Greenwood wins third 7-on-7 tournament championship

SILOAM SPRINGS — The Greenwood Bulldogs earned their ice cream Saturday.

Greenwood won its third 7-on-7 tournament championship this month with a 32-6 win over Bartlesville, Okla., in the final of the State Line Shootout at Panther Stadium on the campus of Siloam Springs High School.

The tournament win comes after the Bulldogs went 9-0 at the Cyclone 7-on-7 at Russellville on Wednesday.

Greenwood also claimed a share of the Lumber One 7-on-7 Showcase in Alma on June 9 after severe weather canceled the championship game against Fayetteville.

Greenwood suffered its first 7-on-7 loss of the summer Saturday morning against defending State Line Shootout champion Muskogee, Okla., but the Bulldogs bounced back to win their last two games of pool play and then four bracket games to finish 9-1 on the day.

And that’s where the ice cream comes in.

“We had a long break the last two tournaments and we took them for ice cream because we didn’t want them to sit around for two hours,” Greenwood Coach Chris Young said. “They told me, ‘Well now it’s tradition.’ I said you go win it and we’ll get you ice cream. We’re going to hold up our end of the bargain, and luckily we’ve got a booster club that cares care of our kids.”

Greenwood defeated Gentry 29-2 in the opening round of bracket play, and then beat Springdale 38-21 in the quarterfinals. That set up a matchup against Bentonville West in the quarterfinals, which the Bulldogs won 33-20 to reach the final.

Bartlesville beat Siloam Springs 34-2 in the other semifinal. In the round before that, Siloam Springs had upset No. 1 seed Muskogee 28-10, handing the Roughers their only loss of the day.

In the final, Greenwood quarterback Kane Archer threw for four touchdowns, and the Bulldogs’ defense got a pair of stops to account for four more points.

Greenwood was missing several of its top players in the secondary, which forced several other Bulldogs to step up, Young said.

“The exciting thing about today is we’ve got three of our four safeties out,” Young said. “We’ve got a corner out and we had kids step up. That’s what’s really awesome. That’s what’s really good about 7-on7 is you get a lot of kids an opportunity to get a lot of playing time.”

Young said Josh Allen, Cash Owenby and Jeremy Deleon stepped up Saturday, along with wide receivers LJ Robins and Grant Karnes who played some in the secondary.

Young specifically highlighted the play of Isaiah Arrington, who plays receiver and corner.

“We played him a lot at corner today against guys that can really run and I thought he did a great job on both sides of the ball,” Young said. “It was just a great day for the Bulldogs.”

Young also mentioned backup quarterback Cooper Goodwin, who took some snaps at QB along with Archer.

“Cooper Goodwin took a lot of snaps,” Young said. “I tell you what Cooper’s done a great job throughout the 7 on 7. Kane was great again today, just efficient, took care of the ball. And I tell you what, with the receivers he has out there, if he gets them the ball they’re going to go make plays. It was fun to watch.”