After a slower start than usual, the Greeneville Greene Devils lit up the scoreboard with a 56-7 win over Knox Carter to move onto the second round of the Class 4A playoffs, and they re-wrote the record book in the process with some career nights included.
“Good team win. We came out here against a good football team. That’s one of the better teams in that region. Just how it ended up that they were the fourth-place team. Really good team that we came out and played hard against,” Greeneville coach Eddie Spradlen stated.
Greeneville’s Burley Stadium played host to its 18th-straight first round game and the Greene Devils kept the season going with a dominant win over the Green Hornets. Greeneville advances to the second round now where they will host Gibbs for the second year in-a-row.
Friday’s contest also featured three key performances from Greeneville’s most explosive playmakers. Caden Baugh tossed the ball around for career-high in all three main passing categories. His highs totaled out to be 13 completions for 206 yards and four touchdowns. Zaydyn Anderson also produced career highs in all three major receiving categories. He matched his career-high in receptions with 5 and racked up 117 yards and a trio of touchdowns.
The biggest play of the night though came in the third quarter when newly named Mr. Football semifinalist Carson Quillen scored an 11-yard rushing touchdown to become Greeneville’s all-time scoring leader, passing Mason Gudger.
“It definitely means a lot to me. Especially being in this community growing up here. You hear all the names and big names and just to be a part of a group like that is just special to my heart. Obviously, I couldn’t do it without my teammates. My offensive line, my receivers, everybody blocking for me. My coaches and everybody in the community, just thank you to everybody,” Quillen said after the game.
“Carson breaking the all-time leading scoring record is big time for him. Hats off to a really great kid who really works hard. It’s paid off,” Spradlen expressed.
He reached the 100-yard mark for the 6th-straight game with 112 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The Greene Devils won their sixth-straight game in the process and improved to 7-0 all-time versus Carter. The loss ended the Hornets season at 4-7 (2-3). Greeneville improved to 8-2.
Their night started out a little different than usual. A fruitless first offensive possession sent the special teams unit onto the field and called for a punt. Greeneville’s defense stood tall and forced two punts on Carter’s first two possessions to keep it 0-0 in the meantime.
The Greene Devils wouldn’t have to punt again for the rest of the game as Baugh and Anderson started working on their career nights together. Baugh found Anderson open in the back of the end zone and delivered a beautiful ball with Anderson landing one foot in bounds to score Greeneville’s first touchdown of the game. They led 7-0 with 4:39 left in the first quarter.
“Zay can catch anything and go get it and it makes it easier on everybody,” Caden Baugh said.
Coach Spradlen spoke highly of Baugh after the game stating, “I think he played really good, he was smart with the football. He had another touchdown pass that was called back, but a really good effort by him throwing the football. For us to continue to win big games we’ve got to throw the football like that.”
He continued by talking about Anderson’s involvement saying, “We’ve got a lot of explosive guys on the edge that we’ve got to get involved in the game. They’re trying to stop the run and get everybody in the box and try to play man coverage and we were able to take advantage of it.”
Two minutes and 26 seconds later Caden Baugh would toss his second touchdown of the game with Jeriah Griffin on the other end. The Elizabethton transfer hit the open field and raced to the pylon for a 32-yard catch-and-run into the end zone. The lead grew to 14-0.
A huge defensive stop kept Carter from scoring early in the second quarter. They managed to drive the ball 65 yards downfield to the 15-yard line before facing a 4th-&-4 situation. Bishop Merriweather took advantage of a fatigued offensive line and reached the quarterback for a sack.
Greeneville marched 78 yards downfield after the sack and scored once more. Carson Quillen broke off a 27-yard run to move them to the 45-yard line. From there Baugh found Anderson wide open along the left sideline for a 45-yard touchdown to the junior. Greeneville led 21-0.
After another stop on defense, the Devils had one last shot to score before the half. They capitalized on that opportunity and Carson Quillen broke through for a 4-yard touchdown to send Greeneville into the locker room ahead 28-0.
To start the second half Zaydyn Anderson moved the ball downfield on a catch of 15 yards and a run of 34 yards. That put the ball at the 11-yard line to set up the record-breaking play.
Carson Quillen broke a tackle off the right edge and sprinted into the end zone to set the all-time scoring record at Greeneville High School and extend their lead to 35-0.
They didn’t slow down from there and kept the offensive production flowing. Caden Baugh connected with Taren Claridy for a diving 34-yard catch to cross over into enemy territory. Zaydyn Anderson did the rest of the work and scored his third touchdown of the contest on a 22-yard screen pass. The margin grew to 42-0.
The young guys were put into the game and started eating in the fourth. Maddox Bishop and Kaine Ricker picked up gains of 36 yards and 17 yards on their feet before Bishop leveled a defender on a 6-yard touchdown run up the gut.
Carter would go on a 6-play, 65-yard drive that ended in a 4-yard rushing touchdown by Brody Sparks.
Only one play later Jude Dyer turned on the jets and beat everyone around the corner for a 58-yard touchdown run to put an exclamation point on their victory.
Greeneville ended the night with a 56-7 victory over Knox Carter to advance to next week’s second round. They will host Gibbs next Friday night at 7:00.
“We struggled a little at the start with them last year, but it’s another big challenge for us next week,” Coach Spradlen mentioned.
Caden Baugh finished 13-of-15 for 206 yards and 4 touchdowns. Carson Quillen ran 15 times for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns. Zaydyn Anderson caught 5 passes for 117 yards and 3 touchdowns. Jeriah Griffin also hauled in 5 catches for 38 yards and a touchdown.
Carter was held to 178 yards. Greeneville amassed 528 total yards of offense on 44 plays.
