<p>MARTINSVILLE</p>
<p>Greenwood coach Mike Campbell called junior wide receiver Lenard Bolden “the best bad-ball catcher we have.”</p>
<p>Bolden put those skills to use late in Friday’s 31-18 Woodmen win at Martinsville to stave off a late Artesian rally.</p>
<p>Facing fourth and 4 at the Martinsville 28-yard line with 4:27 remaining, Greenwood held a precarious 25-18 lead. Woodmen quarterback Oliver Rau dropped back and lofted a pass to the left corner of the end zone.</p>
<p>The pass was short of its intended target. An Artesian defender, by far the closest player to the ball on either team, leaped and tipped the ball, but it fell into Bolden’s arms in the end zone. While 4:27 still remained, Martinsville already had used all of its timeouts, so that touchdown effectively ended the game.</p>
<p>“He slipped and fell last week and made a spectacular catch (against Indian Creek),” Campbell said. “He’s got nice hands when it’s a bad ball. He did a fantastic job staying with it.”</p>
<p>Bolden’s touchdown catch was just one of a handful of big plays the Woodmen made to pull the upset over the Artesians, who entered play ranked fourth in Class 4A. Some others:</p>
<p>· After Martinsville grabbed a 6-0 first-quarter lead, Rau called his own number and ran up the middle for a 68-yard touchdown to tie the game 6-6, just two plays after the Artesians’ score (Greenwood’s two-point try failed)</p>
<p>· Ryan Pruitt jumped a route, intercepted a pass and ran untouched 47 yards to the end zone to extend Greenwood’s lead to 19-6 with 9:58 left in the first half. That came three plays after Gavin Ruppert completed an eight-play, 71-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.</p>
<p>· Immediately after that, Greenwood’s special teams forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff return. The Woodmen scored again four plays later, on an Ethan Haessig 20-yard touchdown run. That gave Greenwood a 25-6 lead, which the Woodmen maintained until the first play of the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>· On Martinsville’s next possession, the Artesians drove to the Greenwood 10, but Dylan Mayhew’s sack of Xavier Tunitis on fourth down ended the drive.</p>
<p>In all, the Woodmen (2-1, 1-0 Mid-State) forced three first-half turnovers — two interceptions and a fumble — that led to 12 points. The second interception, by Tanner Allen in the end zone late in the first half, cut short a Martinsville drive that had advanced to Greenwood’s 19-yard line.</p>
<p>“We hadn’t really found a good rhythm yet,” Campbell said. “We just raised the bar for ourselves and our expectations. That first week, he had 13 kids who hadn’t started a varsity game yet, and we knew what we had in us. We certainly took a step in the right direction.”</p>
<p>The Artesians (2-1, 0-1) put together a 21-play, 88-yard touchdown drive that ate up 8:07 and cut Greenwood’s lead to 25-12 with 11:53 to play. Martinsville then forced a punt and drew within a touchdown with a nine-play, 66-yard drive. That ended with Tunitis’ third touchdown pass of the night, a 31-yard post to Andy Myers with 5:09 to play.</p>
<p>Haessig finished with 128 yards on 27 carries with a touchdown for Greenwood, including several clock-killing runs late. Rau added 94 yards on just eight carries, and passed for another 97 yards.</p>
<p>The Woodmen will host Mooresville next week, and Campbell said his players won’t have any trouble staying motivated for that one. The Pioneers handed Greenwood identical 49-14 losses last season, one in the regular season and another in sectional play.</p>
<p>“Mooresville whipped us in every phase of the game, and those guys have not forgotten,” Campbell said, referring to his players.</p>
