The North Greene football team hits the road for the second week in-a-row now as it travels to play Cumberland Gap in non-region action on Friday night.
A week after their marquee 24-20 win over regional-rival Jellico, the Huskies are looking to win their third-straight game and keep their momentum going. They come into this game 2-1 and will step in front of a new-look Cumberland Gap team looking for their first win this season.
Last year’s game was postponed due to heavy rain and lightning and was played on a very rare Monday night. The Panthers stole one away from the Huskies and left The Tundra with a 21-18 win. It was their only win last season. With a bitter taste in their mouth after last year’s defeat, you can expect the Huskies to be hungry for a win on Friday night.
“All we’re focused on is that they beat us last year. We have something to prove in terms of what our execution is and they have our full attention,” Head Coach Eric Tilson stated.
Gap’s teams of years past were power-run heavy and wasted a lot of game clock. In their T-formation offense they were known for sending two-to-three runners at you to confuse you on who the real ball carrier was. That is a thing of the past now that newly named head coach Nick Nash is in control now.
“They’ve got a new head coach and they’re trying to spread things out a bit,” Tilson mentioned “They kind of look similar to what we do offensively in terms of the same formations.”
Their new offensive system presents a new challenge for North Greene. Little is known about their offense in this short amount of time they’ve presented it. “It is hard to plan for when they’re implementing a new system because you really don’t have enough to go off of,” Tilson said.
The Huskies have prided themselves on defense this year and are only allowing 19 points-per-game coming into the contest and would love to keep that number low against a struggling Gap offense scoring only five points-per-game.
North Greene’s offense is led by quarterback Thomas Darnell and workhorse running back Yeshua Vaught. Speedsters Jake Duffy, Brandon Weems, and Brayden Weems provide lethal threats on the outside. Gap’s high-pressure defense will be designed to force North Greene into making mistakes with its aggressive nature.
“Defensively they’re very aggressive. They have a similar structure to what we do in terms of alignment wise. We’re going to see a lot of man coverage. They like to be aggressive and try to make plays in the backfield,” Coach Tilson explained.
North Greene’s offense has produced 27 points-per-game so far through three games and hopes to raise that average going up against a Gap defense that has allowed 38 points-per-game in their three contests.
Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM at Cumberland Gap High School on Friday night.
