Greenwood makes the most of its opportunity

— Touchdown, interception, touchdown.

That sequence took about 25 seconds off the secondquarter clock, and it allowed Greenwood to pull away and roll past Morrilton 55-7 in their 5A-West Conference opener Friday night at Smith Robinson Stadium.

The Bulldogs (3-1, 1-0) led 42-7 at halftime, but roughly 10 minutes earlier the Devil Dogs (0-4, 0-1) were within 14-7, had scored a defensivetouchdown and showed some life on offense.

"That's a type of team who if they get things rolling it can be a totally different game," Greenwood Coach Rick Jones said of the Devil Dogs. "It can happen fast."

Instead, the Bulldogs pulled a fast one on the Devil Dogs.

A Greenwood drive was only kept alive by a Morrilton pass interference penalty on third-and-long, and that was the opening the top-ranked team in Class 5A needed.

Tyler Shook found Stephen Hogan in the back of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown pass with 10:53 left in the half. Two plays later Kylee Simmons made a diving interception of a Terrence Heaggans pass at the Morrilton 42. On the next snap, Tony Sandifer threw a halfback option touchdown pass to Spencer Harris.

Suddenly, at the 10:35 mark, it was 28-7.

"Bad things started happening to us," Morrilton Coach Buddy Greeson said. "We thought we'd gotten things going, but then some turnovers and mistakes just hammered us."

Greenwood was on letdown alert coming off a 54-51 victory over Shiloh Christian. But Morrilton also came ready to play, driving into Greenwood's red zone after allowing a touchdown on a short field.

The Devil Dogs didn't score, but a couple series later Justin Criswell intercepted Shook and raced into the end zone from the Greenwood 28 to pull within 14-7 with 2:53 left in the first quarter.

"It's 14-0, everything's pretty good and you haven't been challenged yet, and all of a sudden it's 14-7. OK, you better execute," said Jones, whose defense elevated its play following the shootout victory against Shiloh. "We're getting better."

Harris had a big game for Greenwood. The 6-3 senior receiver, who earlier this week received a scholarship offer from Arkansas State, caught 6 passes for 133 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Harris' first score was a finger-tip grab of a slightly overthrown Shook pass down the sideline from 32 yards out in the first quarter. Shook, who played theopening series of the third quarter that scored another Bulldog touchdown, threw for 149 yards and two scores.

"I did notice the intensity on the field at the start wasn't as good as it should have been," Harris said. "But we knew we had to do. We could have come out more intense, but we were playing pretty well."

Morrilton was banged up Friday, with its best player Criswell (leg bruise) limited to playing defense only.

"You play the hand that's dealt to you," Greeson said. "We've got to get healthy and get ready for Alma next week."

Sports, Pages 26 on 09/26/2009

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