By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Early Labor Day morning, the locker room out at the field house at MCHS was starting to fill up with varsity football players, who are still energized from last Friday’s win against Monticello and are eager to start preparing to play one of their rivals, Greene County, this Friday for the first away game of the season.
Friday’s varsity football match-up between the Morgan County Bulldogs and the Greene County Tigers promises to be an exciting game. Last year the Bulldogs beat the Tigers 35-7 in Greene County, and the Dogs are hoping to maintain their superiority over the Tigers again this year.
Greene County lost their first game of the season last week 28-14 at home against Putnam County. Their loss comes after a 2-8 season last year, which included only one region win.
MCHS Head Coach Bill Malone, however, acknowledges that this week’s game is going to be a tough match-up for the Dogs. “It is a very good rivalry. Any time we play Greene County, it can be a tough game.”
“Greene is confounding, to say the least. Both offensively and defensively.”
Coach Malone went into some detail when describing the particular challenges that Greene County would provide. He said of Greene’s offense that, “Their game plan is to get the ball to their playmakers in space.” It will be up to Morgan County’s defense to stay right with Greene and keep them from getting any space to move around in.
Greene’s defense, on the other hand, will try to eliminate all sense of space for Morgan County’s offense. Malone described the nature of their attack-style defense.
“It’s like, ‘here comes the stinkin’ house’ – every single play.”
The challenge for the Bulldogs’ offensive line will be trusting in their formations in spite of Greene’s aggressive defense. Malone has confidence that, if the offensive line can do that, they’ll be able to stop Greene from crowding them.
Another challenge for Morgan County’s athletes during the game Friday night will be getting used to the artificial turf on Greene County’s field. The difference in the feel of the field only takes a little time to adjust to says Malone, and plans to get to the stadium a little early to give the players a good chance to move around on it before the game begins.
Come out this Friday to see the Bulldogs take on the Greene County Tigers in Greene County, just a short 20 miles from Morgan County High School.

Printed in the September 6. 2012 edition.