The Greeneville football team sent shockwaves around the state last week with a 49-21 beatdown of Sevier County, but for Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen this week’s game matters more.
The Greene Devils will step back into Region 1-4A play on Friday with a trip to Cherokee and the Chiefs are the next hurdle Greeneville must clear to win a region championship.
“We can’t come in hungover because we beat Sevier County. That doesn’t matter anymore,” Spradlen said. “Cherokee is a hard nosed team and they are going to play physical. This is going to be a good challenge for us. We have to take advantage of what they give us, but I feel like our coaches have put together a game plan on both sides of the ball. Every week matters now, we are in region play from here on out.”
Cherokee enters Friday’s game with a 4-2 record, but coming off a 28-27 heartbreaking loss to Seymour last week.
After a handful of lean years the Chiefs have been on an upswing recently and have won seven games each of the past two seasons. A year ago Greeneville won the meeting at Burley Stadium 62-7. Greeneville leads the all-time series 26-8 dating back to 1981. Cherokee’s last win came in 2006. After a six year hiatus the series was renewed in 2023 and Greeneville has won by an average of 56.7 points in those three contests.
Greeneville currently sits at 3-0 in Region 1-4A play and is tied with Elizabethton at the top of the league standings. Cherokee is 2-2 in league play with losses to Elizabethton and Seymour and wins over Grainger and Sullivan East.
“Everybody is patting us on the back and telling is how good we are right now. That’s great. But the most important thing is that we win region games. We just have to put our heads down and keep working,” Spradlen said.
The Chiefs offense is led by running back Jayden Weston, who through six games has already run for 1,092 yards and 16 touchdowns. Through the air Cade Putnal is averaging 155 yards per game with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.
“They are much improved football team. They have a really good running back, he runs is really hard. We have to be ready to stop him,” Spradlen said.
Defensively the Chiefs have loaded the box to stop the run and played man coverage on the outside this year, but that is a strategy that could prove costly if employed on Friday.
The undefeated Greene Devils come into the game with an offense that is averaging 481 yards per game. Quarterback Kaine Ricker is leading the show with three 300-yard passing games this season while completing 82 percent of his passes. Receiver Taren Claridy has been unguardable on the perimeter with 899 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns.
In last week’s win over Sevier County running back Jude Dyer ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns. If the Devils can continue to get that kind of production on the ground the puzzle of stopping Greeneville’s offense might become unsolvable for opposing defenses.
Kickoff for Friday’s contest is set for 7:30 PM in Rogersville. The game will be live on the airwaves on WGRV 99.5 FM.
