South Greene suffered a rare loss to Concord Christian this past Friday afternoon and the Rebels are looking to get back in the win column when they square off with Eagleton on Rebel Hill.
The back end of South Greene’s schedule poses the biggest challenges for the group of Rebels. A three-game stretch with Concord Christian, Eagleton Academy, and Happy Valley in the last three weeks of the regular season is sure to test South Greene before they enter November’s postseason play.
One game through the three-game gauntlet they are 0-1, but are hungry for a win on Friday night as they welcome Eagleton to South Greene for the second time in as many years. It’s the third all-time meeting between the Rebels and the Royals. South Greene is 2-0 in both meetings so far, but the winning margin is slim.
South Greene visited Eagleton for the first contest in 2023 and escaped with a 20-19 win after stopping them on a two-point conversion with little time remaining. Eagleton visited South Greene for the second matchup in 2024 and made things interesting in the second half. The Rebels led 14-0 at halftime, but Eagleton scored 20 in the third quarter to give them life. South Greene managed to leave home with a 28-20 win.
You can almost expect another great battle between both squads on Friday night and Coach Jones is preparing his troops for just that. “They’ve got a good ball club. They got upset last week and I think they’ll be a little hungry coming in here. They’ve got Lane Cope, who’s really big, who played the last couple of years. Tyson Click, the big defensive tackle, that’s played. It’s going to be a challenge for us coming in here on Friday night, but a challenge we’ll take on because we’ll play anyone.”
South Greene is currently 6-2 (2-0) and Eagleton is 6-2 (1-1). Both teams are Class 2A schools, but are no longer in the same region after last year’s realignment. Although the game doesn’t have postseason implications, it could be a postseason preview.
“By them getting beat by Polk County, if they were to lose to Oneida and then we were to finish second behind Happy Valley we would actually play each other two of the next three weeks. That could be big. Hope it doesn’t happen that way because if you beat a team the first time you hate to play them a second time,” Jones explained.
Eagleton was defeated by Polk County last Friday in what many would consider an upset. Coach Jones detailed what the implications of that could be in Friday’s contest. “It’s kind of crazy, they got upset Friday night I think they felt like. They had beaten Tellico Plains pretty good earlier in the year and looked like they were going to win the conference and got upset by Polk County. That can be a little scary. How are they going to feel going into Friday night? It probably would’ve been better if they had won.”
South Greene’s three-man attack of Nash Rader, Tripp Neas, and Charlie Lane were contained last Friday in Farragut, but return back home looking to make noise. The Rebels lost their six-game winning streak last week and are looking to get hot and start another going into the final stretch of the season. They have won two-straight at home and look to keep that streak alive also.
“We’re excited for this week with Eagleton. It means nothing. You want to win this game. But as far as standings within the conference, it means nothing. But again, it could mean something on down the road when you play in the playoffs. Really looking forward to it and really going to be a big game this week,” Jones left off with.
