Shiloh Christian hosts Greenwood in clash of high school gridiron titans

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

SPRINGDALE – Two of the state’s most successful high school gridiron programs will clash Friday night at the aptly named Champions Stadium.

Shiloh Christian (2-1) will host Greenwood (3-0) at 7 p.m. in the Saints’ inaugural Class 6A-West conference contest..

Both teams coming off a bye week.

“I think there will be a bunch of people here, it will be a great environment and there will be a buzz in the air,” Shiloh second-year head coach Tucker Barnard said.

“We’ll see what happens with the weather. They are calling for rain, but hopefully that doesn’t discourage too many fans from coming. I don’t think it will. I think we will have a packed house.”

The Saints have won eight state titles since winning a Class 2A championship in 1998 with the last one being a Class 4A crown in 2020.

The Bulldogs are 11-time state title winners, including a Class 6A championship while going 13-0 last season.

“Greenwood is one of the best programs in the state and I think that is a pretty easy statement to make,” Barnard said. “They have been winning for a long time. They have done a great job and I have a lot of respect for (Greenwood head) Coach (Chris) Young.”

Barnard has seen plenty of Greenwood in his coaching career as an assistant at Shiloh Christian and a seven-year head coach at Oklahoma power Stillwater.

“I have quite a bit of experience playing against Greenwood,’ Barnard said. “I think we played them seven times when I was at Shiloh before and played them once when I was at Stillwater. So I am really excited for the matchup.”

Shiloh opened its season with a 47-6 win over Farmington before earning a hard-fought 44-40 victory at Little Rock Christian.

The Saints lost 38-14 at Lincoln (Okla.) Christian on Sept. 13.

Saints tailback Griffin Mason is rushing for 146 yard per game while fellow juniors Zane Sluyter and Chandler Kemp are both over 70 yards receiving a contest.

Sophomore quarterback Jake Bodenstein will start again for injured Cole Creighton, who got hurt in the win over Little Rock Christian.

The Greenwood match up will let Barnard know where his program is at among its new classification.

“It is a great challenge for us making the move into 6A and to open up your conference schedule with those guys, well, we are going to find out immediately where we stand and I think I am glad for that,” Bernard said.

“If we find out we are competitive right now then we will feel good about the track we are on and will keep on keeping on.

“If not, we are going to know about where we stand in 6A right away after Friday night and I would like to know that as early as possible.”

Greenwood has blitzed a trio of Class 7A foes this season in Bentonville West (70-35), Fort Smith Northside (58-0) and Springdale Har-Ber (56-19).

Arkansas junior quarterback target Kane Archer has thrown for 962 yards and 11 touchdowns and also lead his team in rushing with 201 yards and two more scores.

Champ Davis, Isaiah Arrington and Grant Karnes are all averaging over 80 yards receiving per contest.

Cash Archer, Kane’s older brother, has four sacks and spearheads the Bulldogs’ defense.

“I’m not naive – they are a great football team, they score a lot of points and they are really good on defense, which I think might be something that gets overlooked at times,” Bernard said.

“I think it is going to be really exciting and I am hoping we can do our part on our end and make it the great game it can be.”

Photo by John D. James