Greenwood beats Pulaski Academy in big Arkansas high school football matchup

The Bulldogs stay undefeated in the 6A-West

LITTLE ROCK — The Greenwood Bulldogs (9-0, 7-0 6A-West) scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to blow out the Pulaski Academy Bruins (7-2, 5-2) 58-33 at Joe B. Hatcher Stadium Friday night.

After the Bruins attempted an onside kick on the second-half kickoff and turned it into a 10-yard touchdown run by Brandon Cobb to close to 30-27, the Bulldogs blew the game open. Greenwood answer with a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kane Archer to Isaiah Arrington in the back right corner of the end zone to make it 37-27.

After a Pulaski Academy punt, the Bulldogs needed three plays to get into the end zone when Archer thew 26 yards to Grant Karnes to make it 44-27 at the 7:53 mark.

After KJ Colen fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Archer threw 10 yards to LJ Robins to make it 51-27 at the 6:14 mark.

Archer added a 1-yard run with 1:36 left in the third quarter to make it 58-27 five plays after Caden Nelms intercepted Cobb.

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Greenwood quarterback Kane Archer completed 16-of-24 passes for 249 yards and 5 touchdowns and rushed 13 times for 76 yards and 3 touchdowns with runs of 14, 20 and 1 yard on quarterback draws. He also had runs of 22 and 11 yards. Greenwood head coach Chris Young said Archer, who suffered a broken wrist earlier in the year on his non-throwing hand, that the draw play is something he’s put into the offense recently and believes it’s a play that will help the offense.

“The quarterback draw is something we’ve tried to stay away from because of his injury,” said Young.” He’s healthy now, and that’s a part of his game that some people haven’t seen offensively that will help us out.”

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Pulaski Academy, which prides itself on scoring fast, going for it on fourth down and attempting onside kicks, did not have its best night. Despite 27 first downs, 482 yards (328 passing and 154 rushing) in total offense, the Bruins turned the ball over four times and were guilty of 9 penalties for 80 yards. Quarterback Brandon Cobb completed 18-of-45 passes for 328 yards and was intercepted three times. They turned the ball over on downs on their first possession of the game at its 24 which Greenwood turned into a 14-yards touchdown run by Archer. In addition, they punted twice and had one blocked that the Bulldogs turned into 10 points in the first half.

“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it all over again,” said Pulaski Academy head coach Anthony Lucas on putting twice in the first half. What Lucas was not happy with, was the mistakes that hurt the Bruins all night.

“You can’t turn the ball over five times against a team like that,” said Lucas. “The penalties hurt us as well. We’ve been harping on that. We had dropped balls and so many things that came together and we didn’t finish. We can’t do that against Greenwood. Tonight, the turnovers hurt us and we need to get better. That’s not taking anything away from Greenwood. Those coaches do a great job and their players play hard.”

On the other hand, Young was pleased with the way his team took advantage of Pulaski Academy’s turnovers in the third quarter to put the game away.

“We had a bad break when they recovered the onside kick to start the second half and scored after it bounced off somebody,” said Young. “We scored back-to-back really quick and got it back to 17 and then we got the turnovers.”

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One thing Young was disappointed with was the penalties. The Bulldogs were penalized 15 times for 125 yards, including three personal fouls. With a showdown with Little Rock Christian Academy (8-1, 7-0) next week for the 6A-West Conference title along with the playoffs, Young knows, penalties can be hurtful in November and December. “Those will cost you in a hurry. That’s two weeks in a row and we have to clean that up,” said Young. “We had quite a few penalties. Something we have to address and get better at.”

--Jeff Halpern 

Photos by Tommy Land