Bulldog Stadium has been a tough place on visiting playoff teams in Clinton Gatewood’s tenure at Greenwood High School.
GHS takes pride in defending its home turf and will get a second straight postseason game at home this week. The undefeated Bulldogs look to keep things rolling in the North 4A quarterfinals Friday night at 7.
Greenwood is 11-3 at home in the playoffs since Gatewood took over the fledging program in 2010. The Dogs were 2-0 last season at Bulldog Stadium before losing 17-14 to Louisville in North 4A finals.
“Our fans, students and band bring us a lot of energy at home. We always want to give them their money’s worth,” Gatewood said. “We take great pride in that.”
The Bulldogs added to their winning ways at home last week with a dominating 43-0 rout of Leake Central in the opening round. Friday’s winner advances to face the Louisville-Pontotoc victor. It was the third shutout for the defense, which is led by senior tackle Quontavious Lymon, sophomore defensive end William Stewart, sophomore linebacker Davin Anderson and senior cornerback Travor Randle.
The Bulldogs are undefeated at this point in the season for the first time since 1988, the last year the program played for a state championship.
New Albany (8-3) defeated Shannon 54-32 last week in the first round.
Greenwood comes into Friday's game averaging 207 yards passing and 174 on the ground offensively.
DeAndre Smith leads Greenwood at the quarterback position with 100 completions in 167 attempts for 2,094 yards and 23 touchdowns.
Smith’s leading receiver is Kobe Chambers with 42 catches for 937 yards and 13 touchdowns. Daylin Metcalf is next in receiving with 27 receptions for 618 yards and four TDs.
The leading rusher for Greenwood is Jamarion Addison with 142 carries for 1,177 yards and 16 touchdowns. Smith is the second-leading rusher with 422 yards on 63 carries and 12 touchdowns.
Leading tacklers for Greenwood are Anderson with 108 tackles and 12 tackles for loss, while William Stewart is second with 91 tackles and 29 tackles for loss.
New Albany’s CJ Hill rushed for 303 yards and six touchdowns in the win against Shannon. Hill also caught a pass for a score to total seven for the night.
The visiting Bulldogs are pretty balanced on offense, with 184 rushing and 151 passing per game. The 5-foot-8, 210-pound sophomore averages 131 yards rushing per game.
“They run a lot of RPO stuff. We have the speed to handle that,” Gatewood said.
“Our biggest thing is to come up and hit that big back in the mouth.”
