In ancient Greece the Chimaera was three-headed monster that breathed fire and terrorized the people of Lycia, too fast and too strong for any mortal man to vanquish.
On Friday night at Burley Stadium the Greeneville Greene Devils used their own three-headed monster to terrorize their guests from Sevier County. Quarterback Kaine Ricker, running back Jude Dyer and receiver Taren Claridy were too fast and too strong for the Smoky Bears to handle as they blazed past the No.1 ranked team in Class 5A on the way to a 49-21 win.
“What a great game. We challenged them to be the more physical team and I think we did that tonight,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said. “They have four Division I dudes, and a big offensive line, but I’m proud of my football team for how hard they played. Hats off to my coaches for putting together a great game plan and having us ready for this game. We had little bit more edge about today. The guys were more dialed in and focused in the pregame. We’ve challenged them this week and they have responded.”
Coming into the contest it was Sevier County’s three-pronged attack that garnered all of the accolades with a quarterback committed to Connecticut, a receiver committed to Duke and a running back committed to Western Kentucky. After 48 minutes on Friday night it was clear that Greeneville’s monsters were more ferocious.
Ricker outdueled Cooper Newman, who is considered by most the top passer in East Tennessee. The Greene Devil was 13-of-15 passing for 320 yards with three touchdowns. He also ran for 42 yards with a touchdown and had a touchdown reception. Ricker became the third Greeneville player since 1972 to have a rushing, receiving and passing touchdown in the same game. Kase Spradlen did it last week against Sullivan East.
“After last year we had a bad taste in our mouth and it feels really good to come out with a win like this,” Ricker said. “We drew up a good game plan and worked on it all week. It feels really good to come out and execute it. Shoutout to our scout team they did their best to replicate Sevier County throughout the week and they had ready for tonight.”
By comparison Newman, last year’s Class 5A Mr. Football Award winner, Was 16-of-28 for 156 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Claridy was nearly unguardable on Friday as he pulled in eight catches for 209 yards and three touchdowns. He also had a passing touchdown and an interception on defense.
“(Taren) is the best player in East Tennessee, period. He’s a dog when the ball is in the air, he wants the ball and he is going to go get it,” Spradlen said.
Parker Newman the Duke commit led Sevier County with five catches for 51 yards.
On the ground Dyer may have had his best game in a Greeneville uniform as he fought for extra yards and ran by defenders on his way to 162 yards and two touchdowns.
“That’s the old Jude you saw tonight. He’s battled injuries all summer from soccer season. He’s been behind, but he was his self tonight. He has worked hard in the weight room to get back and it showed,” Spradlen said.
Dyer’s counterpart in purple, Brayden Maples, had a good night with 105 yards on 18 carries, but he was outperformed by Greeneville’s senior.
The Greene Devils set the tone early by getting a defensive stop on the Bears’ first series and following it with a 95-yard march to the endzone. Braylen Kidwell had a big 34-yard catch to get Greeneville going. Ricker then found Claridy on a crossing route and the speedy senior outran the defense up the sideline before stretching for the pylon and a 7-0 lead.
Greeneville’s defense kept up the pressure and a sack by Jack Lister ended Sevier County’s next drive with no points.
After a penalty waived off a score Greeneville’s offense was almost stopped, but on fourth and 10 from the 15-yard line Spradlen reached into his bag of tricks. What started as a toss to Dyer turned into a reverse pass where Claridy and Ricker reversed rolls. Claridy drew the defense in while sprinting to the left and lobbed a ball up to his quarterback for a 14-0 lead just over a minute into the second quarter.
“We got down there and had a touchdown called back. We needed something, and the coaches called that play. Taren pulled up and gave him a good throw and Kaine made a great play,” Spradlen said.
Sevier County finally found its footing on offense and used a 41-yard pass from Cooper Newman to Zach Banks to get into the red zone. Maples then powered his way into the endzone from two yards out.
Greeneville needed just three plays to stretch the lead out to 21-7. Claridy pulled in a jump ball going across the middle for 35 yards, Dyer rumbled over the defense for 23 yards and then Dyer plunged in from one yard out with 7:53 left in the first half.
Sevier County used a seven-minute drive to cut into the lead one more time. The 82-yard drive ended with Newman hitting Jaxson Perry on a quick out with 1:23 left in the first half.
Claridy then made the play of the night to send Greeneville to intermission leading 28-14. On the final play of the second quarter Ricker threw into triple coverage, but Claridy was better than the guys guarding him. He elevated over two defenders, pulled in the pass and then fell across the goal line for his second scoring reception of the night.
“During the timeout they said we were going to put it up and give me a chance. I just saw the ball in the air and made a play on it,” Claridy said. “I felt like that gave us a lot of energy and momentum going into the half.”
The Smoky Bears did their best to swing the momentum coming out of halftime and recovered an onside kick to start the third quarter. Three plays later Maples raced to a 34-yard touchdown that closed the gap to 28-21.
Greeneville answered on the ensuing series and a one-yard touchdown plunge by Jude Dyer made it a two-score game again.
The Devils really put the pressure on the Smoky Bears when Claridy took a swing pass and darted up the boundary for a 34-yard touchdown that pushed the lead to 42-21 with 6:22 left to play in the third quarter.
The knockout blow came with 2:51 left in the third quarter when Ricker went off tackle to the left and crossed the goal line from three-yards out to push the lead to 49-21.
It was the seventh consecutive drive the Greene Devils scored on. To that point in the game Greeneville had moved the ball with ease on last year’s Class 5A state runners up, facing just three third downs on those seven drives.
Greeneville’s defense finished out the contest by keeping the pressure on Newman. Caleb Smith led the pass rush and kept the quarterback flustered all evening. The secondary gave little breathing room with Kidwell and Zy Neall getting their hands on the ball before Claridy picked off the Division I bound passer with 9:49 left to play.
The Devils held Newman to 64 yards below his season average of passing yards, 17 percentage points below his season average of completion percentage and three touchdowns below his average.
“That is as good of a quarterback as there is and we had to put pressure on him,” Spradlen said. “We hit him some and made him get out of the pocket. There were a couple of balls that could have gone their way, but the pressure affected them. It was relentless effort.”
Greeneville produced 588 yards off offense on Friday with 335 yards through the air and 253 yards on the ground.
Sevier County was held to 275 yards.
