After watching the Greenwood offense march up and down the field at will in the first half of Saturday’s game between the Gators and Allen County-Scottsville, ACS coach Brad Hood told his defensive coordinator Tyler Berry that he needed to fix the defensive problems.

The message was received, as Allen County-Scottsville was able to stem the tide and rally for a 26-23 victory over the Gators at Warren East High School.

Allen County-Scottsville’s defense blanked Greenwood in the second half, and the Patriots’ special teams played a part in both scores as the Patriots improved to 3-0 on the season, beating Greenwood for the first time since 2010.

“We walked in there and told the boys that great teams are going to have to fight,” Hood said. “Our kids manned up. Our coaches manned up, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

It was a tale of two halves for the ACS defense, who allowed points on every possession in the first half before pitching a shutout in the second half.

Greenwood (1-2) opened with a 10-play, 72-yard drive – capped by a 1-yard keeper from quarterback Jackson Adams. ACS countered with an eight play, 84-yard drive – the final play a 35-yard touchdown pass from Chase Wilson to Jacob Lightfoot.

The Gators continued to run it right at the Patriots’ defense – taking the lead on a 10-play, 65-yard drive, then extending the lead to 20-6 on a 39-yard touchdown run by Adams midway through the second period.

Allen County-Scottsville inched closer when Wilson hit Lightfoot in stride in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-goal at the 25 to make the score 20-12. The Gators answered right before the half with another lengthy drive that ended with a Ben Patterson 20-yard field goal.

Allen County-Scottsville was able to stop the Gators on downs to open the second half, which junior defensive back Cayden Ross said was a big confidence boost for the Patriots.

“We came out in the second half (ready to work),” Ross said. “One stop led to two. Two stops led to three, and so on and so on.”

A couple of special teams miscues helped Allen County-Scottsville gain more momentum.

Allen County got the ball in Greenwood territory after a punt hit off a Gator and was recovered by the Patriots. That drive ended in an interception, but ACS got another chance after Patterson’s knee hit the ground fielding a bad snap on a punt.

One play later, Kelly Weger raced 22 yards for the touchdown. Weger then ran in the two-point conversion to trim the deficit to 23-20 with 6:17 left in the third period.

“I thought up until the second half that our special teams played really well,” Greenwood coach Chris Seabolt said. “We got to the second half … and that’s kind of a fluke play there where the ball hits one of our kids and they recover. I thought that was a big play. If nothing else, it shifted momentum for them.

“Of course the one where our punter’s knee is on the ground when he caught the point, that was huge as well. You have those two things happen and it’s hard to recover from those things.”

The Patriots took the lead with 8:59 left on another special teams play, a 38-yard punt return from Ross down the left side that made the score 26-23.

“Before that drive started I told the defense we had to score here, we had to pick our offense up,” Ross said. “That’s what we did. We came out on the punt return and took it to the house. We had some great blocks, a clear alley, and we took it to the house.”

Greenwood had two chances to tie or take the lead in the final nine minutes, but was stopped on downs at the ACS 21 then managed one yard before turning it over on downs on the final drive with under two minutes left.

“They gave us some fits, but our kids never backed down,” Hood said. “We made some mistakes and we have to clean them up, but I am really proud of our kids’ effort and I am really proud of the outcome.”

Allen County-Scottsville finished with 283 yards.

Wilson threw for 270, while Lightfoot had four catches for 144 yards. Ross finished with five catches for 79 yards.

“The first two games we were supposed to win,” Hood said. “That is no cut toward anybody. With what we had coming back we were supposed to win. We did what we were supposed to do.

“This game was a coin toss. Greenwood has a good program. They are a 5A school. This was a big test for us, and our kids came out and did it.”

Greenwood finished with 313 yards, 298 on the ground. The Gators were held to 44 yards in the second half.

“We couldn’t get a whole lot going,” Seabolt said. “Their defense sold out to the run game. The way we were motioning, they were just bringing everybody to that side, so we started to combat that with some of our counters. We had some luck with it at times, but for the most part we couldn’t get much done in the second half.”

Adams finished with 139 yards rushing, while Triston Wilson added 79 yards.

Both teams return to action at 7 p.m. on Friday. Allen County-Scottsville will host Glasgow, while Greenwood plays at Franklin-Simpson.

ACSHS 6 6 8 6 – 26

GHS 6 17 0 0 – 23

First quarter

GHS – Jackson Adams 1 run (kick blocked), 6:47

ACS – Jacob Lightfoot 35 pass from Chase Wilson (kick failed), 3:55

Second quarter

GHS – Triston Wilson 2 run (Ben Patterson kick), 11:40

GHS – Adams 39 run (Patterson kick), 6:44

ACS – Lightfoot 25 pass from Wilson (pass failed), 3:49

GHS – Patterson 20 field goal, 0:05

Third quarter

ACS – Kelly Weger 22 run (Weger run), 6:17

Fourth quarter

ACS – Cayden Ross 38 punt return (kick blocked), 8:59