The weather was almost perfect last Saturday at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium for the Class 6A state championship game between Greenwood and Benton, both members of the 6A West conference.
At kickoff the temperature was approaching 70 degrees with bright sunshine and a cloudless sky. The only real issue was a steady brisk wind that did impact the game at times.
Contrast that image with the severe weather Friday night that forced the postponement of the 5A state title game between Little Rock Christian and Pulaski Academy, rescheduled for Sunday afternoon.
By now everyone in South Sebastian County and Greenwood knows their Bulldogs won their ninth overall state title, defeating the Benton Panthers, 45-14.
Greenwood has reached the finals in each of the last four years, losing in 2015 and 2016, then winning last year over Pine Bluff before Saturday’s victory over Benton. Head Coach Rick Jones has now won eight state titles and played in 11 finals since coming to Greenwood in 2004.
Since the beginning of the modern playoff era in 1968, no Arkansas team has made more appearances (13) in the state finals than Greenwood. The first two (1996, 2000) came under former Head Coach Ronnie Peacock, as did the first state championship in 2000.
Following Saturday’s win, Coach Jones spent considerable time answering questions from numerous members of the media representing print, radio, and television outlets.
Comments
The ultra-successful Jones was all smiles as he fielded inquires on the turf at War Memorial. Topics ranged from the windy conditions to the senior class to the performance of individual players and more. Greenwood’s most famous citizen really seemed to enjoy the moment.
“I told our coaches – and this is probably not very smart – that I want to totally change what we did the first game,” said Jones. “The mentality is, you don’t change. Why would you, you won? [But if] they change, and you don’t change, you end up getting stuck.
“Our offense, defense, and kicking game guys, all three coordinators put a game plan together that was really based on looking at [Benton] like we had never seen them before, [and] I think it paid dividends,” added Jones. “We thought they had made some changes, so we wanted to do some different things [too].
“[Benton] is the kind of team that can just crush you, and they went about five minutes into the wind [on their opening drive]. It was the worst thing that could possibly happen,” said the coach. “We just didn’t stop them, and that’s because they are really good.”
Jones also addressed the issue of penalties and the early disparity in the calls. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” he admitted. “We were nine-to-one in penalties [at one point], but we regained our composure and our defensive guys played so hard.
“I’m proud of the way our kids played on defense. They played with heart, fire, and passion. Our defense has kept us alive. Nobody gets easy yards against them,” said Jones.
Asked about the play of quarterback Peyton Holt, who was a celebrated receiver in 2017, Jones said, “He played fantastic. He’s an exceptional athlete. He has great hands and feet. We knew he was ready [to play quarterback]. He has tremendous ability to make plays.
“He’s worked really hard,” continued Jones. “We’ve thrown a ton of balls and watched a ton of film. We wanted nothing left in the tank when we were done today. That was a pretty good performance, running and throwing and doing the things a quarterback has to do.”
All of Greenwood’s receivers, including Aaron Ohl, Luke Leonard, and Treyton Dawson, had a good day, but junior Lazaro Angel had the catch of the day, and Coach Jones was quick to acknowledge his contribution.
“I was proud of him and the way he played. I thought he did a great job of just getting loose. [Benton] was playing a lot of man-to-man [pass defense], and it was good to have him make some plays. That [fingertip] catch he made was picture perfect.”
The coach heaped praise on every aspect of his team’s play, including the boys in the trenches. “They played championship football,” said Jones. “Our offense was great. I thought our O-line stepped up and played great. I was really proud of them. We were winning the battle [up front].”
Asked if winning state titles ever gets old, Jones replied, “No it doesn’t,” then added, “They stay hungry and never get satisfied,” referring to his players.
Game Stats
Saturday’s championship game was dominated by Greenwood on both sides of the football as well as the scoreboard. On offense the Bulldogs rushed for 208 yards, while passing for 310 for 518 yards of total offense.
Greenwood also ran 85 plays from scrimmage and converted an incredible 15 of 20 third downs into first downs. Those kinds of numbers are going to win a lot of football games.
On defense, senior linebacker Travis Cox led the tackle chart with nine total stops, 1½ of which were for lost yardage. Senior defensive end Morgan Hanna has seven tackles and two QB sacks, while junior linebacker Garrett Newman recovered a fumble. Senior defensive backs Dawson James and Aaron Ohl both had interceptions.
Seniors
A total of 25 seniors were there last Saturday, including a few who were injured and did not dress out. That group will graduate with a record of 37 wins, two losses, and two state championships. Their post-season record over the last three years is 8-1. They also won three conference titles and were unbeaten in league play all three seasons.
“It was a great thing,” said injured senior linebacker Sam Sandifer. “That’s unbelievable. Not very many people get to do that.”
The Bulldogs lost a lot to graduation last year and many people expected 2018 to be a down year. They heard the rumors that this group of Bulldogs would not be able to repeat.
“We did,” said senior cornerback Gunner Perkins. “They said we weren’t going to make it, and then we win it all.” Perkins had four tackles in Saturday’s win.
MVP stats
Last season Peyton Holt was the leading receiver in Arkansas with 101 receptions for Greenwood’s unbeaten (13-0) state championship team. But in 2018 he made the move to quarterback and led the Bulldogs to their second-straight title.
“We executed and did the small things right,” said Holt, whose best sport may be baseball. He recently signed a letter-of-intent to play college baseball at Louisiana-Lafayette.
“We focused on what we needed to do to move the ball down the field, and stopped focusing on the big plays. We put a lot of small plays together, and it worked out,” he explained.
Holt earned the Most Valuable Player award Saturday after completing 23-of-34 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing 24 times for 94 yards and three more scores.
For the season, Holt finished with 3,032 yards passing and 23 touchdowns, adding 903 yards rushing with 21 touchdowns on the ground.
His total offensive output of 3,935 yards and 43 touchdowns was comparable to 2007 when Tyler Wilson threw for 3,963 yards, 43 touchdowns, while rushing for 239 yards and two touchdowns.
Flawless
Coach Jones and his Bulldogs have a history of excellent kickers including names like Kyle Magrini, Adam McFain, Kevin Jones,, and others. But Grant Ennis may be the best of the bunch.
The senior booted a 45-yard field goal to open Greenwood’s scoring against Benton last Saturday, tying the record for the third-longest field goal in state championship history.
He added six extra points and finished his career with 285 points, which is also a state record.
“I’ll remember everybody and how hard they worked for me – the holders, the snappers, everybody on the kickoff team,” said Ennis. “They were so encouraging. I love them to death.”
Perhaps even more impressive than his work last Saturday, Ennis finished a perfect 11-for-11 on field goals and hit all 64 extra point tries for the season. He had 97 points this season, 107 last year, and 81 as a sophomore. He also booted over 70% of his kickoffs into the end zone this year.
“I loved that I had a perfect season,” he said. “Every single ball (snap) was put on a tee, and with the work of my holder and snapper was great. Any ball that was put on a tee I put through the uprights. It’s just amazing to finish the season like that.”
Nathan Nethers was the team’s deep snapper while Jackson Stewart was the holder. Stewart also punted for the Bulldogs. Both players are juniors and will return next season.