Rivalry week comes to the Black Hole a day early this week as West Greene and Chuckey-Doak square off on the gridiron with bragging rights on the line on Thursday night.
“It’s two communities that take a lot of pride in their kids, in their communities and their schools,” West Greene coach Caleb Slover said. “It’s a lot people that work together, they go to church together, they see each other Wal-Mart and they sit next to each other at restaurants. Everybody wants the bragging rights. It’s two communities that are passionate, and that’s what a rivalry should be.”
A year ago West Greene did not find a ton of success on the football field, but it pushed Chuckey-Doak to the limit as the Black Knights escaped with a 14-7 win in Mosheim. Despite Chuckey-Doak starting the season 2-0 and West Greene starting 0-2, both coaches are expecting another intense battle on Thursday.
“We gutted out a good win last year. Honestly, I probably underestimated the amount of rivalry in this game,” Chuckey-Doak head coach Billey Kaylor said. “They probably played us as well as they played anybody last year. It was a dog fight from the start, and I think that will carry over to this year.”
The only common opponent on the teams’ schedules is North Greene. In week one the Black Knights took down the Huskies 60-27 and last week North Greene beat West Greene 34-20.
The two teams have met 50 times in their histories and Chuckey-Doak leads the all-time series 31-19. The Black Knights have also won five of the last six meetings.
West Greene has shown some bright spots in its two early-season losses, but coach Slover knows the Buffaloes will have to be a little better to win on Thursday. Quarterback Aiden Thompson started the season with a175-yard rushing performance against Cosby and followed it 251 passing yards against North Greene. He will be the player attracts all of Chuckey-Doak’s attention.
Ultimately seven turnovers doomed the Buffaloes in week two, and they will have to clean that up going forward.
“We have to figure out how to take the next step. We need to put ourselves in position to have the ball on the last drive with a chance to score. It’s not going to get any easier and that starts Thursday night against a good Chuckey-Doak team,” Slover said. “We have the ability to be a good offensive team. But we have to clean some things up. We have to clean up some blocking, we have to clean up some routes and we have to clean up turnovers.”
Through two games Chuckey-Doak has showed balance on offense relying on a multifaceted backfield with three running backs sharing the load while quarterbacks Kiptyn Ball and Brody Myers alternate series. The star of last week’s 21-15 win over Sullivan East was receiver Skylar Davis who had four receptions for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
“They are explosive on offense,” Slover said. “They have two quarterbacks that are both good. They have good receivers that can make big plays, then they have three or four running backs coming at you non stop. We’ll have our hands full.”
Kickoff for Thursday’s contest has been moved back to 7:30 PM. If you can’t make it out to Afton the game with streamed on Greene Sports Zone’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
Chuckey-Doak’s Homecoming ceremonies will take place before kickoff.
