MORRISTOWN – South Greene traveled down I-81 and visited Morristown East for a battle with the Hurricanes on Friday night, but left in defeat after suffering a 27-6 loss on opening night.
“I know the score doesn’t reflect it, but we beat ourselves again tonight. Too many stupid penalties in the first game. We played hard. Got a lot of stuff to fix, but we’ll be okay,” South Greene Head Coach Shawn Jones said.
The Rebels could never get anything going on offense. It was a slow night for the visiting Greene County natives. Most of the game featured self-inflicted mistakes that hurt South Greene in the long run. Pass interference on third down, excessive blocking, holding, and many other costly penalties at unfortunate times.
Coach Jones explained what needs to be fixed moving forward. “Just the penalties and stupid stuff. The drive killers. Stuff that’s hurt us before. Again, the score doesn’t show it, but we beat ourselves tonight. If we get that stuff fixed, we’ll be okay. You always make your best improvements from week one to week two.”
South Greene starts the season 0-1 with the loss and fall to 0-4 all-time vs. Morristown East.
The Rebels looked good after the first two plays on defense. Morristown East fumbled on the second play from scrimmage and Lucas Murdock came away with a fumble recovery and the Rebel offense took the field for the first time.
Tripp Neas made his welcome with a first down on South Greene’s first offensive play from scrimmage, but that was all they could get. South Greene punted it back to Mo East.
Both teams traded punts again. Morristown East started their third drive in decent field position at their own 44-yard line.
The first quarter ended with a 0-0 tie. The second quarter started with the Hurricanes striking first. Josiah Valentine connected with Brett Smith for a 23-yard touchdown with 11:52 in the second quarter. The PAT split the uprights and it was 7-0 Hurricanes.
South Greene punted again and sent the ball back to the Canes. Morristown East drove 75 yards in under three-and-a-half minutes and found the end zone for the second-straight drive. Valentine found Smith again for a 42-yard catch-and-run that resulted in six. The PAT was true again and it was 14-0 with 5:01 left in the second period.
The Rebels responded and would strike back with a 59-yard touchdown strike from sophomore Dawson Ripley to sophomore Jaxen Taylor. The defense sucked in expecting another run play and Taylor was left open down the middle and speed raced to the end zone for the Rebels first touchdown of the year.
“They were sitting on Tripp all night and our quarterback knew that that play was going to be open. He was smart enough to figure that out. That’s something we can work with,” Jones said.
South Greene trailed 14-6 with 2:13 left in the half after a failed PAT attempt.
A case of déjà vu struck for the Rebels. A crushing blow was delivered last year on a kick-return touchdown. The same thing occurred on Friday night. Brayden Smith found an open seam and raced home for an 80-yard touchdown on the ensuing kickoff. A botched PAT attempt made it 20-6 at the two-minute mark of the first half.
The Rebels went into halftime trailing 20-6 searching for more success on offense. After struggling to make anything work in the first half South Greene trotted out Tripp Neas at quarterback for a series and ran an option offense with Neas and sophomore Trent Haynes in the backfield. The Rebels found some success, but couldn’t find enough success to reach the end zone.
Morristown East scored once more in the fourth quarter and started to ice the game. Josiah Valentine gained 35 yards on a quarterback run and set the Canes up at the 12-yard line. Valentine tossed his third touchdown pass of the game and found Joseph Gamble for an 8-yard touchdown pass. East led 27-6 with 9:49 left to play.
South Greene left Friday night’s season opener with a 27-6 loss to Morristown East.
“We’re gonna get back to work again on Monday and get after it,” Jones expressed.
The Rebels host Daniel Boone in next week’s home opener on Rebel Hill. The game will be presented as next week’s Bachman-Bernard Game Of The Week Presented By Tommie’s Plumbing. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM.
