The West Greene football team will be back in action on Friday with a big Region 1-2A contest coming to The Range.
Happy Valley visits West Greene as the No.6 ranked team in Class 2A and with the region championship potentially on the line.
“Our kids have a lot to play for down the stretch, and we are in situation where I don’t think anybody expected to be in at the beginning of the year,” West Greene coach Caleb Slover said. “Our kids are getting better every week, and we have a chance to play for a region championship this week. We know we are the underdog. We just have to focus on us and take it one game at a time.”
West Greene was off last week, and is hopeful the rest got them healthier as they prepare for a closing stretch that includes Happy Valley, Unicoi County and Cumberland Gap. If the Buffaloes can beat both Happy Valley and Cumberland Gap they will win the region title, despite currently sitting at 1-5 on the year. If they beat one of those region opponents in the final three weeks they will host a playoff game.
Happy Valley is currently 7-1 on the season and is coming off a 42-0 win over Cumberland Gap. The Warriors are averaging 46 points per game and are giving up 9.6 points per game. Their only loss came to Unicoi County 36-29 on September 18.
Happy Valley will bring a run-first attack to Mosheim on Friday that is averaging 236 yards per game on the ground. Quarterback Lane Parker leads the way with 620 yards and 14 touchdowns and Nalique Anderson has 590 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“Happy Valley is a good team. They will be the best team we have seen so far,” Slover said. “We have to get penetration and be gap sound on defense. We can’t let them run their toss play and get outside of us. They have four guys with tremendous speed, and they can get loose in a hurry. They run a Wing-T type offense, and they use that speed to their advantage. We have to be disciplined and we have to tackle well.”
Slover also knows that the Warriors stingy defense will tough to beat. The coach stressed that executing blocking assignments and making the right reads will be the key to moving the ball on Friday.
“They are going play man in your face on the outside and put seven or eight in the box,” Slover said. “They trust those guys on the outside. We have to do what we continually work on, blocking at the point of emphasis. We have to mix it up, and Aiden (Thompson) has to be able to pull it if they are crashing on the back. We have to be efficient on the outside to try to get them out of the box.”
Happy Valley won last year’s meeting 52-0. The Warriors lead the all-time series 33-4. West Greene has not beaten Happy Valley since 1983.
Kickoff for Friday is slated for 7 PM and the game will be live on the airwaves on WIKQ 103.1 FM.
