HARROGATE – For the third week in-a-row the North Greene Huskies end Friday night with a victory after leaving Claiborne County with a 40-21 over Cumberland Gap.
“When we were calm, cool, and collected and controlled what we do, we were very good tonight. When we do things well, we’re a good football team and we’re starting to show that,” Huskies Head Coach Eric Tilson stated.
The Huskies are streaking for the first time since 2012. North Greene had not put together a winning streak of three or more games in over a decade, but that all changed tonight.
The Huskies didn’t get it done without some sloppiness and chipiness. Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were getting thrown like cornhole bags on a Saturday night barbeque. Not just for one side, but both. A chippy game with lots of noise ended with the visiting fans in green singing go Huskies on their way out.
“We started sloppy. Just a lot of self-imposed stuff. Things that hurt ourselves. We played a very emotional team and we let that emotion get to us. When we’re calm, cool, and collected, that’s when we play our best football. And that second half we were calm, cool, and collected and played our best football,” Tilson said.
North Greene’s offense came to play again this week, but it happened to be their defense and special teams that became the difference maker in this contest.
A 72-yard interception return touchdown by Dash Stigen and 75-yard kickoff return touchdown from Brandon Weems were two heavy blows delivered by the Huskies.
The Huskies came into the contest only allowing 19 points-per-game and played defense like advertised. Even in adverse times, they somehow still found ways to force turnovers and stiffen up on the defensive line.
Tilson explained, “We challenged them in the locker room at halftime and said, ‘Guys they are running the ball down our throat. D-line we need you guys to step up and be men.’ I was really pleased with the way that group responded. Weston Barrett came out and had a great second half. Shawn Russell played lights out on defense tonight. Colten Suggs had another big night too.”
The game immediately began with a Husky touchdown once speedster Brandon Weems touched the ball. He ran the opening kickoff 75 yards to the house for a touchdown to open up the game. North Greene led 6-0 after a failed two-point try.
The first Cumberland Gap possession went nowhere and set North Greene up for a short field to score their next touchdown. Dash Stigen’s 7-yard tackle for loss and Brayden Weems’ pass breakup led to a punting situation. The punt snap was poorly done and the punter had to lie down to prevent anything worse from occurring. The ball would be spotted at the 21 for North Greene’s next possession.
The Huskies started sputtering on offense before two offsides penalties helped hand them a new set of downs. From there, quarterback Thomas Darnell worked his way down to the five-yard line before Yeshua Vaught pounded the rock for a five-yard rushing touchdown. Jake Duffy’s two-point catch raised North Greene’s lead to 14-0.
For the rest of the first half, it was all Cumberland Gap. The Panthers did what they’ve always been known for and chewed all the clock they could and delivered two methodical drives to tighten to game to 14-13 heading into halftime. For the last 18:18 of the first half, Gap had possession for 16:31 of that.
They started from the 34-yard line on their second possession and walked 66 yards down the field for a touchdown that took six minutes and eighteen seconds to materialize.
A streak of three long runs and a face mask penalty helped the Panthers gain 32 yards. Benson Hensley kept the drive alive with a 13-yard catch on 4th down. Allen Brooks rattled off three-straight runs of four yards and the last one inched just far enough over the goal line to be considered a touchdown on the field. Their deficit shrank to 14-7 after a successful PAT.
North Greene would hold the ball for only a minute and thirty-four seconds before giving them the ball back. What ensued was one of the longest possessions possible. The Panthers marched 64 yards in ten minutes and eleven seconds before finally scoring a touchdown with two seconds left in the half.
Both Allen Brooks and Hunter Gibson picked up a pair of first downs each. A couple penalty flags aided the drive and kept things moving forward.
A 3-yard rushing touchdown by Allen Brooks pulled Cumberland Gap within a point at 14-13 heading into halftime.
The Panthers received the second-half kickoff and went right back to work with another drive that lasted three minutes and twenty-one seconds. North Greene’s own mistakes cost them greatly and helped Cumberland Gap gain two first downs on two separate unsportsmanlike penalties. The Panthers were knocking on the door of the red zone before a wild snap sailed over the quarterback’s head and was recovered by Brandon Weems.
The longest run of the game happened two plays later when Yeshua Vaught traveled 53 yards to the 10-yard line. When it looked like North Greene would come up empty handed on the drive, Vaught came up clutch. On fourth down the senior running back cut inside of his defender on a wheel route and broke open in the end zone for a 10-yard receiving touchdown. The Huskies held a 20-13 lead.
Both teams went three-and-out before Cumberland Gap went on another threatening drive. Brooks’ run of 31 yards looked to be a heavy blow, but just when things got tight North Greene’s defense stepped up. Stigen jumped in front of a route and stiff-armed a Panther into the dirt on his way to a 72-yard pick six to extend their lead to 26-13.
“They moved their quarterback out to that and we intuitively knew he was getting the ball. We worked on it all week. He stepped right in front of it like we practiced all week and made a big play down here to score with that stiff arm,” Coach Tilson said.
A two-point conversion play was successful, but an injury occurred during the play that paused the action for 25 minutes.
The stingy Husky defense forced a turnover-on-downs in the red zone on the following drive and North Greene’s offense went back to work. An 87-yard drive that lasted 1:23 resulted in another passing touchdown for Thomas Darnell who led them down the field the entire drive.
He started with a quick first-down run that was followed by an 18-yard run for another new set of sticks. Another run of ten yards put them on Gap’s side of the field. When the defense started sucking in on the run, Darnell beat them over the top with his arm. A wide-open Kelson Eastep hauled in a pass and sprinted into the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown catch. The Huskies led 34-13.
After another turnover-on-downs it only took one play for Darnell to find the end zone again. This time he’d do it on his feet. He raced to the corner and broke the plane for a 37-yard touchdown run to push their lead to 40-13.
“We knew they were going to be doing a lot of man coverage. We struggled to catch the ball early and Thomas threw the ball well tonight. His arm was ready to go and we struggled to catch the ball early. So we’re thinking we’ve got to get in our run game. Yeshua and Thomas did a great job running, but we were outnumbered in the box by one, but when we ran our quarterback, we had that number so we knew quarterback runs were big tonight,” Tilson explained.
The Panthers weren’t done yet as Jacob Jordan ran the following kickoff all the way for a touchdown to make it 40-21 after a successful two-point conversion.
A failed onside kick was recovered by North Greene and that was all she wrote. The Huskies milked the rest of the clock and walked out of Claiborne County with a 40-21 win over Cumberland Gap.
The Huskies return home on Friday night with an important Region 1-1A matchup with Hancock County. Kickoff is set for 7:30.
