Greenwood keeps Catawba Ridge guessing, pulls out a grinding, physical victory

It’s hard enough to prepare for a non-region foe in a year full of uncertainty. It’s harder still when that opponent is ranked ninth in the state.

When the team gives you a series of looks you’ve never seen on film? It becomes a game of adjustments.

Greenwood wore down Catawba Ridge with a torturous running game that achingly drained minutes off the clock on each possession and turned up the defensive pressure in seemingly every key moment, escaping with a 17-14 victory at The Pit that it celebrated by jumping up and down in the center of the field and taking the noise to the locker room.

“They showed something completely different than what they did on film, so it took us a while to adjust. The stuff was there — we just didn’t execute real well tonight,” Catawba Ridge coach Zac Lendyak said. “We were just off all night long. We never could quite find our rhythm.”

Greenwood (3-0) lit the scoreboard on its first drive, marching 72 yards in 10 plays. Daylan Rappley finished the drive with a tough 18-yard run to the paint to put the Eagles ahead, 7-0. Billy Pruitt then knocked home a 35-yard field goal on the ensuing Eagle possession, stretching the margin to 10-0.

Catawba Ridge (2-1) looked set to slice the advantage on its second possession of the second quarter, as Ira Mister snagged an Eagle fumble on the Greenwood 15. The drive stalled, however, as Greenwood compelled a fourth-down incompletion that ended the series on downs. The first Catawba Ridge score came after a second fumble recovery in the Greenwood red zone, as a 20-yard strike from Jadyn Davis to a wide-open Henry Bowen cut the score to 10-7 with 23 seconds to play before the interval.

A methodical third quarter unfolded, with the teams completing just two downs each in the period. Jacobie Henderson snared a Greenwood pass at the Catawba Ridge 35 to halt a Greenwood drive late in the period, but the Eagles cut short the Copperhead charge with a fourth-down sack to again seize the ball.

“The defense held them in check for most of the night, but we just couldn’t get enough on the board offensively to bail them out tonight,” Lendyak said.

Greenwood then again went on a prolonged march, elapsing nearly seven minutes from the clock on a 12-play drive. The drive appeared stalled on the first series of downs, but a contested Rappley toss to Carlos Norman netted 24 yards and kept the series alive. Ve Morton finally found the end zone after nearly 20 carries on the night, capping the drive with a six-yard touchdown carry that proved to be too much of a margin for Catawba Ridge to overcome.

The Copperheads did, however, have one last strike. Catawba Ridge went 80 yards in 17 plays in just over three minutes, drawing within a 17-14 margin on a 15-yard Tyler Jones jaunt. Greenwood recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt, then ran out the remaining seconds to secure the victory.

Despite the result, Lendyak saw some key points on which to build in the coming weeks.

“I told them that we’re a better football team tonight than we were when we took the field,” Lendyak said. “When you play a team of that caliber with that kind of history and you play them toe-to-toe … we’re a better football team than we were two-and-a-half hours ago.

“I told them we could come back Monday and let Greenwood beat us twice and wallow in it, or we can learn and get better. I think that’s what they’re ready to do.”

Davis connected on just 15-of-34 throws for 175 yards, with the Eagles’ pressure a constant threat to the Copperheads’ sophomore passer.

“We didn’t expect (the pressure), but the problem was that they were getting it with their four down linemen and they were dropping everybody else into coverage, which made it really tough to throw the football,” Lendyak said. “We knew that we had to keep the running back in to help chip (block) a little bit, but they got more pressure on us than what we obviously wanted. That’s something we’ve absolutely gotta fix.”

Jones and Bowen split carries for the Copperheads, each scoring a touchdown. Henderson hauled in five passes for nearly 70 yards.

Greenwood tallied 45 rushes for nearly 200 yards, with Morton grabbing nearly half of each total. Rappley added 14 totes for just shy of 65 yards on the ground.

Catawba Ridge hits the road to Concord, North Carolina, next Friday to take on West Cabarrus High School. Kickoff is slated for 7:30.

This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 11:31 PM.