BAXTER – The Greeneville football team made a statement on Friday night as it used high-flying offense and overpowering defense to overwhelm Upperman in a clash of Top 5 teams.
The Devils, ranked No.3 in Class 4A in the latest TSWA Poll, made it look easy on their visit to the No.5 ranked Bees as they scored early and often on the way to a 48-14 win.
“What a big-time win for this football program,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said. “We expected a battle and four-quarter game. All week I told the guys that we are going to see what kind of football team we have. I could not be more proud of how hard and physical we played. We expected a physical game and we were the more physical team tonight.”
Just 14 seconds into the contest the Greene Devils let the folks in Baxter know that they came to play, and that it might be a long a night for the Bees. Taren Claridy pulled in a short opening kickoff and found an opening to run through. He raced 84-yards up the left sideline and into the end zone to give Greeneville its first points of the night.
“We say every week that we need a party starter, and Taren got the party started tonight. That was huge. If he doesn’t do that I don’t know that we get out to the big lead. That meant everything tonight,” Greeneville senior Cole Smith said.
The kickoff return was just the start to a big night for Claridy and on the Greene Devils’ second offensive snap he really had the Bees reeling. Kaine Ricker dropped to pass and looked to his right where Claridy had already found himself ahead of the defender. The senior signal caller lobbed it down the right sideline and his favorite target ran under it, 76 yards later the Greene Devils led 14-0.
“I saw (the cornerback’s) butt was to the sideline and he was shuffling, so I knew I was going to outrun him. Then when the ball got there he fell, and that made the rest easy,” Claridy said. “We’ve practiced that a lot to get the timing down. Kaine knows that I’m going to slow it down and try to get them off balance, and he put it in the right spot.”
Claridy finished Friday with five catches for 156 yards and two touchdowns. With his kick and punt returns he accumulated 258 all-purpose yards with three touchdowns.
“We have to let our playmakers make plays. We know that when Taren steps on the field he is the best player regardless of who the other team has. They have an Ole Miss commit and he’s a dang good football player, but I’d take number five any time I can,” Spradlen said.
Upperman relied on a run-heavy attack on Friday that spread the ball around to a variety rushers. The goal was to methodically moves the chains and control the clock. It’s a game plan designed to get the lead and sit on it, but once the Bees fell behind it became much harder to play catch up.
Greeneville’s defense did a good job of winning on first and second downs and forcing tough third downs for the Bees who never looked comfortable throwing the ball Friday. That led to a lost fumble, two interceptions, a punt and a stonewalled fourth-and-one attempt in the first half.
“We knew they were a run-first team and that if we could get them into third and long they couldn’t really do much,” Smith said. “We had to buy into our coaching and just trust that they were going to put us in the right position.”
Still in the first quarter Greeneville’s lead grew to 21-0. First Ricker dropped back and patiently waited for one of his receivers to break open. The guy he found was Braylen Kidwell crossing the formation from left to right. Cole Smith delivered a key block and 57 yards later Kidwell was dragged down just short of the goal line. On the next snap Ricker leaped into the endzone.
Upperman did not have the ball long and on the final play of the first quarter Zy Neal picked off Gavin Gillispie’s pass.
Jude Dyer pushed the lead to 28-0 when he bounced to the outside for a three-yard touchdown run with 9:49 left in the first half.
Claridy and Ricker hooked up again with 6:05 left in the first half. On fourth down Ricker fired one over the middle to Claridy running down the seam uncovered. The 44-yard catch and run put Greeneville in front 35-0.
An interception by Michael Hurst allowed Greeneville to score again before halftime. On the drive Claridy had a 21-yard catch and Neal grabbed a 19-yard gain. Yordan Mills capped the 80-yard drive with a 16-yard burst around the corner to the left.
Upperman got on the board on the last play of the first half when Ole Miss tight end commit Colton Johnson threw a 10-yard touchdown to Gunner Block.
The teams went to the break with Greeneville leading 42-6.
Greeneville started the second-half scoring with a 14-play, 83-yard drive. Mills found the endzone again on a 10-yard swing pass from Kase Spradlen.
With seven minutes left in the game Upperman starting running back Gavin Frazier scored on Greeneville’s reserves to set the final score at 48-14.
Greeneville finished Friday with 436 total yards of offense and scored on every possession except the final one of the night because the clock expired.
Ricker was 9-of-10 passing for 271 yards with two touchdowns. He ran for 17 yards and another score.
The Devils will begin Region 1-4A play next week with a trip to Northview Academy on Thursday.
