The Buffaloes of West Greene (1-1) suffered a tough setback on Thursday night after a 30-0 defeat to the visiting Cloudland Highlanders (1-1).
“They wanted it more than we did. They punched us in the mouth and we didn’t respond. That’s what happened,” Buffaloes head coach Evan Monroe stated.
It wasn’t the night West Greene had hoped for going into Thursday night’s contest. A total of only 30 offensive yards could be mustered and they went into halftime with -10 total yards. Not even a great halftime speech or any motivation helped as the Buffs just couldn’t get anything going and turned the ball over four times.
Cloudland’s Grayson Cole was the main problem for West Greene’s defense. He ended his impressive night with 195 yards and 4 touchdowns on 27 carries.
“They lined it down and ran it right at us and we didn’t stop it. That’s what Cloudland does. They didn’t come out of that heavy power set. They just ran it down our throat and made us like it,” Monroe stated.
Cloudland came out rolling in the power set like expected and chewed away the first-quarter game clock. The Highlanders wiped five minutes and fifty-three seconds off the clock on their first possession, but gave it to West Greene on a fumble. Austin Franklin came away with the ball.
The Buffs stalled on offense and went three-and-out to give it back to the Landers. Cloudland got the scoring started with Cole’s first touchdown of the contest on a 26-yard toss play. He added the two-point conversion to put Cloudland ahead 8-0 with 3:19 left in the first.
Austin Franklin gained a huge chunk of yardage on his feet before the Buffs turned the ball over on a fumble that was recovered by Kingston Cole on the 21-yard line in their own territory. West Greene got the ball again after a fourth down stop but then gave it back to Cloudland on an interception.
Cole and Landon Barnette chipped away at yardage with first downs before Cole punched in his second touchdown from nine yards out to help Cloudland extend their lead to 14-0 in the second quarter.
After another interception, this time by Barnette, Cole completed his hat trick of touchdowns with a three-yard rush to find paydirt. Barnette added the two-point conversion and put the Highlanders up 22-0.
A mistake on Cloudland’s behalf almost benefited West Greene on a punt play with just over a minute left in the half. The Buffs kicked the ball away and just happened to gain 38 yards on the punt. Cloudland’s return man muffed the punt and put the Buffaloes in prime position with 58 seconds to go until halftime. Unfortunately, West Greene couldn’t find any momentum and was sacked to end the half.
West Greene trailed 22-0 at the half but received the ball to start the third. They didn’t get to complete their first drive as another interception by Kingston Cole flipped the possession back to Cloudland.
Grayson Cole continued his dominance on the gridiron with a fourth touchdown, this time from 11 yards out. Bryce Birchfield tacked on the extra two points. Cloudland went ahead 30-0 with 7:34 left in the third. The score remained that way until the end.
The Highlanders had a chance to score once more later in the fourth inside the red zone, but West Greene made a stop on 4th-&-9. Bryce Birchfield intercepted another West Greene pass and took it all the way back to the 3-yard line to lead Cloudland into a victory formation to kneel it out.
The Buffaloes dropped to 1-1 with the loss as Cloudland gained their first win of the season. West Greene jumps back into action next Friday night with a county showdown on the road in Lower Afton against Chuckey-Doak at 7:00.
“We got to have a better week of practice and have better preparation from everybody. We had a bad week of practice and it showed tonight,” Monroe left off with.
