Mavericks close out on the road
Zae Hall tucks the ball and finds a hole in the Green Devils defense on Friday night.
The Mavericks surrendered 14 unanswered points and fell to Greeneville, 28-17 in the Class 4A State Quarterfinals.
With their victory, the Greene Devils improved to 11-0 on the season and they will advance to play Upperman (13-0) at home Friday night at 7 p.m. Greeneville also avenged its loss to the Mavs (8-5) in last year’s state quarterfinals. ACHS routed the Greene Devils 38-7 during the 2022 postseason in Clinton.
Anderson County led 10-7 at halftime, but Greeneville scored first when junior running back Carson Quillen had a 37-yard touchdown scamper in the first quarter as he successfully executed a fake punt by taking a direct snap and rumbling to the end zone.
That would foreshadow Quillen’s big night.
He would finish with 182 yards on 24 carries.
He also scored all of the Greene Devils’ touchdowns, with scoring runs of 3, 48 and 26 yards respectively. He also made a big play in the Greeneville passing game as he caught a 33-yard pass from quarterback Corbin Cannon.
His reception came on third down and enabled Greeneville to keep a drive alive in the third stanza. He would finish the drive on the next play from scrimmage as he scored from 48 yards out.
The Mavericks tied the game, 7-7, in the second frame when senior quarterback Zae Hall threw a 17-yard scoring strike and kicker Josh Valero added the extra point.
Valero would finish off the first-half scoring when he converted a 22-yard field goal attempt just four seconds before halftime, making the score, 10-7.
The Greene Devils would regain the lead in the third quarter when Quillen scored on a 3-yard plunge that culminated a 10-play, 73-yard drive and gave Greeneville a 14-10 advantage.
ACHS took a 17-14 lead on a short TD run by senior running back Nick Moog late in the third frame. Moog would struggle in his final game with the Mavericks as the Greene Devils held him to just 33 rushing yards while he toted the ball 18 times. Moog also had 34 receiving yards on six receptions.
While Moog struggled Friday night, Hall carried the offensive load for Anderson County as he finished his final high school with 215 passing yards and one touchdown as he went 20-for-34 through the air. He also paced the Mavericks’ ground attack with 53 yards on eight carries.
Cole was AC’s leading receiver as he finished with eight catches for 111 yards and a touchdown
The Mavericks had 20 first downs and had the ball for nearly 30 minutes, but the Greene Devils scored 14 answered points to punch their ticket to this week’s state semifinals.
It was a streaky season for Anderson County is it started 0-3 with losses to Powell, Science Hill and Bearden (the Panthers and Bulldogs each saw their respective seasons come to an end last week as Powell lost to Knoxville West (which also edged the Mavericks late in the regular season), 31-5, in Class 5A and Bearden fell to Bradley Central for the second time in four weeks in Class
6A.
The Mavs, however, went undefeated and were scarcely tested in Region 2-4A.
They continued their long string of region championships, which now stands at seven. ACHS hasn’t lost a league game in seven years.