Long live the king, says Greenwood High School.
The royalty of Region 3-4A reigns supreme after a 41-12 win over Raymond Friday night at Bulldog Stadium — giving GHS a fourth straight district championship.
When asked how it feels, Greenwood head coach Clinton Gatewood said, “First, let me hug my wife.” He did, and then said: “This means a lot for our program. This has never been before here. I am very happy for my players and coaches.”
Greenwood has now won 17 straight against Region 3-4A foes by an average of 27 points.
“Hey, it feels good to stay on top, where we always want to be,” Gatewood said.
It was the sixth straight win for the Bulldogs (7-3), who opened the season at 1-3 against a tough non-conference slate.
“We still have a ways to go, but I am proud of these guys. My young boys have grown into young men,” said Gatewood, who has now won five region titles in seven seasons at Greenwood.
The Bulldogs will host Caledonia (5-5), the No. 4 seed from Region 4, this week in the first round of the North 4A playoffs. Caledonia defeated Leake Central 49-35 Friday.
“This coaching staff won’t get much rest this week as we prepare to make a run at state,” said Gatewood, whose team fell one game short of playing for a state championship the last two seasons.
The Bulldogs will ride Rico Owens into the postseason after the senior running back, who went over 1,500 yards on the season Friday with 185 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.
Running backs Walter Ivory and Lavell Nelson had touchdown runs of 26 and 77 yards, respectively.
Senior Tranleson Tribblett, in his first start since suffering a broken collarbone against Grenada in Week 2, completed 5-of-15 passes for 83 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Sophomore Jaylen Stanley, who played quarterback in Tribblett’s absence, moved to wide receiver against Raymond and made a big impact. He caught three passes for 49 yards and two touchdowns.
Stanley’s first TD grab came in the final seconds of the first half on a reverse pass from Kobe Chambers to put GHS up 21-6.
His second came on a double-move where he had to out-jump a Raymond defender in the end zone for an 11-yard score. That made it 28-6 with 5:25 to play in the third quarter.
Greenwood closed out the scoring early in the fourth on an 11-yard TD strike to Chambers from Tribblett.
Defensively, the Bulldogs dominated the line of scrimmage. Junior lineman Jalen Bedell was unstoppable at times with four tackles for loss and a team-high 11 total stops.
Cortavious Hoskins was next with 10, followed by Carl Jones and Jakaiszer Glass with eight each. Glass also had a fumble recovery.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
