LH announcer confident of Wolves’ payback victory

Having played for a championship football team at Lake Hamilton, Benson Jordan is getting a look at what, he says, might be another one.

A 2010 Lake Hamilton graduate, Jordan played in two Class 6A finals at the school. An injury to starter Phillip Butterfield on a failed fake punt pressed Jordan into duty as a backup quarterback — a sophomore, he already was playing middle linebacker and safety — in a 13-0 loss to Texarkana in 2007. Butterfield passed for two touchdowns and ran for two scores as the 2008 Wolves claimed the school’s second football state title, beating El Dorado 42-28. The Wolves reached the semifinals in 2009, Jordan’s senior year, before losing to Pine Bluff.

In his second year as a broadcaster for a Hot Springs radio station, Jordan will be calling the action from Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium Saturday night as Lake Hamilton plays Greenwood for the 6A title. As were the 6A finals in 2007 and 2008, this is the second meeting of these conference rivals, Greenwood taking the 6A West crown with a Week 10 victory at Wolf Stadium, 38-28. Greenwood (13-0) with nine state football championships, is a 7-point favorite, according to Hootens.com. Kickoff is 6:40 p.m.

Lake Hamilton (11-1) feels confident of winning the rematch, as did Russellville over Greenwood in the 2016 finals. The Wolves come off a 21-20 overtime victory over Sylvan Hills, stopping a 2-point conversion for the school’s first finals appearance since losing to El Dorado in 2011.

“We might have won the state championship last week,” Jordan said in a midweek interview. “We only have to be better than Greenwood for 48 minutes Saturday night. We were better than them for 46 minutes the last time.”

Asked for a prediction, Jordan settled on 35-31 Lake Hamilton. That might have been the final score in the Nov. 6 game with Greenwood had the Wolves punched across a late touchdown. Instead, Greenwood got that fourth-quarter score when a Bulldog player pounced on a bad snap in the end zone, creating a double-digit final margin in a game, Jordan says, that was closer than the final score indicates.

Greenwood, meanwhile, averaged more than 50 points in playoff stampedes of West Memphis, Mountain Home and Marion after winning every regular-season game but one by double digits. Making such a team play from behind would be an emotional boost to the Wolves, Jordan says.

Lake Hamilton has won most of its games by comfortable margins, although the Russellville game (43-42) raised concerns about the defense. An expected Week 9 showdown at Benton turned into a Lake Hamilton blowout, 51-34. The Wolves moved on after the Greenwood game with playoff victories over Sheridan (49-36) and El Dorado (50-14), both at Wolf Stadium, and then won a showpiece game at Sylvan Hills.

Lake Hamilton led Sylvan Hills 14-0 in the fourth quarter but the game went to overtime after the Wolves had a field-goal attempt blocked. That drive stemmed from a kickoff return to the Sylvan Hills 49 by senior Layne Warrick, the team’s starting quarterback last year until injured and playing in relief this year of junior Grant Bearden.

Though Bearden has played in every game

and is a 59% passer, Jordan expects Warrick to play a key role in the final. “Wherever he is on the field,” Jordan says, “he’ll make his presence felt.”

An imposing team physically, the Wolves have dominated most opponents with a twopronged running attack. Junior two-year starters Tevin Woodley (1,835 yards) and Owen Miller (1,723) have been twin terrors, each scoring 21 touchdowns on the ground. Miller doubles as a clutch receiver with 267 yards and three scores this season.

Lake Hamilton, which sent center Grant Garrett to the University of Arkansas off the

1992 state-championship team, might have one or more college prospects in offensive linemen Chase Jessup, Zach Roberts and Bradley Rieman. Senior linebacker Izaiah Clenney, who is also the team’s leading receiver, has made 144 tackles, senior Trent Singelton and sophomore Justin Crutchmer 116 each.

“Our kids just made more plays ( than Sylvan Hills),” fourth-year head coach Tommy Gilleran told a Little Rock sideline reporter. Gilleran, whose son, Dale, is the Wolves’ defensive coordinator, coached the

2009 Fountain Lake Cobras to the last football state championship by a Garland County team.

Tommy Gilleran played at Lake Hamilton under retired coach Jerry Clay, who led the Wolves to six title appearances but none in Gilleran’s time.

“Being a Lake Hamilton graduate and taking Lake Hamilton to the championship game is special,” said Tommy Gilleran, who overcame injuries from an automobile accident following the 2019 season.

“I’m thrilled,” Jordan said, “that my dad ( James “Tiger” Jordan) coached on Lake Hamilton’s first championship team, and I played on the second. Now, here I am as a broadcaster.”

Jordan, who sells insurance in his day job, echoes a sentiment popular in the Lake Hamilton community that these Wolf players and coaches have developed a closeness that has been key in trying times. In a season threatened by the COVID-19 virus, the Wolves missed only a midseason home game against conference rival Little Rock Parkview. They entered conference play on an emotional high after a sweep of rivals Lakeside, Malvern and Hot Springs, the first two reaching the playoffs in other classifications.

A former Ouachita Baptist player and Southern Arkansas assistant, Jordan remembers the charge one gets on game night. And that, as Alabama coach Gene Stallings liked to say, the fun is in the winning.

“If we win this game, people won’t remember that we didn’t win the conference,” Jordan said. “You only remember, and talk about, the games you win.”