Lions' run ends

Nobody wanted to leave Red Bank Community Stadium. Each team, one elated and the other shocked and dismayed at Greeneville's 14-13 upset over the state's top-ranked Class 4A team, took opposite ends.

"We had opportunities. We didn't take advantage of them, and that's on us (coaches)," Red Bank coach Tim Daniels told his 12-1 team. "They played keep away and did a good job of it all night."

The game hinged on an extra-point try by Red Bank with 48 seconds left. Greeneville's Andy McNeese, a two-way starter, crashed through untouched and sent the Lions' hopes for a tie and ensuing overtime into oblivion.

"On their first kick I noticed they didn't step down on the blocks. I hurdled a foot and the ball hit me in the gut," said McNeese, a 6-foot, 225-pound senior. "Nobody touched me."

It was the final twisting plunge of a knife that sent Red Bank to the locker room for the final time in 2009, but the Lions had flirted with disaster much of the night. They intercepted a first-half pass inside their 10-yard line to snuff one Greene Devil drive and recovered a fumble in their own end zone to kill Greeneville's first drive of the second half.

"I wish I had something to say to take away the pain," Daniels told his team. "I believed we were going to Cookeville. We had a perfect season. We just didn't quite reach perfection."

As one of the more exuberant Greeneville fans chanted over and over and over, "Greeneville owns Chattanooga."

The Greene Devils began their drive with a lopsided win over Central and then outscored Brainerd to reach the quarterfinal match at Red Bank.

"Red Bank is as fine a football team as I've seen on tape," said Greeneville coach Caine Ballard, a Rhea County graduate who had a 1-3 record against the Lions as a player.

"It feels sweet," he said of the win. "I have strong roots in Rhea County."

Those roots, though, are no deeper than those he has put down in Greeneville, where he was an assistant for nine seasons before taking the head coaching reins last spring.

He had been telling his team, which was on the road for the first time in the playoffs, the same thing he had told them all season. "It's another game," he said.

Greeneville survived a similar circumstance a year ago on its way to the semifinals. The Devils blocked an extra point against Sullivan South to keep the quarterfinal game tied before winning it in overtime.

Red Bank (12-1) drew first blood and nursed the lead to halftime. Ladarius Thomas' 37-yard interception return left the Lions with a short field, and Keon Williams got the score on a 1-yard run with 5:14 left in the second period.

Greeneville (10-3) tied it midway of the third on a 5-yard run by quarterback Wes Quarles and the point-after kick by Ben Ogle. The Devils took nine plays -- all runs -- to go 37 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, a 2-yard run by senior tailback B.J. Spradlin. Ogle then kicked what would be an important extra point with 6:24 left.

Red Bank rebounded. Quarterback Andy Christopher, sacked on back-to-back plays by Greeneville's Jamel Hall, completed a 46-yard pass to Josh Robinson to get the Lions close. Williams then scored from 2 yards out with 48 seconds left, setting the stage for McNeese's heroics.