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Prep Football: Mercer drops 42-35 decision to Greeneville

September 28, 2008

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Jordan Yeast ran for 278 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries, but it was not enough to keep visiting Mercer County from falling 42-35 to host Greeneville here Friday.

The game was 30 minutes late starting because the Titans arrived late after more than a four-hour bus trip.

"We had a 4 1/2 hour bus ride and didn't get to leave until 2:45 even though school was dismissed at 1:30 on an early release day," said Mercer coach Marty Jaggers said. "We got there at 7:10, which was way late.

"I thought we had two charter buses for the trip, but we had to go in school buses, and wait for them to get back Friday (from taking students home). Two board (of education) members put an end to the charter buses that the booster club was going to help pay for.

"When Greeneville came to play us, they rode charter buses. They spent $80,000 on shrubs for their $1.4 million facility, which is the best high school facility I have seen. But we just didn't get off the bus after that long ride ready to play and it cost us."

The play of Greeneville senior Trevon Hall hurt, too. He ran for 179 yards and four touchdowns, caught two passes for 93 yards and had a 90-yard kickoff return to set up another score.

"He was phenomenal. We couldn't tackle him," Jaggers said.

Greeneville raced to a 28-7 halftime lead and made it 35-7 early in the second half before the Titans mounted a furious comeback.

"I thought we were going to make a miraculous comeback after getting down 35-7 after the second play of the second half," Jaggers said.

Mercer trailed 14-0 when backup quarterback Andrew Cornish his John Linton for a 40-yard gain and Yeast broke free for a 31-yard scoring run.

"Jordan Yeast had a big game and Matthew McCloud also ran well," Jaggers said. "For a sophomore, Andrew Cornish played well. Trevor Short got hurt in the first quarter, and then we went with him. Andrew actually completed a couple of passes and ran the offense well."

Greeneville drove to the Mercer three-yard line before fumbling, but the Titans fumbled the ball back on the next play and Hall scored for a 21-7 lead.

A 16-yard touchdown pass before halftime and Hall's kickoff return that set up the early third-quarter score made it 35-7 before the Titans got rolling.

Yeast had a 63-yard run before his 7-yard score to make it 35-13. McCloud had a 4-yard touchdown run and caught a conversion pass to make it 35-21 before a 40-yard scoring run by Yeast cut the lead to 35-28.

Greeneville finally answered with an 87-yard scoring march capped by Hall's 20-yard run before Yeast countered with a 5-yard run to end a 53-yard drive with about three minutes to play.

"I am proud of the way we came back. They didn't pull any of their starters. We just fought back," Jaggers said. "When we scored to make it 42-35 with almost three minutes to play, we thought our defense could get the ball back. But they ran out the clock before we could get another chance. If we had just got started a little better, we could have won."

Mercer rushed for 323 yards and passed for 53 more while Greeneville ran for 224 yards and threw for 126.

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