Friday Night Lights
Published 12:32 am Friday, October 18, 2019
- Photo courtesy of Lifetouch The Elizabethton Cyclone cheerleaders are pumped and ready to cheer their Cyclones on to a big win over the visiting Greeneville Greene Devils in one of the biggest games in the state tonight in any class.
Friday Night Lights will be shining brightly tonight in Carter County with four games that have big, big playoff implications for four county teams.
None can be bigger than that of the state’s top-ranked Greeneville Greene Devils paying a visit to the state’s second-ranked Elizabethton Cyclones in Class 4-A. The winner of this game will gain a huge advantage going into the playoffs as they will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
This game has been close the last few years with many believing that this is one of the most evenly matched contests between the two in a while especially with the graduation of 28 seniors from Greeneville a year ago.
That doesn’t make the Greene Devils any less dangerous and a HUGE crowd is expected with shuttles scheduled to run from local parking lots to accommodate the overflow crowd.
In other games, the Hampton Bulldogs host the state’s sixth-ranked South Greene Rebels in Class 2-A with again huge implications in the playoff picture. The Bulldogs have played lights out since an early loss to Happy Valley and will need another stellar game to defeat South Greene and former HV head coach Scotty Verran who has the Rebels undefeated at 8-0.
Another large crowd is expected to fill the stands at Hampton for this contest which could clear the path for a front runner to emerge in Region 1 Class 2-A or make the waters more murky with two weeks of football left after tonight.
Happy Valley entered the state rankings this week at #9 in Class 2-A and the Warriors will have their hands full as they travel to Kingsport to tangle with the North Raiders.
Coach Jason Jarrett has his team sitting at the top of the standings right now with only one loss, a non-conference defeat at the hands of Unicoi County, and is looking to maintain that perch.
Cloudland is at home for Senior Night hosting Jellico with the winner looking to claim the Region 1 Class 1-A title and home-field advantage in the playoffs. With a win, the Highlanders would run the conference slate clean.
A big crowd will flood into Orr Field for this one as well as the Highlanders will look to send off their seniors with a big, memorable win and another title.
Unaka travels across the state line to Rye Cove, VA to take on the War Eagles in a game that could be a high-scoring affair. Rye Cove has already beaten Hancock County this season and would love nothing better to beat another Tennessee team.
Unaka, on the other hand, wants to finish off the regular season strong and would love to win convincingly to get momentum rolling with only two games remaining after tonight.
As always, the Elizabethton Star weekend edition is your source to turn to for all the game stories and photos from those games.
