BLUFF CITY – After a long and far from normal two weeks Greeneville made the trip to Bluff City on Friday to face off against the Sullivan East Patriots, and showed no signs of rust.
After rescheduling it twice the Greene Devils previous contest against Volunteer was ultimately cancelled, and Greeneville had not been on the field in 14 days. Since their game with Morristown West two weeks ago the lives of many in the Greeneville community have turned upside down in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Greeneville could not even use its own facilities to practice this week due to lack of running water, and made daily trips to Jefferson County High School. But just one play into Friday’s game those hardships were quickly left behind.
Only 11 seconds ticked off the clock before the Devils crossed the goal line for the first time. On Greeneville’s first offensive snap quarterback Caden Baugh threw a screen to Zayden Anderson and he ran by all the Patriots on the way for a 50-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
Coach Eddie Spradlen said, “It’s been a rough two weeks, we pushed our guys in practice and they responded. We got a lot of guys involved, a lot of guys got some playing time and I’m just proud of the guys’ effort.”
Just over two minutes after Anderson scored Baugh pitched the ball forward to Jeriah Griffin as he motioned across the formation. Griffin covered 25-yards to extend the lead to 14-0.
It did not take long for the Devils’ defense to return the ball to the offense, and on the next possession Carson Quillen went into the end zone for a touchdown but holding call took it away. The very next play he went the distance again, dashing 43 yards, to make the Greene Devils lead 21-0 with more than seven minutes still to play in the first quarter.
After the Greeneville defense stood strong again, it only took Quillen one play to find the end zone for a second time on a 47-yard run that stretched the Greene Devil lead to 28-0.
Seemingly the only things that could stop Quillen on Friday were the endzone and penalty flags. He ran seven times for 189 yards to average 27 yards per carry. Four of his runs went for touchdowns while Sullivan East tackled him three times.
Right before the first quarter ended, Baugh pitched the ball forward to Anderson on a shovel pass and he took it 15-yards for the touchdown to make the score 35-0.
Baugh ended his night 4-of-4 passing for 100 yards and three touchdowns with np interceptions. Anderson had two catches for two touchdowns and a total of 65-yards.
In the second quarter. It was the Greeneville defense that added to the lead when Jaxson Nichols picked up a fumble and returned in 48 yards to push the lead to 42-0.
With 6:33 left in the second quarter Quillen went up the middle 51-yards to push the Greene Devil lead to 49-0.
Quillen might have experienced some deja vu after he took the punt to the house, but a holding call took it off the board. Once again on the very next play, he went into the end zone from 15 yards away for a touchdown to make the lead 56-0. To that point in the game the Greeneville offense had run 12 plays and scored on seven of them.
As time expired in the first half, Sam Gourley added three more points for the Greene Devils with a 21-yard field goal to get us to our halftime score of 59-0.
After the running clock took almost all the third quarter, Kaine Ricker found the end zone on a two-yard keeper to extend the Greene Devils lead to 66-0.
With 8:12 left in the fourth, Dion Phipps took the ball up the middle six-yards for the touchdown to make the score 73-0.
With 2:41 left in the fourth, the Patriots got on the board with a 33-yard pass from Peyton Lingerfelt to Devin Bowman. They went for two and were successful to get to the final score of 73-8.
Greeneville had 445 yards of total offense, 301 on the ground and 144 through the air. Sullivan East had 159 yards while Greeneville defense recovered three fumbles and picked off two passes. The Patriots were held to -28 yards rushing and only averaged 4.25 yards per pass attempt.
