The West Greene Buffaloes (1-7, 1-1) have battled hard, but came up short a lot this year. The record shows 1-7 with a three-game losing streak, but that one win is in conference. Although the Buffaloes enter week 10 with only one win they have an opportunity to do something special with a win on Friday night.
The Range has only featured four home playoff games in the 54-year history of the program. A win at Cumberland Gap (6-3, 1-1) would grant the Buffaloes a home playoff game in Mosheim next Friday night. It would be the first home playoff game since 2022.
West Greene Head Coach Caleb Slover described what’s on the line on Friday night. “I think it’s huge for us. Especially after the year we’ve had. We’ve been really competitive early on. We’ve played three really tough football teams here back-to-back-to-back. We all knew it was lined up that way in the schedule. I don’t think anybody will give us credit from where we started at and how close and competitive we were in games. Just our youth and inexperience kind of hurt us early on in the year, but I think we’ve grown a whole lot. The way the season has gone and to be sitting here at the last regular season game of the year saying everything that’s happened all goes out the window. You’ve got an opportunity to reset, you’ve got an opportunity to host a playoff game, and do something that’s not been done a lot in school history. A lot of pride and a lot of things to play for right now. There’s a lot of expectations for this game and I think it’s gonna be a really good hard-fought football game Friday night.”
With Region 1-2A only featuring four teams the Buffs were guaranteed a playoff spot in November. The 3-game region schedule decides seeding and if you travel or host in the playoffs. West Greene started conference play with an upset win over rival South Greene on Rebel Hill. Cumberland Gap traveled to Rebel Hill the very next week and handed South Greene another conference loss to pin the Rebels in 4th place. Happy Valley ran through West Greene and Cumberland Gap with ease to earn the No. 1 seed. Now it’s up to West Greene and Cumberland Gap to decide who finishes 2nd and hosts.
“It’s gonna take great effort on both sides. Cumberland Gap is really good defensively. They’ll play their 3-3 stack with a monster linebacker in there that just runs to the football and makes a ton of plays,” Coach Slover said. “Offensively, they are big up front. They are road graters. They come off the football with three backs and they’ll hand it to (Gabriel Daniels) and let him run and run.”
West Greene just finished a stretch of back-to-back games vs. current state-ranked teams (No. 6 2A Happy Valley and No. 6 3A Unicoi County) and a game with Gatlinburg-Pittman prior to that who was ranked inside of the top three in Class 3A to begin the season. A gauntlet of a late-season schedule. The Buffs were outscored 138-24 in the three games.
Now, all focus is set on Cumberland Gap. It’s Senior Night for the Panthers and it will be a rowdy atmosphere in Claiborne County on Friday.
“We’ve got to keep our emotions in check. We have to be prepared mentally. We’ve got to be prepared for this football game. We’re on the road. It’s Senior Night for them. They are playing for the same thing that we’re playing for. It’s not like they are just going out there just to be out there. They are playing for the same exact thing we are. So, we’ve got to be prepared and ready to go,” Slover explained.
West Greene and Cumberland Gap have prior history with each other. West Greene’s only playoff win in program history was at Cumberland Gap in a 17-12 win in 2012. In other sports, Cumberland Gap boys’ basketball earned its first region tournament win in program history over West Greene in February.
The Buffs lead the all-time series 10-6 with a 6-game winning streak dating back to that 2012 playoff victory.
All of that goes out of the window heading into Friday night. The Buffs are led by sophomore quarterback Aiden Thompson. Thompson has gone 75-144 with 964 passing yards and 4 touchdowns this season with 5 rushing touchdowns to go along with his passing stats. AJ McMurray’s breakout performance against Unicoi County helped propel him into the lead in many major receiving categories. McMurray now has 18 catches, 257 yards, and 4 touchdowns.
Cumberland Gap is led by senior running back Gabriel Daniels with 1,327 yards and eight touchdowns on 172 carries. Daniels averages 7.7 yards per carry and 147.4 yards per game.
The Buffaloes average 14.38 points per game on offense and allow an average of 33.25 points per game on defense. Cumberland Gap averages 27.2 points per game on offense and allows 27.7 points per game on defense.
West Greene won last year’s contest at home, 40-6.
“They are a good football team. A really, really good football team. I watched some of the film from last year and it’s a night-and-day different football team. Different attitude, different mentality, and playing completely different. I think it’ll be two new football teams that’s there Friday night compared to last year,” Coach Slover mentioned.
The game will be featured on the airwaves this Friday night on The Big Dawg 103.1 FM WIKQ with Matthew Palazzo and Chris Sauceman on the call.
Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM at Cumberland Gap High School.
