The regular season is winding down for high school football teams, and the game every Greeneville fan has circled on their calendar is almost here, but first the Greene Devils will host Northview Academy on Friday night.
While some fans may be looking ahead to next week’s clash with Elizabethton, the Greene Devils are focused on winning Region 1-4A and to do that they have beat the Cougars.
“We want to be region champs, and to do that we have to win this week. Everybody wants to talk about next week, but we have to be 1-0 at the end of this week,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said. “This week is going to be a challenge for our football team. We haven’t played in over two weeks and we need to be sharp from the get go.”
Greeneville sat idle last week and has not played since October 17’s 69-0 win over Grainger. Since then the Devils have taken some time to rest, but also focused on getting stronger for a push into the postseason.
“It was good to have bye week,” Spradlen said. “We got a nice little break, and we practiced really hard for three days. We had the opportunity to get some guys healed up, and hopefully it gives us an opportunity to play our best now that we are getting to the really important part of the season.”
The player the Greene Devils will be most focused on stopping is Cougars’ quarterback Mason Phillips. The senior can get it done with his arm and his legs, and he will be a challenge to bring to bring down in the backfield. Through eight games this year he is averaging 158 yards per game through the air and 107 yards on the ground with 22 combined touchdowns. He leads an offense that is averaging 33.4 points per game.
“Their quarterback is there go-to guy,” Spradlen said. “He can really run, and scrambles good when under pressure. They have beaten a lot of teams because he scrambles and the defense comes up, then he throws it over their head. It’s important for us to stay in coverage.”
In their last contest against Grainger Greeneville running back Carson Quillen and quarterback Caden Baugh each crossed the century mark on the ground, and the Devils will look to get the run game going again on Friday night.
The Devils will be looking to score early and often against a Cougars’ defense that is giving up 34.6 points per game.
“It starts up front with us, and we have to get Carson involved. Caden did a good job running last week, and we need both of those guys going. Then we have explosive guys on the edge that we have to get the ball to,” Spradlen said.
Greeneville comes into Friday’s contest with a 5-2 record and is 3-0 in Region 1-4A. Because its game against 0-7 Volunteer was cancelled the Greene Devils have to win on Friday to win the Region 1-4A championship.
Elizabethton is already 5-0 in region play. So, even with a win over the Cyclones next week Greeneville would not win the region with a loss to Northview, because the Devils would have one fewer win and the same number of losses. The only way Greeneville can win the league is with a 5-0 record while Elizabethton is 5-1.
Northview is 4-4, 2-2 and could seal a playoff position with a win. The Cougars could also clinch a playoff spot with a win over Sullivan East next week.
Last year was the first ever meeting between the two schools and Greeneville won 31-0.
