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BY AUSTIN ALEXANDER
STAR CORRESPONDENT

GREENEVILLE -The Happy Valley Warriors ventured out of Carter County on Friday night to make the trip to South Greene High School for a date with the Rebels.

Despite both teams sporting a goose egg in the win column, South Greene still entered the consensus favorites. Despite early flashes from the Warrior defense, the Rebels were just too much taking the win, 39-8.

The Rebels took the ball to start the game and went to work trying to spark their explosive offense. The Happy Valley defense had other plans.

Joseph Sowards made the first two stops of the game for the Warrior defense. Standout South Greene quarterback, Luke Myers, continued to find a way to just barely get the chains moving, but it was effective.

Before the Rebels could push much more, Landon Babb help trigger the Warrior defense to stomp their foot in the ground with two sacks and South Greene turned it over on downs.

The Warrior momentum was incredibly short-lived with the opening offensive snapped being fumbled and the Rebels recovered.

Myers is just too dangerous to just be giving the ball to and he and the South Greene offense made short work of punching in the ball and making the score 6-0.

New starting quarterback, Andrew Little of Happy Valley, would start the next drive with a solid run. Cayden Campbell gave the Warriors a first down on the next play, but it didn’t matter as the South Greene defense stiffened up.

A shanked punt put the Rebels in great field position and yet again, Myers has proven he is not a wasteful quarterback. South Greene would cap an eight-play drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass and Happy Valley trailed 14-0.

Each team would continue to share similarly fated drives to their predecessors with the Warriors having no offensive success and the Rebels and Meyers finding two more touchdown passes on back-to-back possessions.

The highlight of the half for the Warriors may have been a 66-yard boomer of a punt from Andrew Cochran.

Heading into the half, the Rebels had full command, 26-0.

Coming out of halftime, the Warriors offense looked somewhat rejuvenated showing that they weren’t there to just lay down and die.

The Warriors were beneficiaries of a few South Greene penalties on the drive, but key runs from Little, Pedro Colunga, and Reagan Ensor helped move Happy Valley deeper and deeper into Rebel territory.

The drive would be capped with Happy Valley’s first touchdown of the season, fittingly, from Andrew Little. Cayden Campbell punched it in for the two-point conversion and the lead was trimmed to 26-8.

The next drive for the Rebels was filled with penalties, but they were easily able to overcome them starting to flex their muscle as to why they entered the game as heavy favorites.

This time, a Keshawn Engram 36-yard scamper capped the Rebel drive and things looked wrapped up.

A three and out from the Warriors set the Rebels up yet again in an advantageous position. It took South Greene just three plays to punch it yet again to make it 39-8.

Just when you thought the Warriors were out of the fight, a Pedro Colunga 26-yard sizzler ignited the Happy Valley offense for one last go at it. Some South Greene penalties helped the Warriors get the ball in the red zone.

Willing to try anything, the Warriors turned to freshman Drew Blevins at quarterback and he quickly found Jamie Esterline for 12 yards and Happy Valley was again knocking on the door.

Even with this success, the Rebels put their foot down and forced a turnover on downs.

South Greene would burn the rest of the clock out and the game would finish with a final of 39-8.

The Warriors fall to 0-2 on the season while South Greene improved to 1-2.