Arkansas high school football Class 6A state final: Greenwood uses ball control to out-muscle LRCA
LITTLE ROCK — The Greenwood Bulldogs showed they could use ball control and a good ground game in winning their 11th state championship Friday night with a 41-23 victory over Little Rock Christian at War Memorial Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 12,219.
The Bulldogs, who finished with 402 yards on 71 plays, had 251 yards rushing on 46 attempts controlling the clock for 30:05 while picking up 24 first downs.
“We knew we were going to have to run the ball,” said Greenwood head coach Chris Young. “They play a light box and are a bit undersized on the defensive line and are very skilled in the secondary. We had to run the ball to be successful and in the third and fourth quarter, we were able to run it and that turned the game.”
Brayedan Davis totaled 156 yards rushing on 29 carries while quarterback Kane Archer, who was named MVP, had 95 yards on 16 carries with 2 touchdowns along with 22-of-29 passing for 187 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Archer said at halftime, that he felt the Bulldogs had to be more physical and implored the coaching staff to call more running plays and told the coaching staff that he was willing to stick his head down to help get the tough rushing yards.
“Definitely, our defense wore out,” said LRCA head coach Eric Cohu. “They have a big offensive line, and the more we were out there, the more we wore out. I felt like the first half, we made a couple blunders, but played better than we did four weeks ago. In the second half, our defense wore out. We had to play a consistent game to win. None of those things happened.”
While the Bulldogs’ running game made the difference, their passing game jumped them out to a fast start as they led 14-0 in the first quarter on a 27-yards pass from Archer to Grant Karnes and a 1-yard run by Archer at the 2:26 mark.
Little Rock Christian pulled to a 14-6 on a 15-yard pass from Walker White to Cade Bowman at the 9:57 mark of the second quarter. After an encroachment penalty on Greenwood moved the bal to the one, LRCA decided to go for two, but White was tripped up by Riley White, leaving Greenwood with a 14-6 lead.
Greenwood answered with a 24-yard pass from Archer to Isaiah Arrington to make it 21-6 with 4:09 left in the second quarter.
LRCA closed to 21-9 at halftime when it marched 81 yards in 9 plays in the final 56 seconds with Greyson Hoover kicking a 30-yard field goal as time expired.
With Greenwood penalized 15 yards for leaping on the field-goal attempt, LRCA tried an onside kick to start the second half, but Brady Mackey recovered the attempt at the 35. Despite four false-start penalties, the Bulldogs stretched the lead to 24-9 on a 24-yard field goal by Bodey Steinfeldt at the 7:44 mark.
After White was intercepted at the 3:51 mark of the third quarter by Mackey, Steinfeldt added a 22-yard field goal with 10:28 left to make it 27-9.
LRCA closed to 27-16 when White, backpedaling, threw a pass up that Arrington tipped that went into the hands of Jake Field for a 12-yard touchdown with 7:38 left.
After Greenwood recovered an onside kick, the Bulldogs put the game away when Davis scored from 4 yards out with 3:17 left to make it 34-16.
Young said Davis, who a year ago, was the fifth string running back, worked very hard in the weight room and with his diet to get in shape for the season and saw the results.
“How awesome was he in the fourth quarter?” Young said of Davis. “He got in the weight room and he worked out with his step dad, ate right and he won the game for us in the fourth quarter.”
White added a 25-yard touchdown pass to Tristen Watson with 2:41 left and Archer scored on a 2-yard run with 1:43 left to finish the scoring.
3 Takeaways
1
LRCA, which lost 56-39 on Nov. 3, was hoping to gain a measure of revenge and needed to eliminate mistakes that cost them the last time around. The Warriors turned the ball over three times and gave up a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the previous meeting. Friday night, the Warriors had three turnovers, a 13-yard punt that set up Greenwood’s second touchdown and turned the ball over on downs when White was stopped a yard short on fourth and four at the Greenwood 44 in the second quarter.
“You can’t lose the turnover battle and win the game,” said Cohu. “Greenwood is obviously a good team and played very well. We played hard all year. Hats off to Greenwood, they executed well. As I told most of you, whoever executes the best would win the game. We couldn’t finish drives offensively and get into any rhythm offensively through the first half. We couldn’t get anything rolling until it was too little, too late.”
2
Archer, who is a sophomore and was named MVP, earned a lot of praise from Young, not just for his performance on the field, but his ability to lead the team during the season.
“Kane’s elusive on the run,” said Young. “He sees things before it happens. He was a half a step from hitting Isaiah in the back of the end zone in the third quarter. He’s gifted and works very hard and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Archer, who came up last year as a freshman and played a backup role to Hunter Houston, made it his priority to get the state championship ring that eluded the past two teams that fell to El Dorado and Pulaski Academy in the state finals.
“We’ve been working all offseason,” said Archer. “The last two years, these seniors lost, and I was with them. I made one promise and that was to get these seniors a championship ring. That’s what we did. I played for those seniors every day.”
3
The loss ends the career for White, who committed to Auburn early this year. White finished 25-of-49 for 355 yards with 3 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, was sacked 3 times and was held to 26 yards rushing on 12 attempts.
“There’s not a harder worker in the state than Walker White,” said Cohu. “He’ll go back to the drawing board to start his college career. We wish him the best. He’s been a good leader for our team. He’s an excellent young man, a high character young man. He loves his teammates. He’s a solid, sold young man.”
--Jeff Halpern
