A year ago North Greene and Cosby met in the final game of the regular season with the Region 1-1A championship on the line. This year the matchup has moved up to week five, but the result could be just a consequential.
The Eagles will be visiting The Tundra on homecoming night and both teams will be battling for playoff positioning.
“This is a big one and we have to get back to our basics,” North Greene coach Eric Tilson said. “We can’t let the moment be bigger than what it is, we have to remember that this is a regular season matchup in the middle of the year. If we go out and play North Greene football we will be fine.”
Both teams enter the game with 2-2 records and are both 1-0 in Region 1-1A play.
The Huskies are coming off of a 56-7 loss to South Greene in which very little went their way. The goal this week in practice has been to reset and get back to the basics.
“I think our kids will be ready to go this week,” Tilson said. “Our kids have been locked in practice and a lot of the corrections we needed to make we have made. It’s homecoming and that comes with a lot of distractions, but these guys have done a good job of staying focused.”
Tilson feels like his team has the playmakers to score points against the Eagles and will count on quarterback Thomas Darnell to spread the ball around to guys like Kelson Eastep, Matthew Boys and Brandon Weems.
“We have to get the balls to our playmakers in space and let them do their thing,” Tilson said. “When we have done that we have been successful. They have a very aggressive defense and we have to take advantage of opportunities when they give them to us.”
Tilson expects the Eagles to line up in a 3-3 stack and bring a lot of pressure while primarily playing cover three.
On offense the Eagles will rely heavily on running back David Baker who is averaging over 100 yards per game. They also return quarterback Matthew McMahan who was the region player of the year last season.
“We have to stop the run this week,” Tilson said. “They have a really good running back who is a load to tackle. They run a lot of inside zone and he does a really good job of finding the hole and getting vertical.”
Cosby comes into the game coming off of a 56-0 win over Unaka.
The only common opponent between the two squads is West Greene. The Eagles beat the Buffaloes 34-7 in week one and in week two North Greene earned a 34-0 win.
A year ago at Cosby the Eagles beat North Greene 26-14. The two programs have met 27 times since 1991 and North Greene leads the all-time series 15-12. North Greene last won in 2023, 21-7.
Kickoff for Friday is set for 7 p.m. with homecoming festivities taking place beforehand. The game will be live on the air on WIKQ 103.1 FM.
