COSBY – The North Greene football team gave away possession too easily on Friday night to have a chance to win, and fell 64-28 to Cosby in a Region 1-1A contest.
“I thought we started off pretty well, but it comes down to making mistakes where they get the ball back,” North Greene coach Eric Tilson said. “Those types of turnovers kill you, and they have the type of team that is going to roll when you keep giving them the ball. We just can’t allow those opportunities to happen.”
The night actually got off to a promising start for the Huskies as they marched 70 yards on the opening drive and took an 8-0 lead.
North Greene covered the entire distance on the ground with Leon Johnson gaining 15 yards, quarterback Jared Swatzell covering 25 yards and Charles Price picking up 25 yards. Price finished the drive by plunging across the goal line from the one.
On the two-point try Swatzell hit Kelson Eastep for an 8-0 North Greene lead with 6:51 left in the first quarter.
That was the last thing that went right for the Huskies in the first half.
Over the next 10 minutes of game time North Greene ran six offensive plays while Cosby scored five times to go in front 36-8. The Eagles took one kick return away from North Greene, recovered an onside kick and returned an interception for a touchdown.
That started with the Eagles’ opening drive in which David Baker ran for 60 yards on four carries, including a one-yard touchdown.
The ensuing kickoff landed short and the Huskies were not quick to jump on it. The Eagles swooped in and took over on the 14-yard line. Two plays later quarterback Spencer Moore rolled from the pocket and got it done with his legs. The 13-yard touchdown run put Cosby on top 14-8.
A North Greene three-and-out led to a 67-yard Eagles’ scoring drive. This time Baker got in from the six-yard line.
Things got worse for the Huskies when they failed to recover an onside kick. The end result was Baker scoring his third rushing touchdown in the first 15 minutes of game play as the Eagles held a 30-8 advantage.
Next the Eagles’ defense got in on the scoring action with Cornelius Carr jumping a pass from Swatzell and returning it 31 yards for a touchdown. With eight minutes left in second quarter Cosby led 36-8.
The Eagles were not done scoring and Moore finished the first half with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Gage McCarty and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Cayden Byrd.
The Eagles led 52-8 at halftime.
Reserve running back Kris Higgins stretched that lead to 58-8 on the first series of the third quarter.
Johnson gave North Greene something positive when he raced 75 yards to the endzone, but on the Eagles net play Higgins went 68 yards to the other endzone.
North Greene ended the day with Turner Collins scoring on a 30-yard touchdown run and Price scoring on a five-yard touchdown run to set the final margin at 64-28.
The Huskies drop to 2-5 on the year and 1-3 in Region 1-1A play. They have lost four in a row, but they finish the year with three games over teams with a combined 5-17 record. North Greene likely needs to win out against Cloudland, Sunbright and Unaka to make the playoffs.
“We are going to have to make a decision about what we want this season to be. Do we want to keep playing football? They have to choose if they want to go out and compete next week. We have to go back to work,” Tilson said.
North Greene finished Friday with 242 yards rushing on 32 carries. Johnson had 94 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown. Price had 90 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns.
Through the air Swatzell was 3-for-7 for 17 yards with an interception.
Cosby ran 26 times for 276 yards and Moore threw for 156 yards. The Eagles gained 439 yards of total offense.
