RUTLEDGE – The South Greene football team traveled to Rutledge for its first scrimmage against the Grainger Grizzlies on Friday night. It was a good night all around for Coach Shawn Jones and company and he was very pleased with what his offense and defense displayed.
“I thought we did really well. On offense we just did ten plays and two series. I felt like if we went down and distance we would’ve scored, but that’s not what these scrimmages are about,” Jones said.
The night didn’t go as planned though. Senior quarterback Nash Rader was pulled after the first play on offense and did not participate any further after tweaking his hamstring. With no other experience behind him in the depth chart, Friday was a good way for the Rebels to grow depth and help new guys learn new positions.
“We had a little adversity tonight right off the bat,” Jones said. “Our quarterback tweaked his hamstring. He’ll be fine, but we took him out after the first play on offense and when you do stuff like that you want to see people step up and we really stepped up, everybody did. That was very encouraging. Got a lot of reps in with some younger guys. We’ve got a small team and we’re trying to build depth and I felt like we did that tonight on both sides of the ball.”
South Greene’s offensive line was solid on Friday and helped pave the way for their relentless rushing attack. One rising contributor from Friday night’s action was Braxton Crittenden. Coach Jones spoke highly about his performance in the scrimmage.
“He started playing two years ago and last year in JV we didn’t know if he’d play a lot. He stepped up tonight and really proved a lot,” Jones said.
Running back Tripp Neas was a machine in the backfield and was tough to take down on his carries.
Jones said, “Tripp ran the ball well. Two years ago as a freshman he had like 134 yards and he ran the ball hard tonight and did well.”
South Greene packs up for another scrimmage on Tuesday night at Northview Academy in Kodak.
