie attempted a 30-yard field goal.
That attempt was wide left and left the score at 13-6.

Hampton went 65 yards on the ensuing drive for another touchdown, with the touchdown coming on a 15-yard run, to go up 20-6 with 45 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs picked off a Stinnett pass on the next drive and used three Tellico penalties to help move down the field, including an offsides penalty on fourth-and-3 from the Tellico 6-yard line.
The Bulldogs scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 26-6 with 6:47 remaining in the game.

Cody Atkins blocked the extra point try.
Tellico once again moved down the field behind a couple of big runs by O'Dell and this time, the Bears capitalized on the scoring chance with O'Dell scoring on a 5-yard run.
Stinnett threw an incompletion on the two-point conversion try to leave the score 26-12 with 4:23 remaining.

Though the odds were against them, the Bears kept their rally hopes alive when Caleb Lynn recovered an onside kick and set the Bears up 48 yards from the goal line.
After a couple of big plays early, the Bears couldn't convert as Stinnett was sacked for a 12-yard loss and Dale Phillips had a pass intercepted on fourth down.
Jordan Hendrix recovered a fumble on the next drive, but Stinnett had another pass intercepted to end the Bears' hopes of a comeback as Hampton ran out the clock.

Hampton will host Rockwood, who Tellico beat 21-6 earlier this season, next Friday in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A playoffs.