When the fourth quarter started, Seymour was on Greenwood’s 18-yard line, threatening to score and cut the deficit to seven in the Woodmen’s opener against the visiting Owls.
On the first play of the final frame, Greenwood’s Scotty Raker intercepted Seymour’s Will Gray. It was a huge play that led to a 61-yard touchdown run by Jackson Haessig that pushed the lead to 28-7, and it continued the theme head coach Mike Campbell said led Greenwood to a 35-7 victory: Defense.
“I thought our defense was solid all night,” said Campbell, who was also named the school’s new athletic director earlier in the week. “They rallied and created stops when they needed to. They got a turnover when we needed it.”
Seymour’s first possession started out well, as Will Gray found Kyle Hileman for a 27-yard gain, but the drive stalled on a fourth and 8 inside Greenwood territory.
It wasn’t until the Woodmen’s second drive when they got on the scoreboard first. It was Brock Riddle’s first pass attempt of the game, and he found tight end Carter Campbell for a 17-yard gain up the middle. It was 7-0 at the end of one.
Later in the second quarter, Greenwood found the end zone twice. Alan Burnett punched it in from 1 yard out, and then Riddle found Carter Campbell again on a 7-yard fade route in the corner of the end zone to make it 21-0 with just under three minutes to go in the first half.
“They get along well,” Mike Campbell said of the Riddle-Carter Campbell connection. “If he can body shot him, Carter is going to get his hands on the ball.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Seymour’s Mark Henson took it back to the house, but a block in the back penalty brought the ball back to Greenwood’s 27-yard line. It was still good field possession for the Owls, who cashed in on the second play of the drive when Gray used play-action design to find Josh Rennekamp for a 24-yard touchdown.
A big turning point came with five minutes left in the third quarter. On a fourth and 5, Gray scrambled out to his right and threw a prayer into the end zone from 17 yards out. Pennington won the jump ball and came down with the catch, but there was an illegal man downfield for the Owls. Instead of cutting the deficit to seven, Seymour was stopped on fourth down and Greenwood took over possession.
Riddle then completed a 62-yard, catch-and-run touchdown pass to Ethan Pringle, but that was called back for an illegal receiver downfield as well.
The third quarter ended with Greenwood still up 21-7. That’s when Raker’s big takeaway happened that led to Haessig’s big TD run.
Seymour got Greenwood back in the interception department as Henson picked off Riddle, but the Owls couldn’t muster anything out of it. The Woodmen were essentially able to run the clock out from there, but they added one more touchdown with 1:29 left as Riddle kept the ball up the middle for a 2-yard touchdown to help Greenwood secure the win.
Riddle finished the game 6 for 10 with 45 yards passing and two touchdowns. Haessig had 22 rushes for 184 yards and Burnett had 16 carries for 77 yards.
“Our running backs were downhill,” Mike Campbell said. “Our offensive line did a great job.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to; we’ve still got to get better. We’ve got a great Indian Creek team coming to our place (next week). We’ve got to keep improving and get better every week.”
