Greenwood coach Mike Campbell liked the desire his football team showed in Friday night’s loss to Class 4A No. 9 Martinsville.
Consistency was another story.
“We need to make plays,” Campbell said. “We need to find a way to make a play when we need to make a play. Right now, we’re not there. But we didn’t quit. Our kids battled.”
Junior running back Brayden Shrake rushed for 183 yards on 30 carries, including two touchdowns, to lead visiting Artesians to a 28-14 victory over the Woodmen in the Mid-State opener for both teams.
Martinsville (3-0, 1-0) led 21-6 at halftime. Following a scoreless third quarter, Shrake scored on a 31-yard touchdown run with 2:23 left.
The Woodmen (1-2) managed to score quickly after that when quarterback Brock Riddle connected with Chance Glynn with a 46-yard pass, putting the ball on Martinsville 1. Greenwood tight end Carter Campbell then scored a 1-yard run and caught a two-point conversion pass from Ayden Houseman with 1:08 left.
After an onside kick failed, Martinsville ran out the clock.
“I love these guys,” Mike Campbell said. “They battled to the end. Even down three scores, they were working to try to get better. That’s all you can ask.”
The only turnover for the Woodmen was an interception by Riddle.
“He got indecisive on the throw and got caught,” Mike Campbell said. “He was going one way and came back the other. That’s when Brock gets in trouble. When he decides to rip it, he has as good of an arm as anyone in the conference as far as sticking the ball in windows. He’s still growing. He’s a junior, so we’re going to keep working with him. He’s going to keep getting better.”
Riddle completed 17 of 23 passes for 201 yards.
The Artesians, who were slowed by 10 penalties, took a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard TD run by Shrake with 8:01 left in the first quarter. Martinsville boosted the lead to 14-0 on Adkins’ 70-yard touchdown pass to Luke Cheatham with 4:11 remaining in the period.
Greenwood cut the deficit to 14-6 with Riddle’s 28-yard scoring strike to Ethan Pringle with 10:50 left in the second quarter. The two-point conversion pass failed. Pringle finished with six catches for 95 yards
The Artesians then missed two chances to score before getting their final TD of the half. On fourth down and 2 from the 3-yard line, Tyler Adkins threw an incomplete pass. Later in the quarter, Martinsville had a bad snap on a 33-yard field goal attempt.
Martinsville grabbed a 21-6 lead on a 33-yard pass from Adkins to Garrett Skaggs with 33 seconds left in the second quarter. The Artesians took over at the Greenwood 33 after a 9-yard punt that took a bad bounce for the Woodmen and the Artesians scored on the next play.
“That change of momentum swing we still have to clean that up,” Mike Campbell said. “We have stuff to work on in practice, change of momentum drills. We grew tonight. We did some things better than we did last week. Credit Martinsville, they’re solid. Coach (Brian) Dugger does a great job with what they do.”
The Woodmen travel to meet Class 4A No. 3 Mooresville next week.
“We play 4A and 5A ranked teams all season, but that’s what you want to do if the goal every team in our conference has,” Mike Campbell said.
