Greene's TD run provides early spark for CBA

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on August 23, 2014 11:36 PM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

Charles B. Aycock defensive coordinator Allen Thomas didn't care where the ball got spotted, he wanted head coach Steve Brooks to gamble on fourth down.

Facing a long fourth-and-one, Brooks called R'Keesh Greene's number. The senior back pounded the ball to the left side and broke through the line of scrimmage as a Rosewood defender failed to fill the gap.

Greene broke an arm tackle and rushed 72 yards to the end zone -- a first-half score that took the wind out of the Eagles' sails and helped propel the Golden Falcons to a season-opening, 43-15 win at Branch Pope Field on Friday evening.

"He and Coach (Jon) Horton looked at me and said 'do not punt that ball,'" Brooks said. "When you got that kind of confidence in your kids it says a lot. (R'Keesh) and the O-line made everything happen after that."

Aycock won its ninth straight over Rosewood.

Greene's touchdown came after the Eagles had stopped Aycock on consecutive drives.

"It felt like after that it got to us a little bit," said Rosewood left tackle Tyree Chavious, who injured his hip in the first quarter and missed an offensive series. He returned on defense, but noticeably showed some pain.

"But coach always says finish the game. I felt like after we got ourselves back going again we finished the game pretty good."

Chavious ended the night with 11 tackles.

The Golden Falcons' offense clicked on all cylinders. Quarterback TJ Morrow threw for 209 yards on 10 completions with three touchdowns and one interception.

"He's a quarterback," Brooks said. "He's not just standing back there being the fastest kid on the field. TJ doesn't have just one read and then run. He has two or three reads and a check down. He's been doing a great job this summer looking guys off and going back side."

Cameron Helt played his first varsity game at quarterback and has some kinks to work out in the Eagles' new offense. Helt completed 3 of 12 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown to Marquail Almontaser.

Quan Joyner provided Rosewood's other score.

"This offense is based on quarterbacks reads," said Britt, who is 0-8 in season-opening games. "He's got to make the right reads and there was times tonight he did and times tonight he didn't. There was times he threw the ball well and times he didn't."

Some of Helt's misreads resulted in big plays for Aycock's defense, particularly for Damien Darden. The sophomore defensive end logged three sacks, a tackle for loss, and forced a fumble that teammate Josh Jones returned 27 yards for a TD.

"Damien did a great job tonight," Morrow said. "He was in the backfield all night. You know he's going to go 100 percent all the time."