The Southside Mavericks made enough big defensive plays to draw praise for anyone. Including Greenwood.

But good teams don’t pass on mistakes, and Greenwood’s that good.

Quarterback Jace Presley threw for 239 yards and a touchdown in the first half as the Bulldogs cashed in on three first half special teams mistakes for a 44-14 victory at Smith-Robinson Stadium.

“We did exactly what we wanted to do,” Greenwood coach Rick Jones said. “We got the clock running, and that’s really what we wanted to do. I was hoping we could get some guys in there, but after they cut it to 23, I thought we probably needed to go get another one.

Up 30-0 at the half, then 37-14 with 11½ minutes left to play, Presley threw a final touchdown pass to Luke Brewer with just under 10 minutes to play.

Presley finished with 367 yards passing and three touchdowns.

Greenwood (2-0) took the opening kickoff and converted three third-down conversions and a fourth-down conversion for an early 7-0 lead. Hunter Wilkinson capped a 13-play, 73-yard march by slithering in from the 2.

The Mavericks held Greenwood on its second possession as junior Landen Chaffey stopped Wilkinson on fourth-and-one from the Southside 38.

A poor snap on another Southside 3-and-out led to an 18-yard punt, and the Bulldogs moved to the Mavericks’ 13 before settling for Stewart’s 30-yard field goal.

Southside’s inability to move the ball eventually wore on the team’s defensive unit.

“I know the score doesn’t show it, but I thought we played pretty well,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said.

The Mavericks harassed Presley on numerous occasions, sacking him four times. Chaffey, in particular, played well.

“We had some big fourth down stops, but you can’t leave your defense out there that long against Greenwood,” Williams said. “Greenwood, they’re going to score points. I thought we had a good plan going in and we had some guys go down and started to juggle things a little bit.”

Presley and Peyton Carter had a great first half connection. The 6-foot-4 Bulldogs’ receiver caught 10 passes for 138 yards and a 16-yard TD reception.

Later in the half, Jayden Jasna set up the team’s final first half touchdown with a 33-yard punt return to Southside’s. Wilkinson’s third TD run of the night from a yard out gave the Bulldogs a 30-0 halftime advantage.

Southside scored twice in the final half, with Jay Washington scoring from the 2 and quarterback Parker Wehunt throwing a 12-yard touchdown pass to Dmitri Lloyd.
