The Greeneville football team is making the trip to Church Hill on Friday night, but it will not be the matchup with Volunteer that you have grown used to.
The Falcons, typically a cellar dweller in Northeast Tennessee football, are in the midst of their best season ever. Volunteer at 6-1 has already tied the program record for wins in a season, and last week in a 70-0 win over Chuckey-Doak set a record for points in a game.
“I think they are excited about football over there,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen said. “They went two years without winning a game, and those kids are hungry to win. They have a lot of energy in the program right now. They are a talented football team. They hit the transfer portal pretty hard this offseason and brought in some pretty talented players.”
The Falcons rely on a high-powered offense that is scoring 42 points per game. They are led by quarterback Lincoln Wilson who is throwing for 219 yards per game with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. His favorite target is Amarion Graves who has 29 catches for 583 yards and eight touchdowns. As a team the Falcons are averaging 178 yards per game on the ground.
“It starts with the quarterback, he has a good arm and can run around too. Then he has some talented receivers,” Spradlen said. “We have to make sure we take care of quarterback, and we have to stay in coverage in the secondary. They do a great job on the RPOs. We have to be ready to defend the run and pass every play.”
Greeneville, also 6-1, brings its own dynamic offense into the game and is averaging 46.6 points per game. That effort is led by quarterback Caden Baugh who has produced 1877 yards of total offense with 27 combined touchdowns. His favorite target has been Zaydyn Anderson who has 22 catches for 586 yards and nine touchdowns.
On Friday the focus for the Greene Devils will be to first establish the run game. That effort will be led by Baugh with help from running backs Jude Dyer and Maddox Bishop. To do that Greeneville’s offensive line will have to move All-State defensive end Christian Wilson who already has 26 tackles behind the line of scrimmage this season.
The Devils and Falcons did not meet last year as Volunteer elected to not agree on a game time after the originally scheduled contest was disrupted by Hurricane Helene. In the last meeting, in 2023, the Greene Devils won 56-0. Since Volunteer joined Region 1-4A in 2021 the Devils have outscored the Falcons 173-7 in three games.
The two teams have met 18 times in their histories dating back to 1993 and Greeneville is 18-0 in those games with an average margin of victory of 32.2 points. The closest score was 17-7 in 2007. That year also included Volunteer’s lone playoff win in program history.
Volunteer needs one win over its final three games to set a new program record for wins in a season with seven. In its six wins Volunteer has not beaten a team with a winning record.
With a win on Friday Greeneville can guarantee itself a top two finish in the Region 1-4A standings, and that would guarantee a home game in the first round of the playoffs.
Kickoff for Friday’s contest is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Church Hill. The game will be live on the airwaves on WGRV 99.5 FM.
