HARROGATE – The South Greene football team dominated in every phase on Friday night and got everybody in the game as it cruised by Cumberland Gap on the way to a 42-0 win.
“We came up here and knew that we were capable of this,” South Greene coach Shawn Jones said. “You sometimes worry about these games, wondering if you are going to be disciplined and focused. But these guys came out and played a good ball game, and that gave us a chance to get the young guys in. It’s just game two and I feel like we made strides from game one. Now we have to get better for next week with a big county rivalry game with Chuckey-Doak.”
The win was a chance for South Greene (1-1, 1-0) to correct some things from a season-opening loss to David Crockett, and it gave a chance to build depth as heavy substitutions began at the start of the second quarter with the outcome already in hand.
“The big thing was to get everybody a bunch of reps,” Jones said. “We feel like our first 11 is a pretty good team, but we need to build depth. We got our backup quarterback in, and he made some freshman mistakes, but he did some good things too. These games are a chance for those guys to show us who can step up and play.”
The Rebels took control of the game before even taking a snap when Tripp Neas took the opening kickoff straight up the middle of the field for a 74-yard touchdown and 7-0 lead.
Neas had a big night for South Greene, scoring three total touchdowns and running for 47 yards on four carries.
“That kickoff return was big for me as coach. I’m worried all week about how we are going to come out, and it was big to get the game started that way,” Jones said. “Tripp had a really good night. When Nash (Rader) went down last year we got to see what we had in him, and now I think we have a really good one-two punch in the backfield.”
Nash Rader led the Rebels on the ground with 87 yards on three carries with two touchdowns. Jacob Susong was 4-of-6 passing for 131 yards and scored a rushing touchdown. As a team South Greene produced 262 yards of total offense.
The entire first quarter was spent on South Greene’s half of the field and its first offensive series started from the 35-yard line. After two quick passes Rader went into the endzone untouched from 12 yards away for a 13-0 lead.
After a 36-yard punt return by Rader the next drive started even closer, at the 14-yard line. In the one-play drive Susong avoided a sack and scrambled 14 yards around the corner to the left. He bowled over the cornerback at the pylon and Brant Wilhoit’s extra point pushed the lead to 20-0 with 5:03 left in the first quarter.
South Greene found the endzone one more time in the first quarter. A pair of holding penalties backed the Rebels up, and on third and 26 Charlie Lane went in motion and took a quick shovel pass. He made it around the corner going to the right, but the Panther bottled him up. Instead of going down short of the sticks Lane put his foot in the ground and maneuvered around the defense to the left before going out of bounds at the one-yard line.
On the next play Neas powered his way into the endzone. Susong ran in the two-point try and South Greene led 28-0 with 1:30 left in the opening frame.
Cumberland Gap’s offense ran 10 plays in the first quarter and only gained positive yardage on one of them. The Panthers finished the opening period with zero yards of total offense. Their first first down came on the first play of the second quarter, but then the Panther started going backward again.
Cumberland Gap was held to 34 yards of offense in the first half, and to 41 yards in the game. They gained 34 yards through the air and seven on the ground.
“I feel like we are pretty good on the defensive side of the ball and tonight we were flying around to the football,” Jones said. “And we did better with some alignment and assignment things that we didn’t do right against Crockett. If you are aligned right and do your assignment you are going to have success most of the time.”
On South Greene’s first possession of the second quarter Rader pushed the advantage to 35-0 when he raced 65 yards and buckled a defender’s knees with a juke move at goal line for his second score of the night.
South Greene’s second unit played the final 8:56 of the second quarter and was kept in check by the Panthers.
The starters came back out for one series in the third quarter and needed two plays to cover 90 yards. First Susong hit Jeff Dotson on a 42-yard seam route and then Neas broke a tackle at the line scrimmage before covering 48 yards for a 42-0 lead.
Wilhoit finished Friday 4-of-5 on extra points.
Next week South Greene will host Chuckey-Doak for its first home game of the season.
