Class 6A State Championship • 2020 • War Memorial Stadium
GREENWOOD 49, LAKE HAMILTON 24 Attendance 4,235 • Clear 50 degrees • 6:40 p.m. • Time 2:30 DECEMBER 5, LITTLE ROCK — The Greenwood Bulldogs recorded a perfect 10 for the season. Greenwood was perfect in 14 games in winning its 10th state championship with a convincing 49-24 win over Lake Hamilton for the Class 6A state title before 4,235 at War Memorial Stadium. The perfect season was in Chris Young’s first as a head coach after being elevated in February after just a week to take over for Rick Jones, who won eight state championships before leaving for a football consultant’s role for the University of Missouri and head coach Eli Drinkwitz. Young served on the coaching staff on all nine previous championship teams but was the athletic director at Cabot for 10 days in April, 2019, before returning to Greenwood to resume his role as offensive coordinator for Jones. The 10 championships are the most for any program during the modern playoff era, which began in 1968. All of Greenwood’s titles are since Greenwood’s first in 2000 under Ronnie Peacock, who hired Young as an assistant junior high coach before Harv Welch moved Young up to the high school staff in 2001. Young quickly joined legendary status with his dad, Joe Fred Young, as just the fourth father-son duo to win state titles along with Bill and Scott Reed, Jim and Bo Hembree, and C.W. and Bill Keopple. “That’s pretty cool,” Chris Young said. “I’m really proud of the things my dad did and the reputation he has. To be able to share this with him is very special.” The Bulldogs had to rally to beat Lake Hamilton in a week 10 matchup of
GREENWOOD OFFENSE QB LD Richmond SR RB Hunter Wilkinson SR WR Caden Brown SR SR Aiden Kennon SO LT Braden Stein SR LG Jeremiah Presson JR C Ethan Cole SR RG Easton Erwin SR RT Christian Brown SR SR Jase Strozier SR WR Luke Brewer JR PK Luis Morales SR
lead, and Greenwood’s defense forced Lake Hamilton to punt three times and stopped a fourth-down try. The biggest turnaround was late in State championships for Greenwood the first half when Lake Hamilton missed on a fourth-down pass at Greenwood’s 17 with 51 seconds left Straight points scored by Greenwood and Greenwood holding a 14-10 lead. in second and third quarters after trail“Our kid’s wide open in the end zone, ing 10-0 and our quarterback miss him and it would have been 17-14 going into the half,” Lake Hamilton head coach Points scored by Greenwood in the Tommy Gilleran said. “Then they scored first half out of 604 points scored all down the sideline. In a big game like season this, you can’t give up that type of play.” Greenwood made the Wolves pay for unbeaten teams for the 6A-West regular their indiscretion. After Hunter Wilkinson -season crown and home-field had runs of 5 and 7 yards, quarterback advantage throughout the playoffs. Lake Hamilton led, 21-10, in the third L.D. Richmond hit speeding receiver Luke Brewer perfectly in stride for a 71quarter before the Bulldogs stormed yard touchdown strike with seven back to win, 38-28. seconds left in the half to push the In the championship game, the Bulldogs’ lead to 21-10. Wolves also took a lead. “A lot of teams get the ball near their Alex Hurtz capped Lake Hamilton’s own 20-yard-line with 51 seconds left opening drive with a 37-yard field goal. might take a knee there, but that is not On the ensuing kickoff, Lake Hamilton’s Jamarrion Byrd recovered a us,” Young said. “That is not our style, and that’s not how we play. That’s a fumble and two plays later Grant tribute to our kids, they made the play.” Bearden passed to Owen Miller for an It was much more than a simple 1411-yard touchdown for a 10-0 lead with point swing, it provided a massive swing 8:04 left in the opening quarter. of momentum toward the Bulldogs. “We knew we had a lot of football “That was the difference in the left,” Young said. “We’ve done such a game,” Young said. “They missed a good job of protecting the football and not turning it over, I don’t remember the pass the play right before that, had a guy open in the end zone, and then we last time we turned it over. That was a little bit of a shock. We had to compose scored on that.” ourselves over there.” MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Lake Hamilton forced Greenwood to L.D. Richmond ■ QB ■ Greenwood punt and drove into Greenwood territory before Greenwood’s defense stiffened BURLSWORTH AWARD WINNERS and forced a punt. Braden Stein ■ OL ■ Greenwood Greenwood’s offense then scored on five-straight possessions to take a 35-10 Bradley Rieman ■ OL ■ Lake Hamilton State Championship Numbers
10 35
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LAKE HAMILTON DEFENSE DE Obed Liera SR NM Dawson Poindexter SR DE Zach Roberts JR OLB Izaiah Clenney SR MLB Jamarrion Byrd SO OLB Gavin Roberts JR NB Kendrick Martin SO CB Marion Conrad JR CB Ethan Watson JR S Trent Singleton SR S Justin Crutchmer SO P Paul Gonzalez JR
LAKE HAMILTON OFFENSE QB Grant Bearden JR FB Tevin Woodley JR WB Owen Miller JR WB Kendrick Martin SO TE Izaiah Clenney SR LT Dylan Horton JR LG Chase Jessup JR C Jeffrey Cable SR RG Bradley Reiman SR RT Luke Dodd SR TE Leland Barrie SO PK Alex Hurtz JR
6
GREENWOOD DEFENSE DE Beau Asher SR DT Tyler Crossno JR DT Landon Kilgore JR DE Ty Cowan SR OLB Tatum Sadler SR ILB Angel Hernandez SR ILB Parker Gill JR OLB Jordan Hanna SR CB Colin Daggett JR CB Colt Owenby JR S Jayden Jasna SR P Noah Jantzen JR
