West Greene will celebrate homecoming on Friday night with one of its toughest tests yet as Eagleton visits the range.
“They are going to bring a really talented team up here,” West Greene coach Caleb Slover said. “They made it to the semifinals last year. It’s going to be a big challenge. They have a lot of kids back from last year. But I’m interested to see how our kids respond. Things aren’t going our way right now, but I’m excited about how hard our kids are working.”
The Royals come into the contest with a 3-1 record and are coming off a 39-6 win over Sullivan East. Their only common opponent with West Greene is Providence Academy. A week ago Providence beat West Greene 19-6, while Eagleton beat the Knights 28-7 the week before.
Last year Eagleton beat the Buffaloes 47-15 in Maryville. This is Eagleton’s fourth year of varsity football and it advanced to the state semifinals last year with a 10-4 record. The Royals are 3-0 all-time against Buffaloes.
Eagleton brings a dangerous offense into the matchup, averaging 31.25 points and 319 yards per game. Quarterback Mason Mitchell is throwing for 226 yards per game with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions. His favorite target is Noel Meza-Flores who has 18 receptions for 341 yards and eight touchdowns.
On the ground the Royals average 92.5 yards per contest split between Kingston Burns-Jenkins and Easton Britton.
“They have three really good receivers who they can just throw jump balls to if they get in trouble. They have a couple of good backs. They run it hard,” Slover said. “They will mix it up on offense. They’ll use two backs, two tight ends, and four wides. We have to be prepared to get lined up against several different looks.”
West Greene comes into the contest with a 0-4 record, but Slover is still encouraged by the work his team is putting in and feels they are getting better despite the results on the scoreboard.
Last week, in a 19-6 loss to Providence Academy Slover felt like his team was close to breaking through, but they missed too many opportunities and committed too many penalties. Those are things that will have to be better against Eagleton.
“Last week we had a lot of missed opportunities and we have talked to kids about that. We’ve had chances but we miss a deep ball or we miss a block. We have start taking advantage of those opportunities and finishing drives,” Slover said.
West Greene will again rely on quarterback Aiden Thompson to make things happen with his arm and his legs and he has produced close to 1,000 all-purpose yards through four games. He has some dangerous targets in Hunter Franklin and A.J. McMurray, and in the running game Rylan Miller and Shawn Bailey have been getting better in recent weeks.
Kickoff for Friday is scheduled for 7 PM, and the homecoming festivities will take place beforehand.
