It took just 12 seconds, on the game clock, for the Greenwood Bulldogs to let the rest of the area know they were ready to play and honor fallen teammate Isaiah Arrington. “You know, it was almost like we had someone pushing us through there.” Head Coach Chris Young said after the 70-28 win over Fort Smith Southside. “I’ll tell you what, I’m not sure we didn’t play with 12 men on that first play.”
Greenwood opened the game with Senior Grant Karnes taking the opening kickoff in for a Touchdown to put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard with the Hudson Meeker point-after. On the ensuing kick-off, Southside bobbled the pitch back to the returner and Senior Zach Edwards pounced on the ball, giving the ball back to Greenwood. On the first offensive play, Greenwood came out in a missing man formation and took a knee for a delay of game penalty to honor Senior wide receiver Isaiah Arrington. Who tragically lost his life in house fire, with his mother Wendy Medrano, and sister Vivian Medrano. Southside declined the penalty and a few plays later, Junior Kane Archer found classmate Champ Davis for Archer’s first of eight passing touchdowns on the night. Bulldogs on top 14-0 with just 11:16 left in the first quarter.
The Mavericks’ next drive ended in a punt. Junior Wesley Raggio ran to the left side to get in for Greenwood’s third score of the night. Hudson Meeker’s kick was good pushing the Greenwood lead to 21-0 with 9:18 left in the first. The Southside drive was left to a punt after tackles for a loss by Seniors Paul Brixey and Mark Garretson. Kane Archer found Champ Davis for their second touchdown with 6:07 left in the first on the next drive. Southside would start driving the field on the Greenwood defense when Senior Zach Zitsmann intercepted the Maverick pass. Kane Archer would find classmate Cooper Bland in the middle of the field for the touchdown. After the Wyatt Edwards snap, Blaze McDaniel hold, Hudson Meeker kick, the Bulldogs were now in Sportsmanship rule territory 35-0. Southside got a deep pass down their right side to put them in scoring position. They scored on a run with 0:01 left in the 1st. 35-7. The long kickoff return and hit by Champ Davis ran the rest of the time off the clock.
Opening the second quarter, Kane Archer found Champ Davis again, this time Davis provided the highlight of a one-handed bobbled catch in the end zone. The Mavericks’ next drive ended with a punt. Kane Archer found his third different receiver in Junior Benton Hossley for a touchdown at the 6:58 mark left in the half. 56-7. Southside turned it over on downs on their next drive in Greenwood territory. A deep pass to Senior Grant Karnes and a long run by Junior Cooper Goodwin, set up an Archer to Scott Holland touchdown. The point after pushed the score 63-7 with 2:50 left in the half. The Mavericks find the end zone on a pass with 1:01 left in the half. 63-14. Greenwood’s next drive was punctuated by a Southside player being ejected and Kane Archer breaking the school record for touchdowns in a game and tying the state record for touchdowns in half. Kane found Senior Grant Karnes in the end zone for his eighth touchdown on the night with 0:01 left in the half. It broke the former Bulldog and Razorback Tyler Wilson’s school record of 7 and tied former Pulaski Academy Bruin Thomas Thrash’s state halftime record of 8.
The second half Sophomore Thomas Newcity intercepted Southside after classmate Griffin Mourton came up with a sack on a previous play. Southside scored twice more in the second half to push the score to 70-28. Greenwood ran out the clock in the fourth quarter to finish the game.
“We feed off of each other, we knew tonight could go one of two ways.” Head Coach Chris Young said, “It could be like this, where we played awesome. Or we knew it could be a tough night.”
“We have a lot of tough times still ahead of us.” Coach Young said, “We are going to continue to celebrate the things he brought to this program. Celebrate the lessons that he taught us. The memories he gave us. He was an amazing young man and he had a huge impact not only on our football team, our school. We’re missing him.”
“I was a lot more happy about the smiles I saw on the sideline and the hugging. It’s been a tough few days, so today was a good one for us.” Coach Young said.
The Bulldogs are at home next week against Mountain Home for Senior night, which undoubtedly be another emotional game for Greenwood. With a Shiloh Christian loss to Lake Hamilton, it puts the 8-1 Bombers in a position to play spoiler to the Bulldogs. A Mountain Home win puts them with a shot to steal the number 1 seed away from Greenwood going into the playoffs. The Bombers defense will be tested as this Greenwood Bulldog team has a possibility to finish scoring 743 points. It will place Greenwood sixth in the state record book, but just the third school not named Pulaski Academy or Shiloh Christian on the list. Joining the 2003 Junction City Dragons and the 2008 Fountain Lake Cobras. Kickoff is slated for 7 P.M.
