Jim Mashek

GREENWOOD TURNS ATTENTION TO NEXT WEEK’S GAME AGAINST UNBEATEN LOGAN COUNTY

Tel Tel Long knows his role, as an offensive catalyst for the Greenwood High School football team. He’s in his junior year with the Gators, but it only SEEMS like he’s been here for ages.

“We’ve changed our mindset, at Greenwood,” Long said on Friday night after the Gators steamrolled Warren Central High School 49-8 at The Swamp. “How we approach the game, how we practice, how we move from one game to the next. We’ve really improved every week, since our first game …

“When we play teams from Bowling Green, like Warren Central, we want to bring a competitive edge to the field. I think we did that tonight.”

Fifth-year Greenwood coach William Howard has a seasoned squad. The Gators have a new quarterback, with the departure of James Salchi. Sophomore Ryan Huff has made steady improvement, under center, and Lofton Howard, the son of the Greenwood head coach, is still an option at quarterback, particularly in short-yardage and goal-line situations.

But the Gators are still looking to establish themselves, up front. In the trenches. Move the pile. Control the line of scrimmage.

That’s what Greenwood did in its rout of the Dragons. The Gators won their third straight game, all by 18 points on more, since the Opening Night disaster against Bardstown High School. Greenwood, 3-1 on the season, seems to have found its identity, but William Howard acknowledges that it’s a “work in progress” for the Gators.

Warren Central dropped to 1-2, having lost its second straight game after snapping a 61-game losing streak on Opening Night at Bullitt Central. The Dragons were simply no match for Greenwood, and that was obvious fairly early on Friday night.

William Howard, the former WKU defensive lineman, wants his team to play with some attitude. He wants the Gators to get after some folks.

The Gators got after Warren Central, and then some.

“I think we did very well, up front,” Howard said. “We had some holes, in the secondary. Things broke down two or three times, in the coverage. We had some mental mistakes. But our kids play extremely hard.

“As a coach, that’s really all you can ask for.”

Greenwood took control in the first quarter.

Warren Central went three-and-out on its first possession, and Ryan Huff got the Gators in the end zone less than three minutes into the game. Huff, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound sophomore, lofted a 21-yard touchdown pass to teammate Elmo Stewart, who made the catch in the corner of the end zone with 9:15 left in the first quarter.

Junior placekicker Steven Valero added the first of seven extra points, and Greenwood was off to the races. The Dragons simply couldn’t keep up.

“I think we’ve gotten better, as a team, every week,” Huff said. “We knew Warren Central was going to be a hard-fought game. I think we can do anything we set our minds to … We were able to get some things done on offense tonight.”

Huff passed only sparingly, because the Gators were able to control the clock with their running game. Greenwood made it a running-clock situation in the second half, and the Gators ended the game at the Warren Central 2-yard line, content to run out the clock, as opposed to adding a cosmetic touchdown.

Greenwood put together touchdown drives on six of its first eight possessions. The Gators finished the game with 213 yards rushing.

Huff found senior tight end/linebacker Lofton Howard at the goal line for the Gators’ second touchdown, an 11-yard pass that put Greenwood in front 14-0 exactly midway through the first quarter.

Greenwood was just getting started.

Warren Central quarterback Kayumba Jean Aime struggled in the face of the Gators’ pass rush, and Greenwood extended its lead to 21-0 on its next possession.

Elmo Stewart scored on a nifty 30-yard touchdown run with 1:44 left in the first quarter. He took a pitch from Huff and found the end zone on a sweep to the right side, making a decisive inside cut that left the Dragons down by three touchdowns.

It would only get worse, for Warren Central.

Lofton Howard seems to think Greenwood has something to prove. He’ll follow in his father’s footsteps after committing to Western Kentucky University over the summer, and his versatility is something that can set the Gators apart from the competition.

“The Bardstown game, it hurt, to lose,” Howard said. “But that was just one game … We started off last year 5-0, and we finished 7-4 … you’ve got to win a playoff game to really establish yourselves.”

Warren Central scored its only points of the game in the opening moments of the second quarter.

Kayumba Jean Aime scrambled away from the Gators’ pass rush, as he did for much of the night, before finding Warren Central teammate Deanglo Patterson open in the middle of the field. Jean Aime’s pass was on the mark, and Patterson weaved through the Greenwood defense on his way to the right sideline, scoring from 30 yards out at the 9:47 mark of the second quarter.

Jean Aime and Patterson again joined forces on the subsequent 2-point conversion, with Patterson’s reception trimming the Greenwood lead to 21-8.

The Gators responded, and quickly.

Greenwood senior Andrew Hatcher gave his team a boost with a 45-yard kickoff return, and then Ryan Huff found Tel Tel Long on the left sideline for a 20-yard completion. That’s when Lofton Howard returned as the Gators’ short-yardage quarterback, and he scored on a 4-yard run to put Greenwood in front 28-8.

Elmo Stewart added his second touchdown run of the night, on the Gators’ next series. The 6-foot-3, 170-pound junior scored on an 8-yard sweep to the left side, and Greenwood took a 35-8 lead into halftime.

Greenwood then shifted into quick-strike mode. Hatcher took the kickoff to open the second half, and made a couple decisive moves on his way to an 88-yard kickoff return for a score. Junior offensive lineman Ajdin Kalabic got in on the fun midway through the third quarter, scoring on a 1-yard run to account for the final margin.

The Gators have taken care of business three times since the loss to Bardstown on Opening Night, and senior linebacker Zane McCauley is convinced that isn’t a coincidence.

“The Bardstown game, we used it as fuel for these last few weeks,” McCauley said. “Ryan Huff has grown as a leader, in every game. The defense is playing with confidence. Now we’ll get back to work and get ready for Logan County.”

Logan County improved to 4-0 on the season after Friday night’s 41-31 victory over Franklin-Simpson. Defense has been the Cougars’ calling card, too, as Todd Adler’s Logan County squad has outscored its four opponents by a combined 170-53.

Let Greenwood’s Tel Tel Long put the matchup in perspective. Long led the Gators with 88 yards rushing on Friday night, but he takes pride in his role on defense, too, at cornerback.

“It’s an experienced defense,” Long said. “Our expectations, when we get in the huddle, is pretty much, ‘No first downs.’ It was a good night for our defense. Definitely.”

It was Greenwood’s eighth consecutive victory over Warren Central. The Dragons (1-2) make their KHSAA Class 4A, 2nd District debut next week on the road against Allen County-Scottsville. The Patriots dropped to 1-3 on the season Friday night, falling 28-7 on the road against unbeaten Glasgow.