Elizabethton came up painstakingly short on Friday night.
The Cyclones erased a 13-0 deficit but fell 23-13 to Greeneville inside Citizens Bank Stadium on Friday night in Region 1-4A.
With the loss, Elizabethton will enter the playoffs as a No. 2 seed and will host Knox Carter next Friday night.
The game lived up to the hype as it was a heavyweight battle from the opening kick.
Greeneville opened the scoring as Carson Quillen scored on a four-yard run to cap the game’s opening drive for the Greene Devils, but Justius Wallin blocked the extra point.
After the Cyclones threw an interception, Greeneville sturck quarter as Quillen found Zac Chrisman for a five-yard score. That gave GHS a 13-0 lead nearly five minutes into the game.
EHS, however, kept fighting.
Will Bowers hit a 32-yard field goal late in the quarter as EHS trailed 13-3 after a quarter of play.
Elizabethtopn opened the second quarter scoring as Zeth Mullins scored on a short run to pull CHS within three.
The teams swapped possessions to end the game, and Greeneville held a 13-10 lead after a quarter of play.
The defenses stole the show in in the second half.
Neither team was ablw to get on the board in the third quarter.
Elizabethton evened things up early in the fourth as Will Bowers nailed a 42-yard field goal to tie the game at 13-13 with 9:06 left.
Greeneville, however, answered quicky as Quillen escaped on the next offensive play and went 74 yards for the touchdown to regain the lead for Greeneville. GHS tacked on a 48-yard field goal by Quentin Brandon with 4:17 left in the game.
The Cyclones kept battling, but was unable to mount a rally in the closing minutes of the game.
Mullins led EHS with 101 yards on 17 carries, while Kaleb Holzer added 32 yards.
Rhett Slagle went 13-of-23 passing for 92 yards and three interceptiohs, while Jeriah Griffin had six catches for 40 yards. Mullins added 36 recieving yards.
Quillen ended the game with 159 yards on 24 carries, while Corbin Cannon went 5-of-8 passing for 86 yards.
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