FAIRLEA- The 2024 football season is officially in the record books as the Greenbrier East Spartans celebrated senior night with Rhett Baker, Ashton Mentz, Donavin Penn, and all band members before kickoff, but once the ball was kicked in the air, it was the Nitro Wildcats who did most of the damage.
The 6th ranked team in Class AAA came to Spartan Stadium and left with a 68-20 victory in a game that was called with 3:28 remaining in the fourth quarter after a couple Spartan injuries.
But there were some positives for Greenbrier East to look back on, and maybe build for the future,
The effort, especially through three quarters, was very good for the Spartans as the final score doesn’t necessarily indicate that part of the game.
Nitro (9-1) got on the board first early in the opening quarter when Antonio Lerose stepped in front of a Nate Suttle pass and ran it back 54 yards for a touchdown. That score put the Wildcats out in front 7-0.
Missing starting quarterback Brody Hamric for the second straight week, the Spartans then fumbled on their next series and Isaac Samples recovered it for the Wildcats. A couple plays later on offense, Eli Littlejohn caught a wide-open 10-yard touchdown pass from Josh Moody and Nitro looked ready to cruise to an early finish line.
However, the Spartans did not quit, taking it back to the effort being great.
A long, steady, 77-yard drive finished with a pretty 23-yard scoring toss from Suttle to Kaden Stone. Stone caught the ball on the sideline, made a nice move, and got across the goal line and East suddenly was trailing just 14-6.
In the second quarter, the Wildcats answered rather quickly with Charles Cantrell catching a 4-yard touchdown from Moody. Nitro went up 21-6 following that score.
Then it was the Spartans who came up with another answer. On a third-down, Suttle dropped back and heaved it down field to Stone again, who hauled it in for a 57-yard touchdown catch and the Spartans trimmed into that Nitro lead. After Suttle’s 2-point run, East trailed just 21-14 with 10:07 left in the first half.
But the back-and-forth play continued with Moody finding Malachi Thompson on a 47-yard pass that put the Wildcats up 28-14. Littlejohn would get two more TD runs, 12 and 18 yards respectfully, as the Wildcats eventually took a 42-14 lead just before the break.
After stopping East deep in their own territory on third-down, the Wildcatrs called a timeout with the hope of getting the ball ack with 2:30 left and scoring again before halftime. That plan backfired, however, and Keshawn Bland picked off a Moody pass over the middle and ran it back for a 55-yard pick-6. That put the score at 42-20 and that score remained at halftime.
In the second half, the East offense never quite got its footing and Nitro kept the pedal to the metal. A third quarter field goal from Maddox Cole was the only points in the third quarter, but in the fourth, Nitro racked up 23 points. East’s Jace Obermeyer and Aiden Broihier went down with injuries late in the game and the coaches agreed to go ahead and call it a night.
The Spartans picked up 244 yards of total offense on the night. Nitro gained 432.
Bland had 21 carries for 80 yards for Greenbrier East. Stone had three receptions for 87 yards and two TDs. Suttle threw for 116 and ran for 34.
For Nitro, Moody went 20-of-26 for 321 yards and four touchdowns. Littlejohn had 101 yards on 17 carries and three total scores.
With the loss, the Spartans ended their season at 3-7 and will hit the field again in August of 2025.
