Jim Mashek

GATORS ADVANCE TO SECOND-ROUND MATCHUP AT OWENSBORO HIGH SCHOOL; MAROONS FINISH SEASON AT 8-3 OVERALL

Greenwood High School’s Kenryin Coleman came off the edge, intent on bringing the Madisonville-North Hopkins quarterback, 6-foot-2 sophomore Alex Richards, to the ground with the game on the line on Friday night.

Nothing doing.

Coleman’s helmet went flying through the air. Likewise, Richards’ pass. It fell to the ground incomplete. But that meant Coleman had to head to the Greenwood sideline, at least for one play. The wispy fog, surrounding The Swamp, was sweeping across the field.

Enter Griffin Howard, the Gators’ 6-foot-4, 250-pound senior, and the son of the veteran GHS head coach, William Howard.

Madisonville-North Hopkins’ offensive line hurried into its formation. They took their stances at the line of scrimmage. Yet no one, it seems, accounted for the Gatahs’ Griffin Howard.

Oops.

Howard stormed into the backfield, slapping a bearhug on Richards from the blind side, while recording a 7-yard loss on a sack that pretty much put the issue to rest.

Greenwood 21, Madisonville-North Hopkins 18.

Greenwood earned its first KHSAA Class 5A playoff victory in three years, knocking off the Maroons in first-round play in dramatic fashion. Now the Gators (7-4 overall) will venture to The Bandbox That Made Owensboro High School Football Famous, Rash Stadium.

Next Friday night.

To tangle with the Owensboro Red Devils, who pushed their overall record to 9-2, with a 62-7 thrashing of Grayson County on Friday night.

On their home turf.

Griffin Howard and the Gators can’t wait for the opportunity.

“I might have played six, seven plays on defense all year,” Howard said. “Their offensive tackle just kind of blocked down (on the subsequent sack), and I just came through the edge as fast as I could …”

Cooper Hines, the Gators’ senior inside linebacker, had one of the best seats in the house. And he was quick to add a little qualifier.

“Griffin stormed in there and got the quarterback,” Hines said.

And that was that, at least on this mystical night, with the fog rolling in, and the Maroons rolling out, taking the two-hour journey back to Madisonville. MN-H coach Chris Price’s talented team finishes the season with an 8-3 overall record.

Davis Chaney, the Gators’ senior tailback, turned in a splendid performance. Chaney carried the ball 27 times for 163 yards, and Greenwood was able to control the clock until the Maroons made their move in the third quarter.

The KHSAA playoffs have arrived, all right.

Greenwood coach William Howard, a standout defender at Allen County-Scottsville before playing his college football at Western Kentucky, was one proud papa when this one was over.

“That’s what makes this game exciting,” Howard said. “That’s why the kids play football … The fog’s rolling in, it’s like a game when I was in high school, over at Paducah Tilghman …

“They play down by the Ohio River, and the fog comes in … You couldn’t see the middle of the field from the sideline in the second half.”

Ah, the second half.

That’s when the Maroons put up a serious fight, with 5-foot-11, 230-pound bruiser Travion Stafford, who found the end zone from 11 yards out with 10:19 left in the game. Markezz Hightower, the senior M-NH workhorse, then scored on a two-point conversion, and the Gators’ lead was trimmed to 21-18.

The final score of the game.

“That fourth quarter … we had to count on our defense to make some plays,” Griffin Howard said.

And that’s exactly what the Gators’ defense did. With the game on the line.

“Our offense started hot, really hot,” Greenwood linebacker Stuart Scott said. “I guess it was our turn …”

Early on, the Gatahs were off to the races, with senior tailback Nathan Self slicing through the Madisonville defense on a fourth-and-1 play for a 10-yard touchdown run with 7:28 left in the first quarter. Graham Smothers added the first of three extra points, but the Gators were just getting started.

Self showed his speed in the open field, in the opening moments of the second quarter.

Self took a handoff from Greenwood QB Levi Wyatt, a two-year starter who is adept at keeping defenses guessing with the precision of the Gators’ wing-T offense. Self found a seam on an off-tackle play and hit the left sideline for a 43-yard touchdown run, and suddenly the Maroons were down, 14-0.

The aforementioned Travion Stafford got Madisonville-North Hopkins on the scoreboard, on a fourth-down play himself, on an 18-yard touchdown run with 5:44 left in the first half. But Wyatt and the Gators were ready to put some distance between themselves and the Maroons before halftime.

Greenwood’s Davis Chaney punched out several gains on tough inside running, getting the Gators to the cusp of the red zone. Then Wyatt lofted a deep ball for Greenwood wideout Max Eisenhower, who made a circus catch in the right corner of the end zone, a juggling 26-yard touchdown reception with is back flat on the ground.

“I had to hit the brakes, on the route,” Eisenhower said with a wide smile. “I started falling back, at the goal line, and the ball slipped through my hands.

“I caught it with my legs.”

Madisonville’s Noah Mays delivered a 40-yard field goal, in the final minute of the first half, and the Gators would take a 21-10 lead to the locker room.

They’ll be talking about that catch for a long, long time at The Swamp.

The Greenwood defense made it stick, even though the Maroons put up eight points, before it was over, in the fourth quarter.

Now the Gatahs are on their way to Owensboro, with a berth in the KHSAA Class 5A regional finals on the line. William and Stacy Griffin Howard’s three kids — daughter Katie, a former WKU volleyball player, along with son Lofton, a third-year player with the Hilltoppers’ football team, and Griffin were posing for family photos, on the field, 20 minutes after the game’s conclusion.

“We’re going to have to play our ‘A’ game at Owensboro,” Griffin Howard said, “but that was an amazing game. A lot of fun. We’re excited about moving on.”