Vikings Travel to Greenwood

Last week, Spartanburg dropped a heartbreaker to Gaffney 24-20 to start the 2026 season 0-1. Despite the loss, there was a lot of good to take away from the game; Sr Trenton Lynch’s 290-yard performance was a career high, while Sr wideout Tre’Gan Mickler hauled in 10-catches for 77 yards. This week for the Vikings they stay on the road to take on the Greenwood Eagles who are 1-0 by way of a week 1 victory over Riverside.

Spartanburg Offense vs Greenwood Defense

Spartanburg put up 462 yards of offense on a talented Gaffney defense in week 1 but, 290 of those yards came on the legs of Trenton Lynch, a lot of it came after halftime, and Jr quarterback Chris Colin had 2 turnovers (1 pick 1 fumble). A quicker start will be imperative for the Vikings as they scored just 7 points in the first half. While the Vikings ran for a lot of yards the offensive line will also need to step up after an uneven first game where Colin was under a lot of pressure Lynch struggled to find much room up the middle.

Greenwood’s new look defense was suffocating against the run in week 1 vs Riverside, allowing 79 yards on just 3.6 yards per carry. So linebacker Omar Quarles notched an interception for an Eagles defense that also forced a fumble and four punts. Quarles is one part of a young defense that sported 10 new starters coming into 2026. On the defensive line, Greenwood returns two veteran defensive ends in Jr Malik Stevens and Sr Kelvin Moton that will look to corral Lynch as well as put the same kind of pressure on Chris Colin that Gaffney did.

This feels like a similar matchup to Spartanburg Gaffney where the Vikings will be tested up front while relying on their superstar running back Trenton Lynch to make big plays in tight spaces. I think Greenwood is a little bit more susceptible than Gaffney is in the pass game. As we see the Colin to Mickler connection grow they will need to connect on some passes early to make the Eagles defense respect the threat of the pass. However, Spartanburg will need to play better up front against a veteran defensive line to get off to a better start than they did in week 1.

Spartanburg Defense vs Greenwood Offense

The Viking defense put up a very good effort in week 1 keeping Spartanburg in the game until their offense woke up. As the game turned into a back and forth affair in the second half trading haymakers the defenses themselves made huge plays. Sr linebacker Isiah Lipscomb in his first game back from ACL surgery had 12 tackles and 4 tackles for loss as the leader of a defense that had 7 total stops behind the line.

Where SHS struggled on defense against the Indians was stopping the run as Gaffney’s rushing trio put up 294 yards with a large amount of those yards coming on runs right up the middle. Jr defensive tackle Cameren Quarles made his first start on the varsity level and turned in a good outing with 6 tackles and a tackle for loss as well. Gaffney only threw for 82 yards but completed 11 of 17 passes vs Spartanburg, including a brutal 21-yard completion on 4th and long late in the game, but pass game does not figure to be a large part of the Greenwood offense.

The Eagles offense put up 5 first half touchdowns against Riverside and 441 total yards with 379 of those yards coming on the ground. Sr tailback Tay Hamilton along with So Cassidy Lee both ran for over 150 yards. Each scored 2 touchdowns in the win and those two along with an offensive line that returned four starters from 2025 poses a major threat for the Viking defense. At QB the Eagles ran two guys out there on Friday with So Quay Justesen getting the start, going 3-7 for 46 yards 1 TD with Jr Zatavion White going 1-1 for 16 yards with 15 rushing yards as well.

Defending the run is paramount for Spartanburg here with another strong running back duo plus offensive line in Greenwood. Winning on first and second down is going to be the name of the game here as the Vikings, if they can force the Eagles into some tough distances on third down where Greenwood has to drop back and rely on either Justesen or White to move the sticks. I see Spartanburg in that scenario playing a lot like they did down the stretch of the Gaffney game where they were flying around and sending numbers to try and overwhelm the offensive line and force negative plays.

Overall

Spartanburg hits the road again in Week 2 in search of their first victory of 2026 and they’ll hope to find it against Greenwood. In this game I think whoever wins will be the side that has cleaned up their operation the most. Spartanburg had 21 penalties for 167 yards while Greenwood had 11 penalties for 120 yards in their season openers and in the Vikings case it was a large part of why they come into this game 0-1. I think this game will be a little more offensively oriented early than the Gaffney game was and you can listen to our broadcast live on Fox Sports Spartanburg 98.3 FM this Friday night at 7:30. Catch our breakdown postgame on Victory Formation and our recap that’ll be here on spartanburgsportsradio.com.