The South Greene Rebels took care of business for the sixth game in-a-row and carried out an important 28-20 win over Region 1-2A foe Eagleton on Friday night.
“Well, I’m going to use the same phrase I’ve used the last two weeks, we gutted it out. We had to right there. We got the lead at halftime and they made some great adjustments and we just held on there,” Rebels Head Coach Shawn Jones stated.
It was another week of overcoming adversity and gutting it out until the end. After holding Eagleton scoreless in the first half, the Royals responded with a trio of scores in the third quarter to pull within a touchdown. But just as it has done all season, South Greene’s defense did not break and held the Royals scoreless in the fourth quarter to emerge on top and strengthen their grip atop the standings.
“We got a little tired in the third quarter and we knew that. But we just had to suck it up. We’ve got guys playing both ways,” Coach Jones said. “These guys are just veterans. All these guys that have played before knew what we had to do to win and they just did it there. Big defensive stops there in the fourth quarter to back them up two times.”
The Rebels improve to 6-1 (3-0) and hold a half-game lead over Happy Valley and a one-game lead over Hampton in the league standings. With the loss, Eagleton drops to 4-4 (1-2) and can no longer win the region title. With a win over West Greene next week South Greene can claim at least a share of the Region 1-2A title, but Hampton and Happy Valley could still force a three-way tie.
The game was won on the backs of South Greene’s hard-nosed defense. They combined for four sacks and only allowed 233 total yards of offense.
“Our defense is playing great and we’ve got to continue to do that if we want to do what we’re doing. Like I said, the offensive guys get their name in the paper, but the defenses win championships and we’ve got to keep playing,” Coach Jones mentioned.
The defense went right to work from the start. South Greene’s first offensive possession ended in a punt and put their defense on the field quickly. It wasn’t long before the offense got back out there after Tripp Neas blew up two plays and ended the drive with a sack and a tackle-for-loss one play later.
The Rebels reached the end zone first on Lucas Couch’s 27-yard touchdown reception on 4th-&-5. Brant Wilhoit’s extra point helped them take a 7-0 lead.
Another quick possession on defense led to South Greene’s offense marching down the field to score again. After Tripp Neas toted the rock 40 yards to the 1-yard line, Jacob Susong crossed the chalk on a QB sneak to help boost South Greene’s lead to 14-0 after Wilhoit’s kick.
The Rebels amassed 191 yards on the ground on Friday night. A huge chunk of those came from Neas even though his hard work never reached the end zone. He had 121 yards on only 9 carries. Nash Rader tallied 16 rushes for 73 yards and a touchdown.
A slew of defensive stops kept Eagleton from managing anything on offense in the first half. A tackle-for-loss by Jovan Pendleton, a third-down sack by Jeff Dotson, and a pass break up by Nash Rader helped the Rebels march into halftime ahead 14-0.
The third quarter was something nobody could have predicted with an onslaught of scoring. Five touchdowns were scored in the 12-minute period. The first was an Eagleton touchdown after a 3:45 drive that went 65 yards. The drive resulted in a 25-yard reception by Geobervens Hyppolite-Jean.
South Greene only needed two minutes to find the end zone again. Neas returned the kickoff 30 yards and put them in Eagleton territory right away. After two runs and a catch from Neas, Nash Rader found a crease and reached the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown run.
The Royals responded with a 71-yard drive capped off by Nathan Clemmer’s five-yard touchdown run. The extra point sailed just right of the post, but Eagleton drew closer but South Greene still led 21-13.
It only took the Rebels two plays to score on their next drive. A 49-yard dash by Tripp Neas was aided by a facemask penalty and set Jacob Susong up at the one-yard line for another QB sneak touchdown. Wilhoit nailed his fourth extra point and put them ahead 28-13.
Lane Cope hauled in a 37-yard touchdown pass from Nathan Clemmer on the last play of the 3rd quarter to help Eagleton draw closer at 28-20.
South Greene’s offense played “stall ball” and tried wasting as much clock as possible and worked in their favor. They couldn’t move the ball for multiple first downs, but made sure to keep the clock running after each offensive play. After two unsuccessful offensive drives they had one last chance to seal the deal with 5:05 left on the game clock.
A crucial pass downfield to Trey Gentry was overthrown, but a debated penalty flag for pass interference was thrown that gifted South Greene a new set of sticks. The Rebels gained nine more yards on three plays before facing a pivotal 4th-&-1 with the chance to ice the game. Coach Jones stated after the game that his intent was to punt the ball, but a veteran leader in Brendan Lisenby spoke up and asked his coach to trust him to lead them to a first down.
“Lisenby on that 4th down said ‘get behind me and we’ll get one yard.’ Proud of my senior right there and that’s what he wanted to do. We were going to punt it away but he said to get behind us. We knew if we got that first down it was over,” Jones explained.
His trust was true and Susong pushed forward for a first down. 2:14 were still left on the clock with another first down needed to truly seal the deal. The pass interference call earlier in the drive was debatable, but the face mask call on Tripp Neas was not. The penalty aided South Greene in a guaranteed win after another first down with 48 seconds left.
South Greene picked up its sixth-straight win with a 28-20 victory over Eagleton. They improved to 6-1 (3-0) on the season. Their next matchup is a big one with West Greene traveling to play on Rebel Hill in The Milk Can Game. Kickoff is set for 7:00.
