After a heartbreaking, overtime loss to Sevier County last week, some might have wondered how Greeneville would respond on Friday night. The Greene Devils left no doubt about whether were back moving in the right direction as they took down Cherokee 62-7.
Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said, “We challenged them all week long, how are we gonna respond after we face a little adversity and we came out and gave a great effort tonight”.
Caden Baugh started the night off fast and with 8:49 left in the first quarter he hit Cole Franklin for the 12 yard touchdown to put the Greene Devils on top 7-0.
After a quick stop by the Greeneville defense, Baugh took a 61 yard run up the middle to the house to make the score 14-0 with 5:56 left in the first quarter.
Just as the first quarter was about to expire with 10 seconds on the clock Jude Dyer found the end zone from 6 yards out to move the score to 21-0.
Early in the second quarter Baugh found Kaine Ricker for the 12 yard touchdown pass to put the Greene Devils up 28-0.
After another quit stop with 7:13 left in the second quarter, Baugh ran for another touchdown, this one from nine yards out to advance the score to 35-0.
Yordan Mills got in on the scoring action with 2:38 left in the first half when he went six yards for the touchdown to extend the Greeneville lead 42-0.
Greeneville wasn’t done with the early fireworks and with 27 seconds left in the second quarter Baugh found Taren Claridy for a 25 yard touchdown that sent the Devils to halftime leading 49-0
Baugh ended his night there, completing 13-of-14 passes for 221 yards with three touchdowns while running the ball nine times for 124 yards and two more touchdowns.
On the night Greeneville finished with 557 yards of total offense while holding Cherokee to 196 yards. The Chiefs’ 1,000-yard rusher Jayden Weston was held to 48 yards on 15 carries.
Jaydan Gonzalez helped Cherokee find the end zone with 4:17 left in the third quarter to cut into the lead 49-7. It was the Chiefs first score against Greeneville since 2008.
Dion Phipps quickly got that score back with a 64 yard touchdown run with 3:03 left in the third to make the score 56-7.
Parker Quillen put the final nail in the coffin by finding Brayden Blackwell for the 28 yard touchdown pass with 2:43 left in the fourth quarter, setting the final margin at 62-7.
Greeneville moves to 6-1 on the season and 4-0 in conference play. The Devils will be off next week and return to action October 17 against Volunteer.
Cherokee falls to 5-2 on the year.
