8-24-04 By: Brian Vaughn
Van Buren- The Bulldogs were eager to hit someone else after weeks of hitting on each other. Tuesday evening they had their chance with Van Buren.
The scrimmage consisted of each team first having 15 offensive downs, followed by two quarters of live football.
Greenwood struggled during the 15 offensive downs, but came to life in the real game scenario of the scrimmage.
The Bulldogs had the ball first once the clock started and marched down the field with Austin Efurd carrying it in from the 1-yard line with 8:45 to go in the quarter to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead after Mason Knox's PAT was good.
The Pointers would have possession of the ball for less than a minute as Greenwood's Josh Robinson would get the ball back for the Bulldogs with 7:55 to go in the quarter on a Pointer fumble.
Greenwood head coach Rick Jones showed he's not afraid to roll the dice as on 4th and 2 from the Pointer 39 the Bulldogs go for it and get the 1st down on a 8-yard run by Eric Melton.
Mason Knox added 3 more to the Bulldogs total with 3:54 to go in the quarter on a 30-yard field goal to put the Bulldog up 10-0.
Lucas Miller for the Bulldogs picked off an errand pass from the Pointers with 1:21 to go in the quarter.
Bryson Fair comes up with a tipped pass with 7:03 to go in the final quarter to give the ball back to Greenwood.
The Bulldogs would again find the end zone with 3:02 to go on a 16-yard run by Austin Efurd to give the Bulldogs a 17-0 lead after Knox's PAT.
Greenwood would again recover a Van Buren fumble with 1:24 to go to end the scrimmage.
Coach Jones was disappointed in the slow start of the 15 offensive play scrimmage.
"I've been around long enough I should know that, but I just expected us to go out and execute be sharp and crisp and look like we're ready to go, but we're obviously not," said Jones. "Whatever plans the kids might have had about not practicing next week is now out the window. We're going to have to go to work, there's a lot of mistakes. Things are just really disappointing, just simple things, fundamentals and techniques, we didn't do very well."
The Bulldog defense got four turnovers during the live scrimmage.
"I thought defensively we played hard," Jones said. "Our kids play hard, that's the thing, as long as we do that we're going to be okay."
Van Buren opens the 2004 season Friday, September 3 against Crawford Country rival Alma and Greenwood opens with Shiloh Christian at what the Bulldogs are hoping for a packed out Smith-Robinson Stadium.
