It’s time for the game many across Greene County have had circled on their calendar for months now, it’s the Battle for the Milk Can.
South Greene will make the short trip to West Greene on Friday with more than bragging rights on the line, both teams will also be looking to start Region 1-2A play with a win.
“This game is so important to our community. When I first started coaching we had won the Milk Can several years in a row I didn’t think too much of it, then West Greene came and won it seven years in a row,” South Greene head coach Shawn Jones said. “It’s kind of like that saying, ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until its gone’. At that point it meant a lot to get it back. This is a big community game and we want to keep that trophy in our community. But the most important thing for us this week is getting a region win.”
The Rebels and Buffaloes have started the 2025 season on very different paths. South Greene is 4-1 and coming off three lopsided wins in a row. The Buffaloes are 0-5 and are coming off a 47-15 loss to Eagleton.
But to this point neither team has played a game that will impact their playoff seeding, and most of the goals they started the year with are still in front of them.
On paper South Greene will be the heavy favorite on Friday, but the Rebels know that when the Milk Can is on the line the Buffaloes are going to bring their very best.
“A desperate team can be dangerous. They need to get a win and to get a conference win, and they will come into this with nothing to lose,” Jones said. “You know every year West Greene is going to play their butts off against South Greene. We’ve had the better team before and gotten beat by West Greene, so we have to make sure we come into this prepared.”
The Rebels come into the contest boasting one of the most dangerous rushing attacks in East Tennessee. In wins over Chuckey-Doak and North Greene over the past two weeks South Greene has run for over 300 yards. Quarterback Nash Rader and Tripp Neas have led that effort, and Charlie Lane has emerged as dangerous third option.
For West Greene the focus will be on containing those backs and keeping them from getting loose in the open field.
“That offense is as dynamic as they come,” West Greene coach Evan Monroe said. “They are fast. They can bounce out of a hole and outrun you to the sideline. Keeping them contained will be a challenge. We can’t let them get loose, because once they are loose they have the speed to beat you. We have to limit those explosive plays.”
The Rebels’ defense is allowing 12 points per game, and West Greene’s offense is scoring 9.8 points per game.
On Friday Monroe is hoping his offense can control the time of possession with its run game and turn the contest into a “rock fight”. That will mean a heavy dose of running backs Tristan Banks and Shawn Bailey running between the tackles.
“We have to win the time of possession battle,” Monroe said. “It’s hard for them to score if they don’t have the ball. We have to take care of the football and try to slow the game down. We need to try to make this a rock fight and see what we can do with it.”
A year ago South Greene won this matchup 41-7. West Greene last won in 2022, 16-14. The Rebels have won six of the last seven games in the series. The two teams have met every year since 1974 and South Greene leads the all-time series 36-15.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday at West Greene. The game is the First Horizon Greene Sports Zone Game Of The Week and will be streamed live on the Greene Sports Zone Facebook and YouTube pages, and will be live on 95.5 WSMG.
