Green Devils dominate second half, beat Signal

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

The Signal Mountain football team seemed to forget there were four quarters. Visiting Greeneville was reminded repeatedly that there were two halves, and the Green Devils made the most of the second one in winning 31-10.

"We played as good a first half as we could play," Signal coach Bill Price said. "In the second half, we didn't. We just didn't play very well, and obviously I'm not happy about it."

Greeneville rallied on both sides of the ball, ripping off 28 points to turn a 10-3 halftime deficit into a 21-point victory.

"They did a good job of adjusting -- folded us up inside -- and we didn't have an answer for it," Price said. "Offensively, it seemed like we were having to go 80 yards every time, and then we'd get behind the chains and we just didn't make the plays offensively.

The fourth-ranked Green Devils improved to 8-1, stretched their win streak to eight games and likely locked up a top-quadrant Class 4A playoff seed.

The loss didn't affect the Eagles for the postseason. Having lost a district game three weeks ago and destined to finish second in District 7-AA, Signal likely was already going to be a fourth or fifth seed in the Class 4A brackets.

While Greeneville's defense refused to let Signal mount any kind of second-half offense, its offense took off, especially up the middle behind quarterback Quan Harrison and running back Desmond Dabbs. The two combined for 312 rushing yards and three touchdowns, and Harrison also threw a 14-yard TD pass to Cody Hartness.

Harrison tied the score with a 36-yard run, and 69 seconds later Dabbs broke free in the middle, cut left and dashed 90 yards to give the Devils their first lead of the night.

"They were hitting us up inside. We weren't squeezing anything down," Price said. "We just didn't play four quarters."

Down 16-10, Signal elected to go for a first down from its own 30 on fourth down and failed to make it, leaving Greeneville a very short field. The defense that had played so admirably early sagged badly, and Harrison really put the game out of reach at 22-10 with 4:31 left in the third period.

"We made some good adjustments at the half, and it really hurt them," said Greeneville coach Caine Ballard, an ex-Rhea County lad. "The guys went out and did what we asked them to do. Everything was pretty much inside. We changed some blocking schemes and it was really good for us."

The offensive line opened huge holes for the fleet Harrison and the fleeter Dabbs.

"Harrison engineered that first drive (of the second half), and if that 90-yard run didn't break their backs it bent them backwards. We came out and tied it and then scored that one on the 90-yarder. Any time that happens it kind of hurts your feelings."

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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