Once again, Greenwood is turning it on in the playoffs.
For the second straight year, the Woodmen find themselves in the Class 4A sectional championship game after they ran over Bedford North Lawrence 48-24 in a Friday evening semifinal.
Greenwood (4-7) now faces third-ranked Martinsville in the final. It’ll be familiar territory for the Woodmen, who have reached the title tilt for the sixth time in the last 10 seasons. It’s also the first time they’ve been to consecutive sectional championships since they were in four straight from 2015-18.
Coming alive in the “second” season is something the Woodmen have so far excelled at under second-year coach Justin Boser.
The coach has an easy answer as to why.
“Our schedule,” he said. “Our last six games of the season, we played 5A and a 6A team. That helped prepare us for (sectionals) — that and hard work.
Having junior running back Gunner Ruppert also helped.
Ruppert set the tone for the night on the second play from scrimmage, when he raced down the left sidelines for a 47-yard touchdown run. As an added bonus, the run also put Ruppert over the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
And if that wasn’t enough, Ruppert scored four more times on runs of 17, 39, 75 and 28 yards and added a two-point conversion. Overall, the junior gained 358 yards on the ground, breaking his own school record, with 221 of those coming in the first half.
And it could have been more, as Ruppert had a 62-yard run called back due to a hold.
“I can’t do anything but thank my offensive line,” Ruppert said. “Those guys put in the hard work and opened the holes for me. I can’t thank them enough and I can’t thank my team enough. We came out and fought like a family.”
The Woodmen defense also did its job, neutralizing the Stars’ passing game. BNL quarterback Dayson Kirby had thrown for more than 1,300 yards, and the Stars had four receivers with more than 285 yards on the season.
But Kirby was pretty much ineffective the whole night. Greenwood’s defense was the reason why with two interceptions, one each by Davion Jones and Brandon Eldridge. The Woodmen also recovered a fumble.
Greenwood did have an injury to starting quarterback Ayden Houseman that put him out early, but sophomore Parker Jarboe came in relief and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Braden Cave late in the second quarter to help the Woodmen build their lead to 28-0.
“We kept them coming back to work, keep them believing, keep them understanding that we could be in the sectional championship, and we’re excited to play again,” Boser said. “We had a really good plan this week. We went to a three-man front. We were ready for some spread action.”
Greenwood scored its final touchdown when freshman Leland Morton ran in for a 15-yard score.
BNL (2-9) scored on a 13-yard run from Brody Horton and two Jaden Gilbert touchdown receptions of 25 and 15 yards.
The Woodmen lost to Martinsville, 50-31, on Sept. 6. A win in the rematch would give the Woodmen their first sectional championship since the 2017 team made it to semistate.
