Safety, blocked punt spur Greenwood

GREENWOOD –Offensive opportunities can not be wasted when the Greenwood offense is clicking.

Van Buren wasted two first-quarter opportunities, allowing the Bulldogs to pull away in the second quarter to open 7A/6A-Central Conference play with a 45-14 blowout victory at Smith-Robinson Stadium on Friday night.

While the Pointers (22, 0-1) squandered its early opportunities, the Bulldogs were razor-sharp on offense. Greenwood (4-0, 1-0) scored on four of its five first-half possessions.

Even on the lone firsthalf possession where they didn’t score, the Bulldogs lost a fumble inside the Van Buren 10. Grant Morgan tackled Jaylynn Dye in the end zone for a safety on the next play.

“The safety was a killer,” Van Buren Coach Greg Werner said. “It went downhill quickly after that. We had just made a big stand defensively. If we could have kept it 15-0 or 22-0 at half, at least we are feeling, to some extent, good about ourselves.”

Greenwood finished with 406 total yards, including 231 yards rushing.

“When we get into rhythm [on offense], we are pretty decent,” Greenwood Coach Rick Jones said. “Except for a fumble, we were really efficient offensively.”

The Pointers’ game plan was to control the ball and clock and they did that in the first quarter, but did not get points on two strong drives.

The Bulldogs needed just 1:25 to score on a 17-yard run by Jordan Green to cap a 63yard drive for a 8-0 lead midway in the first quarter.

Greenwood’s Jax Burgess blocked his third kick in as many weeks, a punt, then scooped up the ball and scored with 3:10 left in the opening quarter for a 15-0 Greenwood lead.

“There is a knack to [it],” Jones said of blocking kicks. “It has been my experience as a coach that if they do it once, they will do it again. You can coach it and teach it, but there is something about actually doing it in a game that gives them a feel for it.

After the Morgan safety increased the lead to 17-0, Greenwood’s offense began to roll, scoring touchdowns on its next four possession to blow the game open.