On this night, Greenback's third offensive possession was a relative marathon.

It took the high-scoring Cherokees all of six plays to dent the end zone. It merely marked their third touchdown among their first nine offensive snaps. And it was all part of a dominating tour de force that ensured the second-ranked Cherokees would remain unblemished for next week's massive rivalry tilt against Grace Christian Academy.

The undefeated and state-ranked Cherokees (6-0) scored less than four minutes into the game and rarely stopped scoring in what evolved into a 41-6 win.

"There wasn't much that went wrong for us in that first half," said Greenback coach Justin Ridge, who has guided his team to consecutive 6-0 starts. "Even when we gave them good field position on that kickoff return, we still were able to just go ahead and stop them and get the ball back and score again.

"It's hard to say that, but I can't remember anytime putting up 41 points (in a half) against a team that was 3-1 coming in here. And they're a pretty strong 1A football team. So that's a pretty strong statement. I still believe it might be one of the best (halves) I've seen because of how we were able to move the ball in chunks and play pretty good defense."

Quarterback Eric Anderson, lethal running and passing on the evening, polished off the  Cherokees' opening possession with a 39-yard strike to Brock Moore. The first of Masey Fox's five PATs was true, and the romp quickly was on.

Cloudland (3-2) quickly went three-and-out, and Greenback went back to work in even more impressive fashion. Richard Seymour took the handoff, darted through the line and never was a threat to be caught on a 40-yard score.

"We played an absolute great game," said Greenback signal-caller Anderson. "I was happy on defense and offense. We executed perfectly. I really feel like we're playing our best football of the whole season."

Greenback got almost methodical on its third possession; it took all of six plays to score. This time quarterback Anderson cleaned up the 43-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge into paydirt before a standing-room-only crowd at Cooper Field.

It was much more of the same throughout the second quarter, with Greenback scoring so much that the second half opened under the TSSAA-mandated running clock. Seymour had an 11-yard run on the opening possession of the second quarter. After a squib kick recovered by Moore on the ensuing kickoff, Greenback was in the end zone again five plays later when Jordan Anderson started left, had a nifty cut-back right and powered in for six from 12 yards out.

The Cherokees assured the running clock when Justin Edwards darted and weaved through the Cloudland defense from 28 yards out to cap the first-half scoring.

While the offense lit up the scoreboard, Greenback's defense was flat-out suffocating. Led by Landon Disney and a host of other Cherokees defenders, they stymied the Cloudland offense that mustered a scant three first downs across the opening 24 minutes.

"Our defense has been phenomenal all year," Disney said. "We're shutting everybody out pretty much until the coaches take us out for safety purposes. And our starting offense is dominating. All year they have.

"We have three-and-out and then score in one or two plays. We know it's going to happen and we do it."

Said Ridge of the defense, "They're playing really well. They're a close unit, and we've got a lot of talent on that side of the ball but also they work really hard."

It will be a markedly different test in a week for Greenback, which faces rival and similarly state-ranked Grace Christian Academy on the Rams' dazzling new turf field.

"Next week is a big game; we're all excited about it and we've been looking forward to it all year," Disney said. "Hopefully we'll come out and perform.

"To tell you the truth, we've talked about it since that game last year (won at Greenback by Grace). We're pretty prepared. Last year that was one heck of a football team. Hopefully this year will have a different outcome."

Added Anderson, "Grace, I'm not going to lie, Grace is number one on our schedule that we look at. We take it a day at a time but Grace is definitely a team that we know is going to be a good game and going to be physical."