GREENWOOD GETS ANOTHER SHOT AT BOWLING GREEN
Three weeks have passed since the Bowling Green High School football team took a 10-minute bus ride up Scottsville Road to square off with the Greenwood Gators, a rival squad for the last 2.5 decades.
The Gators had reason to be optimistic. Confident, probably not. But fourth-year Greenwood coach William Howard’s team was 6-1 on the season, with an explosive offense, and plenty of talent on defense.
Bowling Green, on the other hand, was scuffling along with a 3-4 record. The Purples, the defending KHSAA Class 5A state champion, hadn’t experienced the fruits of victory in almost a month. The practice field atmosphere reflected that drought.
“We’ve taken some lumps the last two or three weeks,” BGHS coach Mark Spader said beforehand. “Nobody’s really happy in our house right now.”
It’s been a grueling season at Bowling Green. The Purples (5-5) open the postseason with their longtime district rival, Greenwood (7-3), a team Spader’s squad dismantled 38-8 in mid-October at The Swamp. It was the Purples’ defense that waylaid the Gators, and it was a mismatch that reminded the Greenwood faithful that they’re still in a catch-up mode with Bowling Green and fellow district rival South Warren, the No. 1-ranked Class 5A team in the Commonwealth.
Greenwood is 0-32, lifetime, against the Purples, and over the last decade or so, none of those games have even been competitive. Bowling Green’s advantage up front was noticeable, and two weeks later, Greenwood’s defense delivered in a 20-0 victory over Class 6A Apollo on a rainy Thursday night in Owensboro.
Chances are, if the Gators are going to buck the odds on Friday night, they’ll need to do it on defense.
Spader began breaking in his freshman quarterback, Deuce Bailey, two or three weeks into the season, and Bailey’s predecessor, Spencer Newman, was pressed into duty in the BGHS secondary. Linebacker Tyler Moore, the MVP of last year’s 17-7 victory over Owensboro in last year’s KHSAA Class 5A championship game, switched over to running back, as Spader was pulling out all the stops to generate a spark with his offense.
Moore is back on defense, however, and senior BGHS running back Matrix Halcomb has proven to be an effective runner between the tackles. Bailey remains a work in progress, but he has had his moments over the second half of the season.
Now Bowling Green will play host to Greenwood, at 7 p.m. on Friday, with the winner to move on to a second-round matchup with South Warren. The newspaper reporters and other media types will inevitably pick the Purples to win, probably comfortably.
South Warren and BGHS players have openly acknowledged that they expected to see one another again in mid-November, and the Spartans like to point out that it was Bowling Green that eliminated them from the playoffs, last season, and again in 2019.
Bowling Green’s players are careful not to put the cart in front of the horse, that they’ll need to take care of business against Greenwood for the highly anticipated BGHS-South Warren rematch to become a reality.
They’re ready to find the winning playoff formula, under the lights of their sparkling new stadium. BGHS senior defensive end Amario Wilson knows what’s ahead if the Purples make it 33-0 against their neighbors on Scottsville Road.
“Everyone knows what’s down the road,” Wilson said. “We’ve been working hard, every day, in practice, and we know (Greenwood) isn’t pushovers. They’ve won a lot of games this year. They’ve got some talented players.
“Then, it hits me. I’m getting closer to the end of my football career. There’s gonna be a lot at stake (Friday night).”
Wilson intercepted a slip screen from Greenwood quarterback James Salchli in the second half of last month’s regulars-season game, before scoring on a dazzling 70-yard return. It was the first time he’d ever scored a touchdown in an organized football — “I beg the coaches, let me try offense,” Wilson said with a smile — and he finished the play with an emphatic spike of the football in the end zone.
Uh-oh.
An automatic 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Spader later said he understood, that the Purples were sitting on a boiler plate, getting ready for Greenwood that night. Momentum can go a long way in a football game, in a football season, and that’s something the Purples will be looking for on Friday night.
The slate has been wiped clean.
“We try to send (the 32-0 lifetime record) away. We try to send that thing to Alaska,” BGHS senior running back Matrix Halcomb said. “All of our players know that anything can happen in the playoffs. Crazy things will happen … crazy things will always happen.
“Greenwood definitely has some great athletes. They’ve got quite a few guys who could play here. We’ve just got to keep moving forward, as a team.
“I don’t wanna turn my gold helmet in, in a few days. No way.”
Greenwood’s defense, led by senior linebacker Paul Smith, junior outside linebacker/defensive end Lofton Howard and senior defensive tackle Ed Manasseh, limited Apollo to 77 yards total offense in its last outing.
The Gators basically have nothing to lose, and no one understands that more than Mark Spader himself.
“With adolescent males, you’re never certain where their focus is at any given time,” Spader said. “Our practices have been very businesslike, and I think our team understands that we are in a “one week at a time” mode right now.
“We’ve played a number of good teams, and we’ve played in all kinds of weather conditions, including the cold that’s expected in this game. We’re as ready as we can be.
“The focus in our building is always on the game that week. Greenwood, that’s who we are preparing to face … Win or go home.”
Kickoff for tonight’s game is at 7.
