The West Greene football team is looking to return to the playoffs this fall, and a win on Friday would be a step in the right direction as Eagleton Academy visits Mosheim for the Buffs first Region 1-2A contest of the year.
“This would be a huge win for our program “says West Greene head coach Evan Monroe. “This would be the first step in making the playoffs, it’s a region game, at home, this would put us in a great position for the playoffs with a win “.
Last season the Buffaloes dropped a close one at Eagleton, 21-18, in what Monroe called, “A very evenly matched game, the ball bounced their way a few times and we made a couple mistakes. And that’s been one of our main focus’ this week is to clean up some of the mistakes.”
Last week Monroe made a change at quarterback inserting freshman Austin Brown and moving Austin Franklin to wide receiver.
Monroe says, “The change gives us one more playmaker on the field and utilizes our weapons, Franklin feels more comfortable at wide receiver and we can line him up all over the field and Brown’s been doing a good job and it gives us a better chance to win games.”
That move paid off when Brown and Franklin hooked up for a 69-yard pitch and catch touchdown in a 27-13 win over in county rival Chuckey-Doak.
If you’re not familiar with Eagleton, they are a fairly new school just outside the city of Alcoa in football rich Blount County.
Monroe says, “We’ve seen some film on them and they have a good-sized quarterback that can sling it all around the field, in fact he may be the best quarterback we see all season long. We’ll definitely have to keep an eye on him and they also have a big kid (number 44) that lines up at tight end and also plays defensive end. He really hurt us last year and we’ll have to find a way to contain him. They’ll probably line up out of the spread formation most of the night and pass more than they’ll run the ball, so we’ll have to rotate people in and out to stay fresh.”
West Greene comes into the game with a 2-1 record while Eagleton is 1-2 and is coming off a 13-0 loss to Oneida last week.
The game is set to start at 7pm on Friday night and is the first region game for both Eagleton and West Greene so a lot is on the line for an early season game and would put the winner in a very good spot to make the playoffs.
