JELLICO – North Greene faced adversity on multiple occasions and had their backs against the wall with the game on the line, but the Huskies found a way to fight through and pulled out a gutsy 24-20 road victory over Jellico to begin Region 1-1A play 1-0.
“I don’t know why every time we play Jellico it’s like this. The past three years it’s been down to the wire. I’m exhausted,” North Greene Head Coach Eric Tilson jokingly stated. “I’ve got a lot of respect for their team as hard as they played.”
It didn’t come easy and it didn’t come without doubt. After leading 12-0 at halftime, Jellico slowly chipped away at the lead until they found themselves ahead 14-12 halfway through the fourth quarter. A shootout ensued with North Greene’s Yeshua Vaught responding with a touchdown to propel the Huskies back ahead, but another Blue Devil score saw them regain the lead.
That’s when the heroics of Brandon Weems took place. His late-game touchdown on a 4th-&-18 play with the game on the line proved to be the difference maker in Friday night’s contest.
“I was in the end zone and I was covered so I cut over and me and Thomas made a connection and made it happen,” Weems mentioned.
After three-straight incompletions North Greene called timeout to draw up one last play with the game on the line. While inside the huddle, Weems called his shot and knew he’d be open on a certain route with the coverage Jellico had been playing. Sure enough, his assumption was correct. Quarterback Thomas Darnell rolled to his left and found Weems open in the end zone. He fired away off balance and lobbed a perfect pass to Weems for the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds left.
“He comes back on the last play and says, ‘Coach I am open on this.’ So, I said okay let’s run it. And then he’s open and makes the play. I can respect that confidence. That was huge. I’m absolutely elated for that,” Tilson stated. “At that point the play calls don’t matter anymore. We talk about it in the interviews. Playmakers have to make plays and playmakers made plays.”
With the win, North Greene improved to 2-1 (1-0) and achieved their first .500+ record since October 5, 2012. They begin 1-0 against Region 1-1A competition and join Cloudland atop the standings.
Without Weems’ catch the win might not have been possible. But without Yeshua Vaught, the win would not have been possible. His worth proved itself tonight with a pair of rushing touchdowns and 37 huge yards on the final drive to lead North Greene to the red zone.
“It was crazy. I knew it’d be a dogfight. It always is with Jellico. We just had to keep our confidence up and come make plays,” Vaught said.
His impact on the game was felt after he went down with an injury after a 20-yard run to the 28-yard line. His hard work was not forgotten and was praised afterwards.
“It’s hard to say what would’ve happened if he’s not there. He’s making plays all over the place and he’s our workhorse on offense,” Coach Tilson expressed.
Jellico received the opening kickoff and worked as much time off the clock as possible, but couldn’t come away with any points. Over seven minutes were wasted from the game clock with nothing to show for. The drive was halted on 3rd-&-6 after Leon Johnson took the quarterback to the ground and forced a fourth down. The Blue Devils decided to go for it on North Greene’s side of the field and went for the end zone instead of the shorter line-to-gain. The throw was picked off and intercepted by Kelson Eastep on the two-yard line.
Both teams traded punts before Jellico would go on another long drive. This drive, like the other, would also end with no points. The Huskies defense stood tall all night long and held their ground to force a turnover-on-downs on the 8-yard line.
The stop would prove to be massive as North Greene marched 92 yards down the field to take a 6-0 lead.
Jake Duffy picked up a crucial first down facing third down on a jet sweep inside their own red zone. Brandon Weems hauled in a 14-yard catch to pick up the next first down. Duffy and Weems traded first-down catches again. A run of 17 yards from Weems landed them right outside the red zone. Yeshua Vaught did the rest of the work and pounded the rock for 12 yards to help shorten the field for his 8-yard touchdown run to follow.
After allowing one big catch, the Huskies forced the Blue Devils to punt and immediately scored again to go ahead by two possessions.
A quick strike from Thomas Darnell to Brandon Weems seemed like it would only pick up a first down until Weems slipped by his defender and turned on the jets for an 84-yard touchdown. Another two-point conversion failed and North Greene settled with a 12-0 lead.
Jellico delivered back-to-back chunk plays to move them across the 50, but a huge sack by Leon Johnson on 3rd-&-8 ended that drive and helped North Greene walk into halftime leading 12-0.
North Greene received the second half kickoff and managed to gain a good number of yards due to Yeshua Vaught’s runs of 15 and 20 yards, but failed to gain any more points. The defense stood tall again and forced a three-and-out, but North Greene would punt the ball back on the possession that followed.
Jellico found the end zone for the first time with 4:45 left in the third quarter to cut their deficit to 12-6. The touchdown could’ve potentially been prevented too if not for a North Greene offsides on 4th-&-2. The Huskies would force Jellico to make another tough decision on another 4th-&-2 situation. Quarterback Owen Morgan broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run to make things interesting.
North Greene had a couple opportunities to respond back with a touchdown of their own, but the breaks just didn’t go their way. A dropped touchdown catch along the sideline and a 35-yard touchdown run negated by a holding penalty forced the Huskies to leave empty again.
After another lengthy Jellico drive, the defense broke the Blue Devils back once again. North Greene wouldn’t find any success and went three-and-out themselves.
The fun would start early in the fourth quarter. The Blue Devils went on a 65-yard drive that lasted four minutes and eight seconds and ended with a Jellico touchdown and two-point conversion. North Greene trailed 14-12 with 5:25 on the game clock.
The Huskies wasted little to no time and scored in a minute and six seconds. Yeshua Vaught led them down the field with a run of 34 yards before punching through again for a 14-yard touchdown run. After another failed two-point conversion, North Greene led 18-14 with 4:19 left on the clock.
Jellico responded with a 67-yard drive that lasted two minutes and four seconds and resulted in another touchdown. Quarterback Owen Morgan broke free along the right sideline again and raced to the pylon for a 48-yard touchdown.
The Huskies took the field one last time with 2:15 on the clock and a chance to win the game. Brandon Weems picked up 12 yards on 2nd-&-12 to move the sticks. Yeshua Vaught pounded through for a 17-yard run before exiting the game due to an injury with 1:12 left.
A long 20-yard run by Weems looked to be a touchdown, but it was ruled that he stepped out of bounds at the 8-yard line. After being backed up to the 18-yard line due to a holding penalty, the Huskies had four shots at the end zone. Three-straight incompletions looked to spell trouble for North Greene down to their last chance.
Brandon Weems called his own name in the pre-play huddle during a timeout and broke open for the game-winning 18-yard touchdown with 21 seconds remaining.
The Huskies would hold on to win on the road and left with a 24-20 Region 1-1A win over Jellico.
“Everything didn’t go well tonight. It was a hard adverse game, but that’s good for our team going into the future knowing we can overcome mistakes and still win,” Coach Tilson explained.
North Greene travels to meet Cumberland Gap next Friday night for a non-region road game with the Panthers. Start time is currently set for 7:00 PM.
