JAMESTOWN — Some of the talk by Greeneview players before the season began focused on weeks two through four of the schedule.

Check out photos from the week four matchup between West Jefferson and Greeneview.

Those games were all against a trio of ‘W’ opponents — Waynesville, West Liberty Salem and West Jefferson — and were teams the Rams all took losses against last year.

A clean sweep of those foes this season will now allow Greeneview to aspire higher in its run up to the postseason.

Greeneview’s defense stifled a potent passing attack possessed by the Roughriders and propelled their side to a 22-7 win Friday at Don Nock Field.

“These were the three big games that we wanted to win,” Blake Midlam said. “And we needed to win them if we want to go far.”

Greeneview is now 4-0 overall and it is possible that it has gotten through the toughest parts of its regular season schedule. The Rams have twice gone unbeaten, in 1996 and 2017, and this year is reaching a realistic chance to match the feat. A road game at 1-3 Triad awaits next week before Greenview starts OHC South Division play, which it has gone unbeaten against over the past three years.

“We still want to take it one game at a time,” Midlam said. “We don’t want to get too far ahead and not be focused for that week that we are in.”

Any opponent Greeneview puts its focus on beating will have its work cut out for them.

While West Jefferson found some success moving the ball up the field, it only seemed a matter of time before the Rams’ defense would make a big play and put the Roughriders in third or fourth and long situations. Several sacks, three by Midlam and another from Gavin Henry, continually put pressure on WJ’s Austin Buescher, who entered Friday’s game with more than 6,000 career passing yards, and forced him out of the pocket to be unable to look for receivers down field.

“They are extremely well coached,” head coach Ryan Haines said of the Roughriders. “They’re going to have answers for just about any coverage you want to start playing. We tried to mix them up through the third quarter and then we got into our bend and don’t break mentality and tried to keep the ball in front of us.”

WJ managed just more than 100 yards of offense in both halves and only managed to score just before halftime.

A touchdown pass by Buescher to Brody York with 20 seconds left in the second quarter made it an 8-7 game heading into the break. Any good feelings about their chances were quickly extinguished though when play resumed.

Alex Horney tossed a pass toward his sideline to a wide open Joey Giannobile just over a minute into the third quarter. It turned into a 73-yard touchdown reception and quickly re-established the eight-point lead for Greeneview.

After the defense got a fourth down stop at its own 25 on the ensuing possession for WJ, Horney produced another explosive play for the offense on a 69-yard burst to find the endzone again.

“Really the story of the game,” Haines said. “We weren’t getting chunk after chunk, we just got one big chunk. So we need to find a way to be more consistent, but at the same time there’s a couple things after halftime that Neal Kasner and the offensive staff put together that helped get those couple scores.”

Greeneview was held to its lowest offensive yardage output of the season, but was still able to quickly get into the lead thanks to a miraculous first quarter run. Facing a 4th-and-21 situation at the 25-yard line of West Jefferson, Horney kept the ball on a draw run up the middle but was met by defenders near the line of scrimmage. Somehow eluding four defenders, he was able to break free and dash past the secondary for the game’s opening touchdown.

“I think our offense forces a lot of team to do something that they’re not comfortable doing,” Midlam said.

Horney had 115 yards on 14 carries, and Giannobile gathered 114 receiving yards on three catches to lead the offensive attack for Greeneview.

Nothing is guaranteed down the road with how things may play out, but history and experience would seem to be on the side of the Rams as the season nears the midway point. Greeneview has the best scoring differential so far of any OHC team and its 16 seniors are playing well each week.

Haines said he is proud of what his team has accomplished so far, but he wants their mentality to stay the same, a concept that Midlam repeated as well.

“For us, Triad has got to be our next Super Bowl,” Haines said. “We’ve got to keep getting better and that’s what champions do and it just need to be our mentality.”

See all of the week four scores for Greene County teams.

Unbelievable run by Alex Horney. On 4th and 21 at the West Jefferson 25 he breaks multiple tackles and finds the endzone. 8-0 Greeneview with 4:48 left in the first quarter. pic.twitter.com/uLaphzta7J

— Steven Wright (@Steven_Wright_) September 13, 2024

Joey Giannobile gets a game sealing interception in the endzone for Greeneview. pic.twitter.com/ulYjzMme1k

— Steven Wright (@Steven_Wright_) September 14, 2024

Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.