The West Greene football team will be hitting the road on Friday night, heading to Johnson City for its first ever trip to Providence Academy.
The Buffaloes have been making strides in the early portion of the season, and they would like nothing more than to come back to Mosheim with their first, but it will take a strong effort against the Knights to get the job done.
“We want to put ourselves in position to have a chance in the fourth quarter,” West Greene coach Caleb Slover said. “They have a good football team that plays hard. They bring a lot of pressure on defense and on offense they like to throw it around. We are going to have to play smart and take our shots when we get them.”
The Knights are in their second season of varsity football and come into Friday’s contest with a 1-2 record. In week one they defeated Twin Springs, Virginia 28-6, in week two they fell to Franklin Christian 42-27 and last week they lost to Eagleton 28-7.
In their first ever meeting a year ago Providence beat West Greene 48-27. Providence went 4-6 in its first season of football.
A week ago West Greene lost to Chuckey-Doak 21-12 and fell to 0-3 in the year. In that game the Buffaloes were able to make plenty of plays in the passing game with quarterback Aiden Thompson finding Hunter Franklin, Jagger Dearinger and Tristan Banks consistently for solid gains. Where Slover feels like his offense needs to get better is on the ground, and he believes stretching the field with the deep ball may be the key to opening up the box for his runners.
“Those receivers did a god job when they got the ball in their hands. We have some guys that make some plays for us, we have just have to get them the ball on time and give them an opportunity to work,” Slover said. “We’ve got to get some things dialed in on the deep ball, and once we do that you’ll see that box open up for the running game.”
Providence Academy will bring an aggressive defense into the contest and through three games linebacker Ford Bowman leads the Tri-Cities in tackles, sacks and tackles for loss.
On offense the Knights will look similar to the Buffaloes, utilizing spread formations and moving the ball around the perimeter. Quarterback Cam Blanton leads that effort with both his arms and legs.
In its second year of varsity play Providence is under the leadership of first-year head coach Micah Hughes who came to Johnson City from Mt. Bethel Christian Academy in Marietta, Georgia. Providence competes in Division II-1A.
Kickoff for Friday’s contest is set for 7 PM in Johnson City.
