The North Greene Huskies historic season ended in Baileyton on Friday night with a 46-7 loss to the Harriman Blue Devils in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs.
The historic season included a home playoff game for the first time in 12 years and the best winning percentage in school history with a finish at 6-4.
North Greene coach Eric Tilson had a lot of praise for his team and their great season saying, “I commend our kids for what they’ve built. The school record wins, we’ve got the best winning percentage in school history. They took major steps to host a championship game and a playoff game, just to get to this point, I’m extremely proud of these guys.”
The Huskies won the coin toss and elected to receive, but that’s where their luck ran out. Brayden Weems fielded the opening kickoff and slipped and fell at his own five-yard line. The Huskies did manage to get out of the shadows of their own goal post and get a first down but punted to Harriman.
Harriman scored on their third paly from scrimmage when Cameron Anderson scampered in from 36 yards out, Landon Jackson’s PAT was good and the Blue Devils were quickly 7-0 with just over eight minutes still to play in the first quarter.
The Huskies second drive started with some promise when Thomas Darnell found Brandon Weems for 24 yards and a first down out across midfield, but a sack of Darnell halted the drive and the Huskies turned the ball over on downs.
A 46-yard run by Grayson Kreis set himself up with a short touchdown run on the next play, the kick was good and the Devils were up 14-0 with less than four minutes still remaining in the first quarter.
The two teams traded punts a couple times before the Huskie offense started clicking. Darnell hit Jake Duffy for 12 yards to start the drive, then the Huskies were helped out by an unsportsmanlike penalty. Yeshua Vaught caught a pair of screen passes from Darnell to move the ball inside the red zone at the 19-yard line. Darnell then found Brandon Weems around the 15 yard-line, Weems shook off a would-be tackler and walked into the endzone. Juan Soto added the point after touchdown to cut into the lead, with the score at 14-7 midway through the second quarter.
The Blue Devils went to the wildcat formation and the Huskies had no answer for Kreis and Anderson, with Anderson scoring for 14 yards out, the PAT was blocked by Brandon Weems, but the Blue Devils were up 20-7 with 5:27 showing on the clock.
After a Husky punt Harriman was at it again, as was Anderson, this time scoring for 21 yards out and the score was 26-7 after the missed PAT.
The Huskies went three-and-out, then to make matters worse Darnell’s punt was blocked, giving the Devils a short field at the Huskie 30-yard line. Anderson scored on the next play for his fourth of five touchdowns. The two-point conversion was unsuccessful, but the Blue Devils were in command at 32-7. The Huskies did mount a drive just before halftime but came up empty after a Darnell to Matthew Boyd touchdown was nullified because a holding penalty.
The Blue Devils scored just 10 seconds into the second half on Anderson’s fifth touchdown of the game and a running clock was enforced. The Devils added a late score and the Huskies historic season came to an end with a 46-7 loss.
The Huskies offensive leaders were, Darnell, who threw the ball 32 times, completing 17 for 123 yards and a touchdown. Brandon Weems was on the receiving end of seven of those passes for 59 yards and a TD. Vaught, who is the all-time rushing leader at North Greene didn’t have his usual rushing numbers but did haul in five passes for 64 yards.
Anderson had five touchdowns for Harriman.
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