Points often get harder to come by this time of season.
That’s because the best defensive teams are the ones usually still playing after Thanksgiving. That was certainly the case Friday night in a slugfest between Greenwood and Noxubee County in the North 4A title game.
Led by the two top defensive ends in Mississippi, two of the top scoring defenses in the state 4A ranks put on a show, but it was the Jeffrey Simmons-led Noxubee defense that was utterly dominant in a 14-7 win before an overflow crowd at Bulldog Stadium.
The GHS offense was headed nowhere fast against Simmons, the state’s top-rated recruit for 2106, and the rest of the Tigers’ strong, swarming defense. It took quite a special outing from the Marquiss Spencer-led Bulldog defense just to keep the Dogs in the game in the first half.
With Noxubee all over every move Greenwood made, the Tigers allowed a mere 54 total yards to the home team and forced four turnovers in the first two quarters. Yet GHS trailed by just seven points at the break.
When told of those first-half numbers, GHS head coach Clinton Gatewood had a simple — but very appropriate — one-word reply, “wow.”
Yep, I am pretty sure there were some four-letter, one-word responses that he saved for the privacy of the locker room for that type of ineptness.
It didn’t get much better in the second half as the Bulldogs were whipped at the line of scrimmage, leaving two different quarterbacks running for their lives. GHS didn’t have any luck running the ball with just eight yards, but the Dogs really never tried to establish a rushing attack.
Playing without starting quarterback Damarius Ray (concussion), Greenwood finished with 128 total yards. It really didn’t matter who played quarterback the way the Tigers were controlling things up front, but Ray may have been able to do some things with his legs.
“We knew coming in we had to block well against them, and we didn’t do that,” Gatewood said. “Our offense didn’t do anything to help out a gutsy effort from our defense, which had a lot of big stops and played their hearts out. They left it all on the field.”
It was obviously a disappointing loss — a tough way to send out 24 seniors who have been a part of something special at GHS — but my hat is off to Gatewood and his staff for getting this team back to the North 4A title game to face the defending state champs after suffering huge personnel losses after last year’s 21-0 loss to Noxubee.
These coaches have built up a top-notch program that hadn’t had consistent success since the early 1990s before Gatewood was hired in 2010. This Bulldog senior class exits with three straight Region 3-4A titles, back-to-back trips to the North 4A championship, the most wins in a season, 12, since 1988 and a combined record of 33-7 the last three seasons.
“When we first got here, people doubted that we could win again here, but we’ve proven them wrong. We have built a winning program. It’s always been about the program and not having a winning team for us,” Gatewood said.
I have to admit when we sat down this summer to preview the upcoming season that I had doubt too. Gatewood sure didn’t.
After losing this many seniors again, there may be plenty of people who think this run is over for GHS, but I won’t be one of them this time.
The GHS football season has been over less than 48 hours, and I’m already excited about what this program will do next season.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
