ENDICOTT – Greene dug deep into its playbook and had Unatego fooled a couple of times. Still, the Spartans overcame those bits of trickery with precise offensive execution and great playmaking from star player Alex Hendrickson.

Hendrickson scored three times for Unatego, who took down the Trojans Saturday afternoon in the Class C playoffs, 35-20 at Ty Cobb Field. It was the second win for Unatego over Greene this season, and moves the Spartans’ record to 9-0 with a date against Lansing for the overall section title.

Execution was the mantra – or more apt lamentation – repeated by Greene coach Tim Paske and junior quarterback Nate Whittaker. “They did execute extremely well,” Paske said, whose club dropped its second straight playoff opener in as many years. “There were a couple of times we executed on defense and a couple of times we didn’t. When we didn’t, they took advantage of it.”

The Trojans might wish to proffer a rules change from four downs to three downs. On first and second down, there was no real advantage gained by either the Unatego offense or Greene defense. On third down – and on a couple occasions fourth down – it was a whole different story. In the first half alone, Unatego moved the line-to-gain markers three times on third-and-long, and twice on fourth down.