Greenwood coach Chris Liner breaks his season up into three phases — pre-region, region and playoffs. After testing itself in the first phase of the season, Greenwood started region play in a resounding way — lighting up Berea for 57-first half points in the 57-6 win.
“We just entered phase two, which determines phase three,” Liner said. “It’s good to start off with a win and be 1-0 again. That’s really the most important thing about tonight.”
Greenwood dominated Berea on Thursday night for its first region win of the season. The Eagles scored 57 points and finished with 355 rushing yards in the first half of the win.
By CODY ESTREMERA
cestremera@indexjournal.com
The 57 points Greenwood scored in the first half broke a school record the Eagles broke last season when they scored 49 points against Pickens in the first round of the playoffs last season.
The only part of the game that Greenwood lost on Thursday night was the coin toss.
Starting with the ball, Greenwood ran just four plays before it scored its first touchdown of the night, a 1-yard charge by Deterrious “Tank” Gary. That drive set the tone for the remainder of the first quarter, as Greenwood rattled off 30 points before the end of the quarter.
The lone first-quarter drive that didn’t result in a touchdown stalled after a botched pass play, but the Eagles still scored, finishing with a 36-yard kick by Joseph Piontek.
Greenwood’s running attack, which was one of the best in the state last season, was lethal against Berea, the Eagles’ ground game ran wild for 355 first-half yards and roughly 400 for the entire game.
And it wasn’t just one player.
Greenwood quarterback Kaleb Burton led the way for the Eagles, totaling 115 yards on just two carries, which both finished in the end zone. Ve Morton in his return from an ankle injury, finished with two touchdowns on five carries.
Overall, nine players finished with a carry in the lopsided win.
“We had a bye week at a really good time, and we’ve gotten a lot better,” Liner said. “We’ve added some things and been able to do some things that we couldn’t hardly do in the summer because we had some people hurt and couldn’t hardly do it preseason. It’s been good to have the last two weeks of practice to add some wrinkles and get better to do what we do.”
Greenwood started to rotate its second-string players in late in the first quarter, allowing most of them to play nearly the full game. Liner said that was the coolest part of the win.
“Football is a team sport,” Liner said. “Honestly getting the opportunity for some of these guys, that work their butts off too in practice, to play pretty much three quarters of the game, to me, was the thing that stands out the most. For those guys that have started all year to be cheering on the guys that are their buddies and practice with them. If you could have seen the smile on a couple of their faces at the end of the game because they finally got a chance to play like the rest of them. That was the coolest thing about tonight.”
GAME SUMMARY
Berea 0 0 0 6 — 6
Greenwood 30 27 0 0 — 57
FIRST QUARTER
G — Deterrious Gary 1 run (Joseph (Piontek kick)
G — Eli Thomas 32 fumble recovery (Piontek kick)
G — Piontek 36 kick
G — Kaleb Burton 35 run (Piontek kick)
G — Ve Morton 4 run (kick fail)
SECOND QUARTER
G — Josiah Jeffery 43 pass from M Chamberlain (Piontek kick)
G — Burton 80 run (Noah Perrin kick)
G — JB Simmons 23 pass from Burton (Piontek kick)
G — Ty Patterson 59 run (Perrin kick)
FOURTH QUARTER
B — Kingston Brown 10 pass from Amazay Robinson (pass fail)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — G: Kaleb Burton 2-115, Ty Patterson 3-89, Jaylen Robinson 3-56, Ve Morton 5-63, Deterrious Gary 3-14, Alijah Wade1-6, M Chamberlain 3-4, Jayden Crim 3-37.
Passing — G: Kaleb Burton 2-4-44, M Chamberlain 1-3-43.
