As expected, the Greenwood Bulldogs took care of business in their annual scrimmage against the Purple ‘Dogs of Fayetteville last Tuesday, winning 41-20. Both teams are now preparing for their regular season openers this coming Friday with Fayetteville playing at Cabot and Greenwood returning to Northwest Arkansas to take on Bentonville-West.
The Purple ‘Dogs are the defending Class 7A state champions and are picked second in the 7A West preseason rankings by conference coaches. Bentonville-West is #3 in the same poll. Greenwood is the consensus #1 pick in the 6A West and in 6A overall, according to Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine. The tradition-rich Bulldogs have reached the state championship game each of the last four years and earned state titles in 2020 and 2023 and are picked to win it all again this fall.
Fayetteville scrimmage
The visiting Bulldogs fell behind by two scores early at Fayetteville last Tuesday evening. After the Purple ‘Dogs received the opening kick and drove 75 yards for a touchdown, Greenwood quarterback Kane Archer gave up an interception, allowing the host squad to pick up its second score to go up 14-0 at the 7:21 point of the first quarter. But the Bulldogs did not panic and soon scored 27 unanswered points before halftime.
The first of those points came courtesy of sophomore running back Mario Dunbar after Archer had completed a series of short passes to march down the field. Five of those tosses went to star senior receiver Grant Karnes. The extra point kick made it 14-7 in favor of Fayetteville. But a GHS interception by Kaylor Jasna quickly followed, allowing the Bulldogs to tie the score moments later on a pass from Archer to senior Isaiah Arrington. The touchdown was set up by a long pass completion from Archer to new receiver Chase Davis, the highly touted move-in from Nebraska.
With the scrimmage tied at 14-all, Greenwood’s defense continued to stymie the Fayetteville offense, forcing a punt and getting the ball back quickly. From the Bulldogs’ 45-yard-line, Archer guided his teammates to a third consecutive touchdown on a 24-yard completion to junior receiver Cooper Bland. The extra point failed, and Greenwood had the lead for the first time at 20-14.
They padded their advantage further before the half, scoring again on a run by junior tailback Wesley Raggio. Kane Archer threw a 25-yard pass to Grant Karnes to anchor the scoring drive. The kick made it 27-14 before the Purple ‘Dogs drove 75 yards for their third and final score of the game, making it 27-20 at the intermission.
By agreement, neither team used its first-string players in the second half, opting to give their reserves all the playing time. Junior QB Cooper Goodwin and sophomore Brayden Brewer took the snaps for the Bulldogs, with Goodwin tossing a 16-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Benton Hossley. Junior running back Deacon Cameron accounted for Greenwood’s final score, making it 41-20, as the GHS defense did not allow a second half score to Fayetteville.
Coach Young
Asked about his impression of the scrimmage, the GHS Head Coach was not shy in offering constructive criticism of his Bulldogs, knowing there is still work to do before the start of the season. Based on their performance in the scrimmage, almost every facet of the team has need of improvement, according to Young. Like most head coaches, Young loves his players and backs them to the max, but is also seldom completely satisfied with their performance, always striving for more and better.
“We went down 14-0 the first two drives and then we scored 27 points in a row against a really good Fayetteville team,” began the coach. “I was proud of our kids. We haven’t had a lot of adversity over the last year. When you go 13-0 and don’t have adversity, it’s good to struggle a little bit. It’s good to be down and see how you’re going to respond. That was the best thing I took away from the scrimmage. When we were getting our tails kicked the first 10 minutes, we didn’t tuck our tails between our legs, we responded and fought back.”
Asked about the play of his offense in the scrimmage, the coach said, “I thought it was sloppy and inconsistent. Obviously, we had some guys make some plays. Champ Davis was really good at wide receiver. [Receivers] Grant Karnes and Isaiah Arrington made some plays. But I didn’t think [quarterback] Kane Archer played great. It’s early, but he was thinking too much instead of just playing. And it’s hard when you’re the quarterback and you’re not “live.” It kind of changes your [approach].
“One of the best things he does is making plays when things break down, and that’s taken away [in a scrimmage]. The two [interceptions] were on him. Kane’s got to do a better job of not throwing the ball up. There’s going to be times when things break down, and we have to protect the football. But he’s healthy and that’s always a key [thing] after a scrimmage.
“I thought the offensive line was not very physical and struggled a little bit on blitz protection. But we don’t gameplan Fayetteville, and they did some things we weren’t prepared for, and that’s on us. We had some good moments and were able to score some points. We had some guys make good individual plays, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff to work on offensively.
Regarding the play of his running backs, Young said, “That’s one of our big points of competition in the preseason. We’ve got to have a guy step up and be “that guy.” I thought Wesley [Raggio] started slow but got more physical as the scrimmage went on, and that was a good sign. Mario Dunbar, a sophomore, shows flashes that he could be the guy. Maddox McCalip, a transfer from Southside, is learning our offense. But when he gets the ball, he has the ability to make guys miss and down the road he could help us. Then Deacon Cameron is a physical runner. One of those four guys needs to win the job. Until then we will probably play all of them until we figure out one of them is better than the others. I think we’ll also put some receivers back there at times and hand those guys the ball. So it will be by committee until somebody wins the [starting] job,” said Young.
Defensively, the GHS head coach said, “I was disappointed in how we started, but I think that’s to be expected. We do a good job here of keeping guys healthy in practice, which means we’re not real physical in practice with tackling, and we stay off the quarterback. But that’s a negative in a scrimmage. Our guys are still in that mode of not being physical, not taking guys to the ground, and not touching the quarterback, and I thought it took us a couple possessions to get [over] that. But then I was happy with how they responded after those first two [Fayetteville] possessions.
“Fayetteville is as talented as anybody we will play, and they are well-coached,” said Young. “They’ve got some great athletes and great players, so you want to win, but our focus right now is finding all the things that we can fix and clean up, and there’s plenty of stuff in all phases [of the game]. Defensively, Kaylor Jasna was impressive. He did get beat once for a touchdown, but he had the interception and came in the box and made some tackles. I thought Zack Zitzmann made some tackles.
“We’ve got to get better up front. I didn’t think our defensive line played very well. They lost containment a couple times on the quarterback. D.J. Dobbins and Isaiah Arrington at the corners did a good job, and Fayetteville has some talented receivers. So there were some bright spots for sure, but we’re going to focus on what we need to fix and not spend time patting ourselves on the back for things we did right.”
The coach also explained that star receivers Champ Davis, Grant Karnes, and Isaiah Arrington are all getting reps on defense in the secondary. “We’re practicing those guys to give us some depth. Hopefully we won’t have to play them a lot, but we want them to be ready if there’s a point in the season where we need them,” he said.
“Cooper Goodwin does a good job for us,” said Young of his #2 quarterback who relieved Archer in the second half of the scrimmage and led a scoring drive. “He can run our offense, and we have complete confidence that if he has to come into a game he can run our stuff and we can win with Cooper. But he’s a talented athlete and we will use him at running back some and at wide receiver when we go five wide. He’ll be a part of our game plan for sure. He’s such a dynamic athlete and very intelligent. I thought he did a good job. Then Braden Brewer came in late and he’s going to be a good one. He’s just learning our offense right now, but he’s got a canon for an arm. He’s got great athletic ability and can really throw the football. It’s just a matter of how quickly he picks up our offense.”
Turning his attention to the starting lineups for the season opener this week at Bentonville-West, the coach spoke with relative certainty about most positions, beginning with the offensive line. Earlier in the summer the Bulldogs were well-stocked with six qualified starters for five positions, but that may have changed slightly. “Five of those guys have settled in, but one of them may have to play some on defense. But right now we’ve got Christian Fleming at left tackle, Eddy Castelo at left guard, and Cody Taylor at center. He had a couple bad snaps [in the scrimmage] and we’ve got to get that fixed. At right guard is Landon Billy with Ashton Stein at right tackle. Akira Fujibayashi is the sixth guy right now. He played some center and guard last night, so he can rest some of those other guys.”
Fleming, Stein, and Castelo are all seniors, while Billy, Taylor, and Fujibayashi are juniors. Those six linemen average 6’3” and 265 pounds. That’s a good-sized offensive front. “We’ve also got two good young tackles, Alex Vanderwatt and Hal Davis [both sophomores] that we think will progress as this season goes on. But I was not happy with the offensive line play [against Fayetteville] and that’s an area we’re going to focus on during these next few days. Coach [Austin] Moreton does a great job with those guys, and he will have them ready to go.”
The coach then talked about his wealth of receivers, enough to fully stock two teams, led by returning senior stars Grant Karnes and Isaiah Arrington and junior newcomer Champ Davis. But Young also touted the play and potential of Cooper Bland, who caught a touchdown pass in the scrimmage and Ben Hossley, who did the same. Other players who will see varsity action at receiver this season include Scott Holland, Hudson Meeker, and Jadyn Johnson who moved in from Van Buren. “That’s eight guys that we feel like we can win with on Friday night,” said Young. “We’ve got a lot of depth, and that’s a good thing to have.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs are rebuilding this season after the departure of so many starting seniors from last year’s squad. They have several upperclassmen to fill those openings but will also get assistance from a group of talented sophomores. “We’ve got [junior] Cody Johnson (6’4”, 230) and [senior] Gage Hanna (6’2”, 214) at the defensive ends,” Young continued. “[Senior] Mark Garretson has been at the nose spot and [junior] Deandre Stephens rotates in there. Michael Berry is a young defensive end and Brock Shepard is a young defensive guy that can help. Charlie Hudnall is a young noseguard. So we’d like to see those three guys come on.” Berry, Shepard, and Hudnall are all promising sophomores.
“We moved Cash Archer to middle linebacker, and that’s a process. He’s got to learn how to play that [spot]. But his motor runs and he’s going to be a good player wherever we play him. Zach Edwards is playing linebacker. He’s a strong, physical kid who played a lot last year. In our secondary, I think Kaylor Jasna is going to be one of the best defensive players in the state. He’s a physical safety who can cover and come in like another linebacker. It’s the same with Zack Zitzmann who returns at safety. He’s a physical guy who gets down into the box and can cover the deep ball too.” Cash Owenby also played some safety in the scrimmage, said Young. “He gave up a touchdown but he’s going to get better every day he’s out there.”
“We were happy with our corners [against Fayetteville] for the most part,” added the coach. “D.J. Dobbins and Radley O’Neal, and Isaiah Arrington came in and will play some corner for us. The good thing about some of these guys that are starting that don’t have a lot of experience, the more [they play] the better they’re going to be. We look for them to really improve every week. Cash Owenby and Paul Brixey, who started at linebacker for us last night, are physical kids who never started before, but I think Cash, Paul, and Gage Hanna are going to get better and better. We lost a lot of guys, but we’re replacing them with guys who have been in our program for six years that are seniors now.”
But the GHS coach admitted to worrying about his overall team depth. “I think that’s an area of concern, especially defensively,” said Young. “I feel good offensively about our depth, but defensively we’ve got to develop some guys that are twos. And a lot of them are young guys. It’s not that they can’t do it, it’s just that we haven’t seen it yet. If we can get them some reps, down the road it will pay off.”
Asked about team speed, Young said, “I think we have pretty good speed. Last year maybe we were a little bit quicker. But I think we have good team speed, and that’s a strength. We want to play fast, and I think we’re doing that right now.” The Bulldogs are known as one of the fastest playing teams in the state, seldom resorting to a full huddle, snapping the ball well before the play clock counts down to zero.
Asked about the schedule at the start of the season, Young admitted the difficulty of finding quality non-conference opponents to play the Bulldogs. “There’s not a long line [of teams] looking to play us,” said Young. “It is tough to find quality non-conference opponents. But we’re excited. Bentonville-West, Northside, and Springdale Har-Ber are three great football programs. We haven’t played Har-Ber or Bentonville-West in a while. They are well-coached teams with good players. We think they will make us better. If we don’t come out ready to play, they will embarrass us. But we’ll be prepared and we’re looking forward to it.”
Young also talked about this season’s open date after Springdale Har-Ber and just before the opening of conference play against Shiloh Christian, the only league team most pundits believe could challenge Greenwood for the conference title. “Last year our open date was just the luck of the draw and it was the perfect time, week six in the middle of the [season]. But this year we play three non-conference games weeks zero, one, and two and then have a bye before we start our conference [schedule],” said the coach.
That first league contest at Shiloh Christian could be the biggest of the regular season with the conference title on the line. Most observers and pundits believe the Saints and Bulldogs are the two best teams in the West and maybe in all of Class 6A. Greenwood and Shiloh should finish 1-2 in the league race according to most preseason predictions. “It’s a long season and a long way to go, but we have no doubt [Shiloh] is going to be a good team in our league. Their head coach was the head coach at Stillwater, OK, when they beat us two years ago. I expect it to be an awesome environment for our first conference game, for sure. Lake Hamilton has everybody back from last year. Russellville has some good athletes. Mountain Home has a quarterback they’re really high on and their staff does a good job. It will be interesting to see how the conference shapes up with Shiloh and Fort Smith Southside coming in.”
So, saddle up Bulldogs fans, the journey is about to begin. The trail ahead is clearly marked, starting at Bentonville-West this Friday and continuing through homecoming against Russellville the first Friday in October and senior night against Mountain Home the second Friday in November. Then come the playoffs and the inevitable sprint to the championship game at War Memorial Stadium in early December. The Bulldogs are expected to return to the title game once again for a fifth consecutive year, and whether the opponent is Shiloh Christian, or Benton, or some other surprise team, Greenwood’s Bulldogs will be favored, as they should be. In a world seemingly gone crazy, at least we still have something special and familiar to cling to, so cherish it.