EATON – The Greenville football team built a 20-0 first quarter lead that carried the Green Wave to a 20-14 week one victory at Eaton.
Eaton began the game Friday with the ball and picked up a first down on its second play of the night. However, the Wave defense clamped down and forced the Eagles into a punting situation.
The snap went over the punter’s head, and Greenville’s Justin Brown recovered the ball at the Eaton 22, giving the Green Wave excellent field position for their first offensive possession.
After a pass interference call on fourth down extended Greenville’s ensuing drive, the Wave took advantage of the second chance with Devin Hendrix carrying the ball and diving into the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown. With a successful extra point, Greenville led 7-0 with 7:34 left in the first quarter.
Greenville continued to take advantage of Eaton miscues on the next possession. On the first play of their second offensive series the Eagles fumbled, and the Wave’s Erick Madison recovered the loose ball at the Eaton 41-yard line.
One play later, Greenville’s Logan Eldridge broke free for a 41-yard touchdown run to put the Green Wave ahead 13-0 with 7:08 remaining in the opening quarter.
The mistakes continued to pile up for Eaton as the Eagles’ next possession ended with Eldridge blocking a punt, giving Greenville the ball at the Eaton 33-yard line.
Back-to-back penalties backed up Greenville but ultimately didn’t do any harm as Kyle Phillips connected with Bradley Mead for a 54-yard touchdown pass to increase the lead to 20-0 just nine minutes into the game.
Eaton went three-and-out on its next possession, but then a thunderstorm halted the game and Greenville’s momentum with 1:30 remaining in the first quarter.
The teams resumed the game on Saturday, and Greenville couldn’t get any more points on the scoreboard while Eaton cut in its deficit.
The Eagles got a pair of Lew Bowser touchdown passes – one to Ghye Wilson and one to Zac Schmidt – to cut the Green Wave’s lead to 20-14. However, the lead held up as Greenville got the six-point win to start the season.
Greenville now will travel to Wilmington, who beat Little Miami 42-14, in week two. The game will start at 7 p.m. Friday in Wilmington.
