HOLT RACKS UP 482 TOTAL YARDS AS GREENWOOD ROLLS SHS, 52-27

Give Rick Jones six months and he’ll find a quarterback. Give him six days after a loss, and he’ll remind you the Greenwood Bulldogs are still the Greenwood Bulldogs. Peyton Holt answered the bell Friday at Southside’s Rowland Stadium. Holt ran for three touchdowns and threw for another as Greenwood rolled to a 52-27 victory over the Mavericks. Holt threw for 228 before halftime and ran for a pair of first-half touchdowns to set the tone. He finished with 482 total yards. “We knew he (Holt) had it in him; he’s just one of those guys — he’s a winner,” Jones said of his quarterback. He made some awesome decisions tonight. He threw the ball well, he ran it well ... he competed.” “He’s a good player (Holt), and he runs the offense well,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “We had a lot of mistakes. We go from having three penalties to having a bunch of penalties, including four on the first drive. We did some things that are uncharacterestic of what we’ve been doing.” Sophomore Hunter Wilkinson had himself a game as well. He ran for three touchdowns and caught a 55-yarder in the victory. “Those sophomores, they take some seasoning to get to where they actually know what they need to be doing,” Jones said. “He obviously had a really, really good night.” Southside, which scuffled in the first half, held to just two touchdowns after putting up 44 points on the Bentonville West Wolverines a week ago, drove to the Bulldogs’ 37 on its first possession before punting to the Bulldogs’ 2. Greenwood failed to move the ball on its first series, but Holt started picking up steam on the team’s next series, driving the Bulldogs 54 yards in less than a minute. Wilkinson ran around left end without anyone getting a hand on him for a 7-0 lead with 4:06 to play in the first quarter. Southside quarterback Taye Gatewood responded with an 80-yard drive that included Ricardo Savoy’s nice catch-and-run for 26 yards to the Greenwood 17. Savoy then caught a 14-yard touchdown pass to bring the Mavericks to within one. Down 14-6 after Holt’s 3-yard run, Gatewood hit Colton McBride with a 23-yard touchdown pass to bring the Mavericks to within 14-13. But the Bulldogs scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes of the half — Holt scored on a 4-yard run and Wilkinson added a 10-yard burst with just a minute to play in the half. Grant Ennis started the second half scoring with a 34-yard field goal. After Gatewood’s 5-yard TD run closed the gap to 31-20, Wilkinson caught a short pass from Holt, shrugged off a tackler, and darted 55 yards for a clinching touchdown. “In situational football, we didn’t play very good,” Williams said. “That obviously was a big play; we’ve got to get him on the ground. There’s some stuff we’ve got to get cleaned up.”

HOLT RACKS UP 482 TOTAL YARDS AS GREENWOOD ROLLS SHS, 52-27

KEVIN TAYLOR

Times Record | 9/8/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford