VILONIA — Greenwood has a reputation for slinging the ball around, but running back Justin Sunde showed the Bulldogs can gash defenses with ruthless precision on the ground, too.
The junior slithered and darted his way for 233 yards and five touchdowns Friday night as the Bulldogs bolted to a four-touchdown lead in a 49-21 victory over Vilonia, whose grind-it-out Double Wing offense churned out 340 yards but couldn’t overcome the early deficit.
“All coach said is that we’re going to line up and play their game,” said Sunde, who carried 21 times for 179 yards and 2 scores in the first half. “They told us we were just going to line up and maul them.”
Greenwood Coach Rick Jones gave credit to the offense line but was quick to compliment Sunde’s darting eyes and quick feet.
“He makes super decisions running the football,” Jones said. “The zone blocking scheme can create holes anywhere, and the boy just has a knack for finding the soft spot.”
It didn’t take Greenwood (7-1, 4-1 5-A West) or Sunde long to get acclimated to a run-heavy offense, scoring on four of its first five possessions, including two drives that lasted a little over minute.
The plan was simple: Hand off to Sunde on a counter play and wait for a crease to open, shoot through the gap and run up on the heels of wideouts blocking downfield.
Sunde started the scoring at the 10:50 mark when he took the ball in from 3 yards out, ending a 51-yard drive during which he picked up 41 yards on five carries. With three minutes left in the first quarter, quarterback Stephen Hogan, who went 6 of 9 for 70 yards, scored from 4 yards out on his only run of the night to make it 14-0.
The Eagles, who mustered just 154 first-half yards to Greenwood’s 237, pulled to within 21-7 when quarterback Drew Knowles bulled in from 1 yard out with 2:20 left until half.
That 80-yard drive took 16 plays and chewed up nearly six minutes.
“That’s what we needed to do, just slow it down,” Vilonia Coach Jim Stanley said. “We just got too far behind.”
Greenwood answered quickly. Sunde racked up his final 62 yards of the half on six carries - all counter plays - and capped the 1:29 drive to put Greenwood up 28-7 at the break.
Sports, Pages 23 on 10/23/2010