With the offense going three-and-out on back-to-back drives, Greenwood needed a spark.
After losing a yard, Greenwood senior Lowndes Still came over to the sidelines where wide receivers coach Kyle Simpson was giving the running back some instructions. While this is going on, the offense lined up, ready to hike the ball, with Still a few feet away from the sideline, but still on the field.
In a flash, senior quarterback Daylan Rappley snapped the ball and Still took off and caught a 44-yard pass from Rappley. Two plays later, Ve Morton found the back of the end zone, scoring the game-winning touchdown to defeat Greenville, 30-29.
“We’ve got a bunch of gadget plays and we tried to run a few of them tonight, one of them didn’t work and the other one got tipped,” Greenwood head coach Chris Liner said. “That one was a borderline gray area play, but it worked.”
The “gadget” play was the crescendo of a second half where the Eagles seemed to let their proverbial foot off of the gas. Greenville scored on back-to-back drives just more than one minute apart, to go up by six at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Prior to Greenwood’s game-winning drive, the Red Raiders had their chance to put the game on ice. However, on fourth-and-long from the Eagles’ 44-yard line, senior Karmelo Moates flew past the Greenville left tackle to sack its quarterback Prometheus Franklin.
“We just had kids make plays in big situations,” Greenwood assistant head coach Tom Butler said. “Anderius English made a few plays that were just huge, Ty’Kyeus Floyd also made some big plays and there’s the sack by (Moates). To win championships, you have to have kids that play up.”
Those two key plays improves Greenwood’s region record to 3-0, capturing the team’s first region championship since 2012.
“I’m just happy for our players and I’m happy for our kids,” Liner said. “I’m happy for Greenwood and I’m happy to be a Greenwood boy right now.”
Greenville 7 7 8 7 — 29
Greenwood 3 13 7 7 — 30
GR — Mazeo Bennett 61 pass from Prometheus Franklin (Thomas Guerrero kick)
GW — Billy Pruitt 34 FG
GW — Daylan Rappley 12 run (kick failed)
GW — Rappley 1 run (Allen Laymon kick)
GR — Tyler Brown 18 pass from Franklin (Guerrero kick)
GW — Rappley 5 run (Laymon kick)
GR — Khalique Holland 3 run (Aalijah Kelly from Franklin)
GR — Kelly 72 pass from Franklin (Guerrero kick)
GW — Ve Morton 10 run (Laymon kick)
Rushing — GW: Ve Morton 26-139, Daylan Rappley 15-57, Lowndes Still 8-49, Ty Patterson 5-17. GR: Khalique Holland 8-25, Prometheus Franklin 11-15, Jayden Peper 4-13.
Passing — GW: Daylan Rappley 3-4-51-0-1. GR: Prometheus Franklin 13-22-255-3-0.
Receiving — GW: Lowndes Still 2-51. GR: Aalijah Kelly 4-116, Mazeo Bennett 3-102, Tyler Brown 2-21, Josh Sapp 2-16.
Records: Greenwood (7-1, 3-0), Greenville (6-2, 1-1).
Next game: 7:30 Friday, Greenwood at Boiling Springs.
Contact sports writer James Benedetto at 864-223-1814 or follow on Twitter @james_benedetto.
