The Greenwood Bulldogs traveled to Lake Hamilton for the final game of the regular season and left with an undefeated conference record.
The Bulldogs were in for a dog fight in the regular season finale. Greenwood would get the only score of the first quarter on a 26-yard field goal from senior kicker Luis Morales with 31 seconds left in the first quarter.
After briefly trailing 7-3, the Bulldogs would tally a 6-yard touchdown when senior quarterback LD Richmond would find Luke Brewer on a slant in the end zone moving the Bulldogs ahead 10-7 with 8:30 left in the 2nd quarter. After another Lake Hamilton score, Greenwood would go to the locker room at half with a 14-10 deficit.
The 2nd half would start of rocky for the undefeated Bulldogs as they fall behind 21-10 with 5:36 left in the third quarter.
LD Richmond would start the scoring in the 2nd half with a designed quarterback run for a 1-yard touchdown up the middle. With 2:57 left in the third quarter, the score set at 21-17 in favor of Lake Hamilton.
On the ensuing kickoff Luis Morales would bunt an onside kick up the right hash and catch Lake Hamilton off guard leading to a Bulldog recovery.
Using the momentum from the recovered kick, Greenwood marches down the field and converts 4th & goal on Hunter Wilkinson 1-yard touchdown run. Greenwood would take the lead 24-21 with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.
With 6:50 left in the 4th quarter, Lake Hamilton would regain the lead with a 3-yard touchdown run. In a rare situation for this Bulldog team they would trail 28-24.
However, the Lake Hamilton lead would be short lived. On the 2nd play of the following drive, senior running back Hunter Wilkinson would take the hand off and spring 63 yards to the house. Wilkinson showed his athleticism on what would be the play of the game but credit to the offensive line as Wilkinson was basically untouched on the run. With 6:13 left in the 4th quarter, Greenwood takes the lead 31-28.
Lake Hamilton would move into the red zone with 2:56 left in the game but the Bulldog defense would recover a fumbled snap to take possession, and momentum, away from the Wolves.
The Bulldogs would get another shot with less than a minute to go in the game but another bad snap would sail over the Lake Hamilton quarterbacks head and, after an initial recovery and errant throw, would wind up in the Wolves end zone only to be recovered by Bulldog junior Parker Gill for a defensive touchdown.
Greenwood would leave Lake Hamilton with a 38-28 victory and the 6A West Title. With the number 1 seed, the Greenwood Bulldogs will have the benefit of home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Due to an unusual, Covid-19 stricken, season, the Bulldogs will host West Memphis on November 13th inside Smith Robinson Stadium. West Memphis finished 2-8 overall and 1-6 in conference play. Normally eliminated from the playoffs, stipulations due to Covid-19 allow for West Memphis to enter the playoffs.
According to the Arkansas Activities Association, if just one team from any classification cannot play all of it’s normally scheduled conference games, then every team in that classification will qualify for the postseason.
