SEYMOUR – Nothing about this week has been easy for the South Greene community, and that included Friday night’s football game at Seymour. But a week after Hurricane Helene forever changed the lives of many in the community the Rebels gave the folks on the south side of the Nolichucky River something to cheer about.
It took every ounce of effort, grit, determination and guts for Rebels to pull it off, but they left Seymour with an 18-17 win.
“This was a heck of a win, a gutsy win, that’s all you can say about it,” South Greene coach Shawn Jones said. “This is big for the community. It was great to see these fans here tonight have something to cheer about after what has been a really tough week. Hopefully we can carry this forward, but we have a big conference game with Happy Valley coming up next week.”
By the time Friday’s fourth quarter rolled around it looked the Rebels just did not have enough in the tank to prevail. They were sucking wind, they were losing the battle at the line of scrimmage and Seymour’s bruising running back Ryan Gibson got harder to bring down after each run.
And all of that was understandable as most of the Rebels spent more time this week shoveling mud and cleaning debris that they did working on blocking and tackling.
“These guys, are tired, they started out tired, but they gutted this one out tonight,” Jones said. “That’s all you can say, we gutted it out. These guys were dead in the first quarter. But I’m proud of them for overcoming that and fighting.”
With 9:06 left to play South Greene was down 17-7 and had to get something going to have a chance at coming back. The spark came from Trey Gentry who ran deep down the right boundary. Quarterback Jacob Susong overthrew his target, but Gentry left his feet and stretched out parallel to the turf for a diving grab that picked up 38 yards.
“Trey had the play of the night to get us back in the game with that diving catch,” Jones said. “That was what it was about tonight, guys making gutsy plays when we had to have them.”
The Eagles managed to keep South Greene out of the end zone, but Brant Wilhoit’s 32-yard field goal closed the gap to 17-10 and breathed some life in the Rebels.
South Greene’s defense still had to make a stop, and a big fourth-down stand got the ball back. Seymour quarterback Madden Guffey went under center on fourth and one from the Rebel’s 22-yard line. The Rebels defensive front dug deep and pushed all the Eagles backward causing Guffey to trip on his own offensive line for a one-yard loss.
With the ball back South Greene’s offense wasted little time getting to work. Susong hit Nash Rader on a screen and Rader raced through the defense for a 43-yard pickup. After the Eagles pushed him out of the pocket Susong then dumped a pass off to Rader again and he picked up 14 yards. A horse collar tackle penalty put the Rebels on the 11-yard line.
Susong got into the endzone with his legs, booting to the right and striding over the goal line from three yards away.
Down 17-16 with 2:25 left to play Jones dug deep into his bag tricks as the Rebels went for the two-point conversion.
With victory on the line Susong pitched to Rader and the Rebels’ star running back pulled up to pass. He found Trey Gentry near the right boundary and the catch gave South Greene the lead at 18-17.
“I was going for two no matter what, because we were so worn out. We were going to win or lose right there,” Jones said. “I just drew up it up in the sand during the timeout. Coach (Joel) Burns gets mad at me when I draw things up like that, but that is something we’ve done before. Years ago, we were having a tough year and we beat North Greene on the same play. I said, ‘Baby it worked then and it’s going to work tonight.’ Those guys went out there and got it done.”
On Seymour’s ensuing possession Guffey threw deep trying to regain the lead, but Simon Burns came up with a big interception to effectively seal the game.
Seymour did get one more chance with four seconds left and Guffey tried to cover the 65 yards needed with his legs, but to no avail.
South Greene scored first on Friday night when Susong hit Rader out of the backfield for a 32-yard score on the game’s opening drive.
Seymour followed with a 73-yard drive that stalled at the one-yard line. The Rebels stopped Gibson three times inside the two-yard line before Burns broke up a pass on fourth down to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard.
South Greene then spent the next 10:50 of game play with the ball, but could not score. The teams went to halftime with South Greene leading 7-0.
On Seymour’s first two drives of the second half Zeke Rader intercepted a pass and Susong jumped on a fumble, but South Greene’s offense could not capitalize.
Seymour’s first score of the night was set up by a bad snap on a punt that gave the Eagles the ball on the 30-yard line. With 3:09 left in the third quarter Guffey hit Connor Ogle on a slant from 13 yards that evened the score at 7-7.
Seymour’s Mason Brown then recovered an onside kick to really fire up the home team. South Greene managed to make another goal line stand, but Jackson Kendall’s 19-yard field goal put the Eagles on top 10-7.
An interception by Seymour’s Charlie McNamara gave the Eagles a short field again and four plays later Guffey ran seven yards for a touchdown that gave Seymour a 17-7 lead with 9:12 left to play.
Susong finished the night 15-of-18 passing for 209 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also had a rushing touchdown.
Nash Rader caught five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, and Gentry had five catches for 82 yards to go with the decisive two-point conversion catch..
