On an unusually warm late October Friday night, the Bulldogs traveled to Crawford County to take on the Van Buren Pointers. Van Buren was coming off a win against Fort Smith Southside and looking to keep the momentum going.
The Pointers received the opening kickoff but could not get things moving as their drive ended in a punt. One play later, Senior Isaiah Arrington took the pass from Junior Kane Archer and ran into the end zone for a touchdown. Senior Hudson Meeker’s point-after was good making the score 7-0 with 10:27 left in the first. Van Buren would face a similar situation on their second drive with tackles from Senior Cash Archer. Kane Archer would find Isaiah Arrington again, this time down the sideline for the touchdown. Point-after pushing the score to 14-0 with 8:23 in the first quarter. Van Buren and Greenwood would trade punts on the next two drives. The next Van Buren drive was halted by a tackle for a loss by Senior Mark Garretson. Senior Kaylor Jasna repeats his feat from the year before at Van Buren, with an interception returned for a touchdown. The point-after by Hudson Meeker was good, making it 21-0 with 2:10 left in the first. Van Buren would run out the clock on the first quarter on their drive.
Opening the second quarter, the Pointers would throw another interception, this time to Junior Lawyer Thornsberry. Two runs by Junior Wesley Raggio and Sophomore Mario Dunbar set up the Bulldogs offense in Pointer territory. Kane Archer found a wide-open Junior Champ Davis in the middle of the field for the third passing touchdown of the night. 28-0 9:37 in the half. Van Buren’s next drive ended in a punt. On the Bulldogs next drive, Archer took the ball in himself around the left side, for the touchdown. Hudson Meeker’s kick put the score 35-0 with 8:17 left in the half. The Pointers would find traction putting together a drive, using Air Force commit running back Cameron Keller, leaving the score 35-7 with 4:05 in the half. Greenwood would answer back to keep the thirty-five-point differential for the second half sportsmanship rule. Wesley Raggio would run right than reverse field for a 56-yard touchdown run. The Pointers stalled on their drive turning the ball over on downs. Another one-play drive for Greenwood as Kane Archer finds Champ Davis again for the touchdown. 49-7 with one minute left in the half. Van Buren ran out the clock on the half.
The second half started with Kane Archer finding Senior Grant Karnes down the right sideline for the touchdown with 8:40 in the third to make the score 56-7. The Pointers threw their third interception of the night, this time Senior Radley O’Neal snagging the ball out of the air. Junior Cooper Goodwin passed to Senior Scott Holland for the final Greenwood Touchdown pushing the score into the 60’s for the fourth time this season. The Bulldogs led 63-7 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.
The Pointers drive ran out the clock in the third quarter and ran over in the fourth quarter when Van Buren Senior Trenton Cooley found the end zone with 10:20 left in the game. The Bulldogs next drive was highlighted by a Cooper Goodwin run to get Greenwood into a scoring position. Hard runs by Toumeng Tung got the Junior running back to the 1 yard line. A delay of game penalty pushed the Bulldogs back to the six-yard line where the Bulldogs came up short on fourth down. Van Buren would run out the remainder of the running clock.
“It was a good night; I thought our kids played hard. We made some mistakes early, but we think tried to force some stuff offensively and didn’t take what they gave us.” Head Coach Chris Young said following the game. “I think we made adjustments and played a lot better after the third series.”
“Defensively, they were able to run the ball. They have a really good running back, you have got to give him credit, he’s a really good football player.” Coach Young said. “They got some guys open early, and I thought our coaches made some adjustments to fix that.”
Greenwood extended their win streak to twenty-one games. The Bulldogs are on the road again against Fort Smith Southside next Friday at Jim Rowland Stadium. Kickoff at 7p.m.
