South Greene was on a quest for its second-straight Region 1-2A Championship on Thursday night, but came up short, suffering a 20-14 defeat to Happy Valley.
“We got beat by a good ball club. We made a bunch of mistakes and we had drive killers all night long. But hats off to Happy Valley they played well. If you would’ve told me before the game that we hold that bunch to 20 points I’d tell you we’d beat them. It was just a little bit frustrating, but hey we get to go on next week and we got our first-round playoff game here at home and got to bounce back,” Rebels Head Coach Shawn Jones expressed.
The Warriors loaded the box and limited South Greene’s explosive offense while using the clock to their advantage, running the ball with efficiency. Happy Valley benefited from a clean game with zero turnovers. South Greene’s own self-inflicted penalties cost them the ability to move down field effectively as each game-altering play seemed to be penalized in some way, shape, or form.
The Rebels lose home field advantage in November’s playoffs with the loss and will enter the postseason as the No. 2 seed from Region 1. Although South Greene lost home field advantage, they still get to play once more on Rebel Hill next week in the first round. Region 2 will send Polk County down to play South Greene in the TSSAA Class 2A Playoffs.
“We feel good about being home. We’ve just got to rally and practice well next week and we’ll see what happens,” Coach Jones stated.
Happy Valley finishes with a perfect regular season record of 10-0 (3-0) while South Greene ends the regular season at 7-3 (2-1).
South Greene chose to defer the opening kickoff and gave Happy Valley the ability to waste 7+ minutes off the clock on a scoring drive finished by Keelin Releford’s 11-yard rushing touchdown. The PAT was short and the Warriors led 6-0 with 4:51 left in the first.
The Rebels were stopped short of the sticks on their first possession and punted the ball away on a rare three-and-out. The first quarter ended with them behind 6-0.
The Warriors chewed off a huge chunk of the clock again on the next possession and Gabe McDougald plunged in for a 4-yard touchdown run. Releford crossed the chalk for the two-point conversion. Happy Valley led 14-0 with 6:46 left in the half. “They had long drives and we knew that’s the way it was going to be. We didn’t give the offense a lot of possessions tonight,” Jones said.
South Greene punted again on their second drive, but managed to stop Happy Valley and forced them to send the punt team out for the first time all game. The Rebels delivered a momentum-shifting play as Lucas Couch blew through and blocked the punt with under two minutes left in the half.
Nash Rader was the one to reach the end zone from one yard out and cut their deficit to 14-7 with 26 seconds left in the half. The Warriors ran one play before walking to the locker room with a 14-7 lead.
The Rebels faced a long 4th-&-14 on their first drive of the second half and decided to go for a little trickery to try and convert. The play was blown up by Happy Valley and was unsuccessful. Happy Valley punted for only the second time and put South Greene at the 20-yard line after the ball rolled into the end zone.
The next drive may have been the most crucial drive all game. The Rebels seemed to find what worked well and picked up big yards on catches from Tripp Neas and Shawn Ownby and runs from Nash Rader, but penalty flags flew left and right. Three holding calls were assessed to South Greene and three was too many for them to overcome. The punt almost ended in catastrophe also when the snap was high and sailed past Brant Wilhoit. He did a great job avoiding tackles and managed to get the kick off while getting killed in the process, but no penalty for roughing or running into the kicker was called.
Happy Valley started the fourth quarter with the ball and slowly worked their way down the field on a 7-minute and 25-second drive that resulted in McDougald’s second 4-yard rushing touchdown of the night. The Warriors two-point attempt failed and South Greene trailed 20-7 with 4:42 left.
When it seemed like Happy Valley had crushed South Greene’s spirits and sucked the life out of them, Tripp Neas struck paydirt from 63 yards out as he raced past, between, and through tacklers for a quick touchdown strike from Nash Rader. The Rebels trailed 20-14 with 3:36 left.
They attempted an onside kick, but Happy Valley recovered. South Greene still had a chance to get that ball back with two timeouts left and over three minutes, but they never would. Happy Valley picked up two crucial first downs and converted the final one on fourth down with 22 seconds left to seal the deal.
Happy Valley reigned supreme in Region 1-2A by defeating South Greene 14-7 and claimed its first championship since 2016.
South Greene will welcome Polk County on to Rebel Hill for next week’s Class 2A Playoff opener. Kickoff will be set for 7:00 PM.
South Greene suffered a 20-14 defeat to Happy Valley in Thursday’s Region 1-2A Championship Game at home. Hear what Head Coach Shawn Jones’ thoughts were after the loss. pic.twitter.com/hkfWwmImSj
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) October 31, 2025
South Greene came up short in their face-off with the undefeated Happy Valley Warriors, falling 20-14. #FirstHorizon pic.twitter.com/lvrY4v4rJO
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) October 31, 2025
A blocked punt and subsequent touchdown changed South Greene's fortunes heading into halftime. Will the Rebels build on their momentum and mount the comeback?
Watch live on Facebook and YouTube at GreeneSportsZone. #FirstHorizon pic.twitter.com/MeSnbU6Do3
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) October 31, 2025
