GREENWOOD DEFENSE adds final touches to victory.
PEARCY — Greenwood’s defense stole the show late in an offensive shootout between two unbeatens Friday night.
The Bulldogs recovered two fumbles in the final three minutes, including one for a touchdown, and won the 6A-West Conference title with a 38-28 victory over Lake Hamilton at Wolf Stadium.
“I’m really, really proud of our defensive staff,” Greenwood Coach Chris Young said. “We had some defensive linemen out, and we had some kids to come in and play that had never played this year. Man, they played awesome. They just fought.”
Greenwood (10-0, 6-0 6A-West) took a 31-28 lead on Hunter Wilkinson’s 63-yard touchdown run with 6:50 remaining, just two plays after Lake Hamilton (8-1, 5-1) went out in front on Grant Bearden’s 3-yard quarterback keeper. The Bulldogs then elected to try an onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds to give possession to the Wolves.
Bearden’s 36-yard completion to Owen Miller on a thirdand-16 play kept Lake Hamilton’s drive alive, but it ended three plays later when the Wolves suffered a bad snap on third and 6 from the Greenwood 20. Parker Gill dove into the pile to recover the loose ball, and the Bulldogs took over with 2:56 remaining.
“That one was big,” Lake Hamilton Coach Tommy Gilleran said. “We’re driving down to score, and they haven’t stopped us the whole game. To fumble and lose it right there, that was big because our defense was struggling. We had to try something different.”
Greenwood melted the clock and caused Lake Hamilton to call its timeouts before punting the ball with 37 seconds left. Jaelin Fowler sacked Bearden for a 2-yard loss on first down, then the Wolves followed a spike with a bad snap that turned into a Greenwood touchdown when Gill recovered the ball after Bearden’s pass attempt went backward into the end zone.
The Bulldogs had to come from behind after Tevin Woodley’s 6-yard touchdown run gave Lake Hamilton a 2110 cushion with 5:36 left in the third quarter. Greenwood answered with LD Richmond’s 1-yard quarterback keeper to make it 21-17.
The Bulldogs recovered an onside kick and took the lead eight plays later when Wilkinson scored on a 3-yard run with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.
“[The onside kick] was something we had seen on film,” Young said. “We knew we had that. It was just a matter of when we were going to try it. We hit the ball a little harder than we liked to, but our kid made a great play to get the ball. It was a big momentum swing for us.”