GREENE – Chenango County’s longest run of consecutive football playoff appearances likely came to an end on Friday.

In a must-win situation against visiting Unatego/Franklin/G-MU/Unadilla Valley, Greene lost a back-and-forth clash 18-14 on Friday night.

The lead changed hands three times in the second half, and a clutch U/F/GMU/UV first down in the fourth quarter sealed the visitors’ win.

“Honestly, in many ways, we played our most complete game of the year,” said Greene head coach Dave Gorton, whose club has made the playoffs every season nine straight years (excluding the shortened 2020 COVID season). “We were able to do a lot of things we wanted to do. I would say, up front, we were giving up 30-plus pounds per man. At the end of the second half, their size just hurt us.”

Greene had the visiting club pinned on their side of the field and forced a fourth-and-six situation with two minutes to play in the game.

U/F/GMU/UV established a physical, chain-moving attack in the second half that was almost exclusively through the running game.

But on this pivotal play, a play-action pass was called. The change-up fooled the Greene defense leading to a 15-yard first-down completion. From there, the visitors ran out the clock.

“Our guys got caught staring into the backfield (on that last play by U/F/G-MU/UV),” Gorton said. “I think our guys assumed (U/F/G-MU/UV) would run the ball.”