– It’s too early to say that Greenwood has it all figured out, but after Friday’s performance against Shallowater it’s safe to say the Rangers are on the right track.
It wasn’t a pretty start as Greenwood was gashed with a 73-yard touchdown pass right out of the gate giving Shallowater a 7-0 lead.
Aaron Fikes put the Rangers on the board with a game tying 19-yard run.
Then, late in the first quarter, the kick heard around the world happened. From midfield, Rance Purser unleashed a near state record 61-yard field goal giving Greenwood a 10-7 lead.
Ty Flowers would stretch that lead to 17-7 with a 21yard touchdown run early in the second quarter.
After a second Shallowater touchdown, Greenwood’s Dylan Dominguez and Flowers scored on touchdown runs of 52-yards and 7-yards respectively to put the Rangers up 30-14 at the half.
The third quarter was dominated by Greenwood. Flowers connected with Purser for a 63-yard touchdown pass and Fikes rattled off a 55-yard touchdown run for a 43-14 lead.
Shallowater scored two late touchdowns making the final score 43-28.
Greenwood finished the game with its highest points total of the season and did so on 422 yards of total offense.
“First and foremost, our offensive line really stepped up and produced a much better game. They executed the schemes very well and played with greater effort throughout the game,” said Greenwood coach Rusty Purser. “Ty Flowers was also key in the offensive production, he seemed much more composed and executed the QB read schemes very well. We also had some big explosive plays that we have been missing most of the early season...the two long runs and the big pass certainly helped spark everything we were trying to achieve.”
Flowers led the Greenwood offense completing 6 of 7 passes for 113 yards and one touchdown and adding 75-yard rushing on 13 carries.
Fikes racked up 117-yard rushing on 12 carries and Dominguez also broke the century mark with 106 yards on 13 rushes. Tylan Booker finished the game with 11-yards.
Purser was the top receiver with four catches for 98 yards and a touchdown. Cade Rowoldt and Ethan Madrid had one catch each for 10-yards and 5-yards respectively.
Defensively, Cash McIntyre and Shawn Kelly were warriors bringing down 15 Mustangs each. Jimmy Vasquez and Caleb Yarbrough also had big nights with 13 and 10 tackles respectively.
Landon Butts finished the game with nine tackles followed by Tyezen Smith with six, Kye Compton five, Jesse Gonzales four, Eason Fierro Four, and Kyen Purser four.
John Hyatt racked up three tackles while Kevin Preieto and Ty Box accounted for two tackles each.
Rowoldt, Dominguez, Mayfield, and Jonathan Quiroz had one tackle apiece.
Are the offense and defense getting close to reaching their full potential?
Coming up with some big defensive plays were Smith with two sacks and one hurry and Fierro with one sack. Box had one interception while Yarbrough forces a fumble and Quiroz recovered a fumble.
Kelly, Mayfield, and McIntyre each had a defended pass.
In the last three weeks Greenwood’s defense has been bombarded with fast pace offenses and played over 300 downs.
“I'm not going to deny that it has been tough for our defense with the onslaught of offensive plays. We are rotating and number of kids in and out, just trying to keep kids fresh throughout the 48 minutes,” said Purser. “We have also had to dial back our Monday practice to a more focused teaching day with less overall reps, just trying to get our legs back under us the best we can.”
Next on the schedule is a home game against No. 18 Canyon at 7 p.m.
Canyon is 4-0 and most recently beat Cap Rock 35-32.