By Patrick Newell
Sun Contributing Writer

GREENE - It took about a quarter to warm to the task of playing football in March, but the Greene Trojans and Unadilla Valley delivered a barnburner Friday night on the eve of spring.
The Storm, led by quarterback Kyler Butts, drove for the winning touchdown with 1:28 to play, and held off a late Greene drive in a 26-20 victory at George L. Raymond Field on Friday night. 
Butts had a day  - a really good day - rushing for 217 yards and two touchdowns, but it was a 12-yard hookup with Colin Gilbert that provided the winning margin.
Butts also found Gilbert on a 35-yard TD pass to open the scoring.
"Their quarterback was the difference  in the game," said Greene head coach Dave Gorton. "He broke tackles and broke contain, but he also showed nice patience finding the open receiver. We'll have to do a better job against him when we play them later this year."
Tristan Austin and Damien Hitt had outstanding opening games for the Trojans (0-1). 
Austin was nearly Butts' equal rushing for 184 yards, which included TD runs of 74 and 56 yards. Austin's latter score, combined with his two-point run chaser, tied the game at 20-20 with nine minutes left in the fourth.
Hitt finished with six catches for 80 yards and one touchdown, and he led the Greene defense with 14 tackles. 
"Hitt was outstanding for us on both sides of the ball," Gorton said. "He was in on every big play all game, and Austin did a great job at running back, but he also filled in at quarterback when Titus got hurt."
Greene's final possession of the game ended at the UV 41 as a fourth-down pass completion left the Trojans a half-yard short of extending a game-tying drive.
"We had a lot of kids play great, and this morning they were really sore," Gorton said." But they were happy because they had a football soreness.  (A few months ago), it didn't look like we would have a season. As it became closer to becoming a reality, we all got really excited.  This season we're playing for pride, and having an opportunity to represent our community."
Score by quarters
UVall 0   8  12  6--26
Greene  0   6    6   8--20
Summary:
First downs:  UV 20; G 11. Rushes-yds:  UV 46-298; G 28-213. Passing;  UV 6-11-0, 105; G 7-14-0, 93 yds. Total yards:  UV 403; G 306. Punts-avg: UV 1-23; G 2-34.5; Penalties-yeds. UV 2-20; G 1-5. Fumbles-lost: UV 3-2; G 1-0. Records: UV 1-0; G 0-1.
Scoring:  UV, Kyler Butts 35 pass to Colin Gilbert (Butts run); G, Tristan Austin 74 run (run failed); UV, Butts 3 run (run failed);  G, Josh Titus 33 pass to Damien Hitt (run failed), UV, Butts 48 run (pass failed); G, Austin 56 run (Austin run); UV Butts 12 pass to Gilbert (run failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing:  UV:  Kyler Butts 23-217; John Leonard 13-44, Marcus Proskine 8-18, Matt Bodgan 1-9, Lucas Donato 1-8.  G:  Tristan Austin 15-184, Hogan Ludolph 4-20, Josh Titus 7-8, Damien Hitt 2-1.
Passing:  UV:  Butts 6-11-0, 105, 2 TDs; G:  Josh Titus 7-12-0, 93 yds, TD;  Austin 0-2-0, 0 yds.
Receiving:  UV:  Colin Gilbert 3-85, Kaden Butts 1-15, Leonard 1-5, Proskine 1-0. G:  Damien Hitt 6-80, Austin 1-13.