GREENWOOD -It took a come-from-behind effort Friday night at Jim Rowland Stadium, but Greenwood’s streak is still alive.
Greenwood trailed by two touchdowns with 1:11 left in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs rallied and pulled out a 45-42 victory over Fort Smith Southside on a 23-yard field goal by Kevin Jones with 2 seconds left in the game. The kick extended Greenwood’s winning streak to 46 games.
Greenwood senior running back Hoyt Smith led the way with 134 yards and 2 touchdowns on 24 carries.
“This was a great high school football game,” Greenwood Coach Rick Jones said. “We feel real fortunate to win this one. We tell our guys to play to the last second. They sure did that tonight.”
Southside looked as if it would take a 14-point lead into halftime when quarterback Isaac Jackson found Andrew Barley for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 1:11 left in the second quarter. But that left just enough time for Greenwood (8-0, 5-0 7A/6A-Central) and quarterback Jabe Burgess, who completed 10 of 21 passes for 139 passing yards with 1 interception.
The Bulldogs marched to the Rebels’ 13 with 3 seconds left, and Burgess found Garrett Collins with a touchdown pass that was tipped into the air.
“It was huge,” Jones said. “It was somewhat of a fortunate play too because it wasn’t like anything we called. The guys just went and made a play.”
Jackson turned in a strong effort for Southside (5-3, 3-2) as well, completing 13 of 20 passes for 213 yards and 4 touchdowns. He added 86 yards rushing on 13 carries.
“I’m proud of the way our kids played,” Fort Smith Southside Coach Jeff Williams said. “This is probably our best game we’ve played all year. That’s a tough Greenwood team we played.”
Greenwood used a 13-play, 80-yard drive coming out of halftime to tie the game at 28-28. Smith capped the drive with a 1-yard run.
“We were down and then ahead,” Jones said. “You have to give a lot of credit to Southside, because they had a tough week last week. They put together a great game plan against us.”
The Bulldogs took the lead on a trick play when Kevin Jones found Ryan Padilla for a 34-yard touchdown pass to take a 35-28 lead with 3:26 left in the third quarter.
The Rebels started the fourth quarter strong with Jackson’s 11-yard touchdown pass to D’erek Fernandez to make it 35-34, but Greenwood responded with a 1-yard touchdown run by Smith with 7:20 left in the game.
Southside’s Quincy Whitfield scored on a 1-yard touchdown with 4:07 left in the game, and Jackson came up big again by converting on the two-point conversion to tie the game at 42. Jackson nearly ran sideline to sideline before finding the end zone.
“He was unbelievable and had a great game,” Williams said. “The two-point play was one of the best plays I’ve seen in my life.”
Smith set up Greenwood’s game-winning field goal with a 19-yard run and a 34-yard catch on the final drive.
Whitfield finished with 93 yards on 23 carries with 2 touchdowns, and fellow running back Fernandez had 88 yards on 14 carries for Southside.
How Top 10 fared
No. 1 Bentonville 38, Van Buren 7
No. 2 Cabot 49, West Memphis 7
No. 3 Fayetteville 35, Siloam Springs 14
No. 4 Conway 45, LR Parkview 10
No. 5 Greenwood 45, No. 10 FS Southside 42
Rogers 59, No. 6 Springdale Har-Ber 42
No. 7 North Little Rock 42, Marion 0
Hope 17, No. 8 Camden Fairview 12
No. 9 Pulaski Academy 50, Mills 21
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/26/2013