Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Greenwood shuts out Texarkana
GREENWOOD — The Greenwood defense is running up coach Rick Jones quite a pizza tab.
The Bulldogs recorded their fourth shutout of the season Friday night with a 38-0 win against Texarkana in the class 6A quarterfinals, earning the unit another free meal. The win also marked Greenwood’s first postseason shutout win since a 45-0 rout of Little Rock Parkview in 2013.
“I’m happy to do it,” Jones said. “That was a great effort on their part tonight. Texarkana has some really explosive players, and I was proud of the way we played on defense. We just shut them down. We gave them some plays, but they didn’t take anything over the top, and that’s what I was really proud of.”
Texarkana’s offense was unable to develop any sort of rhythm in the loss, punting away on eight of its 12 possessions and five of six in the first half. On its other four possessions: three turnovers on down, and an interception — returned 10 yards for a touchdown by Nicholas Vota.
Razorbacks quarterback Sean Foreback completed just 6-of-24 passes for 73 yards. After halftime, he was 1-of-9 through the air for two yards and the Vota interception. Texarkana’s bright spot was running back Jordan Hall, who finished with 100 yards rushing – 73 in the second half – on 23 carries.
“Our defense was locked in,” Jones said. “Our defensive coaches did a great job, they had a great plan and our kids knew what to do. You’ve just got to build on it.”
Greenwood’s offense faced little resistance on its first possession of the night, which ended in a 7-yard Connor Noland touchdown run. The 7-0 score held until midway through the second quarter when Noland hit receiver Peyton Holt for a score on an 8-yard slant. Holt finished with five grabs for 58 yards to lead Bulldogs receivers.
Ahead 24-0 entering the fourth, Noland put the game away when he
found Kade Orlicek for an 8-yard touchdown. Noland finished the night with 210 total yards (151 passing, 59 rushing) and three scores. Meanwhile, running back Kenny Wood put together another solid game, rushing 29 times for 166 yards to bring his season rushing total to 1,475.
“He’s so strong,” Noland said of Wood. “He’s not a big guy, but get him in the weight room and he’ll throw some weight around. He’s a physical specimen, he’s our workhorse and he definitely takes the load off me.”
Greenwood advances to
face West Memphis next week with a Dec. 1 trip to War Memorial Stadium on the line. The Blue Devils handed Benton a 39-21 loss Friday night. It will be the first meeting between the schools.
“I’ve watched them a little bit on film, and they looked really, really fast at the wide receiver spot,” Jones said of West Memphis. “Defensively, they can run all over the field.”