5A Greenwood (5-2) at 5A Bowling Green (2-5)

The Gators will again load the buses and travel about 5 miles down Scottsville Road to take on the Purples in this game that will determine the 5A District 2 Champion!  It will be the 37^th meeting between the schools on the grid iron with the Purples undefeated.  While there have been close games in this series; most notably 1996 (25-21 come back later; as this is the article for this week!), 2004 (31-24) and perhaps the 2021 playoffs (24-10); the majority have been all Purples.  And at this point, it continues to seem as much a mental hurdle as a grid-iron hurdle for the Gators.

Greenwood Gators Information: (TP94 Rating:  50.95)

Coach William Howard, in his 8^th season coaching off Scottsville Road, has done a fine job building the Gators program in that time.  When you have two of the top teams (BG and South – up until this year) in your classification and district within a moped ride from your school that is a tough hand to draw.  The Gators have been in the Top 10 of the 5A polls more regularly than not and are likely in the 10-15 range right now.  One key element I typically look to at all schools is their roster size compared to other teams in their district/class.  Greenwood has 79 kids on their roster.  That is an impressive number and tells me Coach Howard and staff are getting kids to come out to football, which seems harder and harder to do year after year.  Great job!

The Gators are 5 and 2 on the year and got their biggest win before Fall Break when they went to Barren County and after back and forth action wound up having RB Davis Chaney run it 38 yards for the winning TD with about 3 minutes to play.  But that effort won’t get it done this Friday.  Greenwood will need their best effort. 

Greenwood is led by SR QB Levi Wyatt who has 657 yards passing, 3 TDs vs 8 INTs through 7 games.  But likely the biggest offensive positive of the season has been SR RB Davis Chaney with 423 yards on the ground with 12 TDs.  Chaney also has a receiving TD and 2 kickoff returns for TDs, so the SR is having a great year!  Also, SR RB Nathan Self has had a good year with 450 yards and 3 TDs on the year and gives the Gators a bit more speed at RB.  At WR, JR Maxwell Isenhower leads the team with 12 catches for 262 yards.  And I think the Gators Oline is a good unit overall.

Defensively, the Gators are led by SR Stuart Scott with 59 tackles on the year and 8 tackles for loss. 

Bowling Green Purples Information: (TP94 Ranking:  69.29)

The Purples took down the Dragons of Warren Central with 18 rushing plays, 18 passing plays and 15 Freshmen playing in a 47-0 District win.  FR QB Athony Davis played well going 9 for 12 for 132 yards and 2 TDs and no INTs.  But perhaps his best play was choosing to run on 3^rd and 16 for 19 yards and a first down early in the game to extend a BG drive. 

The Graham Brothers Nick and Trey ran for about 100 yards and a TD a piece.  SR WR Ethan Kirkwood, SR WR Hudson Nottmeier, and FR Bode Knee all had a couple catches and a TD. 

Defensively, SR LB Montez Trussell continues to lead BG with 6 tackles in about a quarter and a half work vs Central. 

Game Information:

This game will be played at Bowling Green High School!  For Greenwood, I think an argument can be made that they have played their best football in their two losses.  Against South Warren, IMO they should have led that game at halftime. 

In other words, they get up for their better opponents.  I anticipate the Gators will be sky high and very emotional coming out of the gate this Friday at BG.  Greenwood has a good defensive front 7, it will be critical for them to play their best game Friday.  They have to stay in the game in the first quarter.  If they have to come from behind, I simply don’t see that happening.  This is for the District, so it matters quite a lot. 

For Bowling Green, the anticipated return of SR WR Travey Barber is a HUGE Lift for the Purples.  Barber was injured blocking for his teammate on a kickoff very early in the Rafferty’s Bowl game vs OCath in August.  His return is an automatic infusion of energy and what should be a fully available playbook now upon his return.  Looking forward to see #3 play on Friday!!

Does Greenwood break the streak here or does BG take the District?

Getting Barber back is big for the Purples. I like BG to win this by 21.

As a fan of the talent here in the SOKY area, I’m thrilled to hear that #3 is going to be back. As a fan of competitive football well not so much, though I have no doubt these Gators will be ready to roll Friday night. Offensively for Greenwood it just doesn’t look good at all, not sure what they’re trying to do, limited resources I suppose. The QB play has been horrendous. I do enjoy watching Chaney tote the rock, he’s a tough kid. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think the Gators front 7 can give the Freshman QB some trouble making good decisions. We saw it against South Warren, unfortunately for Greenwood the Page kid for the Spartans started finding a rhythm in the 2H and hit some holes in the secondary. Go ahead and chalk up the 37th consecutive win in this meeting.

Purples 35 Gators 7

Barber coming back has to strike fear in every team in 5A who believes they have a chance. IMO he’s right up there with Brown of CAL for best WR in the state if he doesn’t get injured. Purples when this game big without Barber. With him this one is out of reach by half time.

Time for the article of the week.  The 1996 GW vs BG game was the closest IMO that Greenwood has come to pulling out a win vs Bowling Green.  It was a heck of a game.  Greenwoods Coach was Greg Ulasiewicz and BG was coached by Kevin Wallace, then in his first of 22 seasons as head coach for BG.

Greenwoods Kris Hamilton had 155 yards on 20 carries and 3 TDs to power the Gators.  The weather was very tough for both teams with "rain pouring most of the game".  Greenwood led 14-0 at halftime and 21-7 late in the 3rd quarter.  But BG found a way.  Take a look if you have time with the Purples finally emerging with a win 25-21 in 1996.

The first part of the article:

1996-1.pdf

The second part of the article by Jason Frakes, then of the Bowling Green Daily News:

1996-2.pdf

 

NFHS Video:

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/bowling-green-high-school-ky-bowling-green-ky/gameec5e778b2

BG.

Video of the game:

https://stfanclub.com/

On 10/11/2025 at 11:16 AM, Purple88 said:

For Bowling Green, the anticipated return of SR WR Travey Barber is a HUGE Lift for the Purples.  

This is the best piece of news I've heard all week. I was all set to cover him for the watchlist and then poof... it looked like it was over before it started.

He's dynamic and instantly takes BG's offensive potential up a few notches.

With or without Barber, I look for the Purples to keep their boot on the throat of the Gators.

23 minutes ago, theguru said:

Video of the game:

https://stfanclub.com/

Another streaming option

4 minutes ago, TheBallCoach said:

Another streaming option

Thanks for posting this TBC!  I'm not familar with 7 Mountain Sports.  Do you know anything about them (like who funds them, where they are based out of, etc.)?

10 minutes ago, TheBallCoach said:

Another streaming option

Thanks, YouTube always for me. 

48 minutes ago, Purple88 said:

Thanks for posting this TBC!  I'm not familar with 7 Mountain Sports.  Do you know anything about them (like who funds them, where they are based out of, etc.)?

That’s a really good question and I did a little research into it because they seemed to of just jumped onto the scene here. Seems as though it’s a broadcasting network that operates in 4 states now, Pennsylvania (home base), KY, NY and WV. Apparently they’ve acquired WBVR, WWKU, and WUHU radio stations in recent years so they selected Bowling Green as a place they see themselves able to grow and that was a brilliant idea. The live coverage of HS football games in the area is just another perk they have to offer. I have to admit their video quality is very good. They talk some Penn State stuff as well on their YouTube and podcast, which now knowing they’re from Pennsylvania I understand why that is. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out considering Sporting Times has played a large role in the area  with no competition since this technology boom. Some say competition brings the best out of everybody but sometimes it’ll put one competitor under, so we’ll see what happens.

If both play to their capability give me BG by 21.  Hopefully Barber is back, even with limited touches tonight maybe.