Photos by Rick Nation and Kevin Nagle
It has all the makings of a trap game for the Bryant Hornets when they host the Alma Airedales tonight. Coming off an emotional double-conference win over Little Rock Catholic, which also had a payback element, and looking ahead to Homecoming and a date with perennial state powerhouse Greenwood, there’s the real danger that the Hornets could overlook the Airedales, a 3-2 team desperately seeking its first Central Conference victory.
Alma lost a barnburner to Siloam Springs last week, 30-27, after falling to Catholic 7-6 in its league opener. But the Airedales were 3-0 before that including a convincing 28-10 win over the Springdale Bulldogs, members of the mighty 7A-West Conference.
The Hornets, on the other hand, have won four in a row after their disappointing tie with Benton in the Salt Bowl to open the campaign. Besides the 34-7 win over Catholic, Bryant drubbed Russellville 34-6 in its conference opener.
“Alma will present us with a variety of formations,” said Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “They use a lot of motions and shifts, trying to get you out of position, I think. Our challenge this week has really been to stay focused, stay simple defensively, get our alignment and then play ball from there.
Hunter Fugitt (33) hits Catholic quarterback Andre Sale as he gets a pass away. Ryan Hall (43) and Mario Waits (92) add to the rush. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
“One thing that helps us is that, in the spring and the summer, our offense gives us a lot of shifts and motions so our guys are not in panic mode with that,” he noted. “They feel comfortable making those changes, those adjustments. So that’s been a bonus for us this week.”
The Airedales’ offense is led by quarterback Evan Burris who completes 64 percent of his passes, 66 of 103 with two interceptions for 867 yards. His 13 touchdown passes is second only to Conway’s Braylon Smith. He also leads the team in rushing with 198 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries.
“I feel like the quarterback is a good football player,” Griffith said. “He’s very capable of throwing the football and he does a good job running the football. And he’s comfortable in either role.
“They bring a variety of other guys in to play running back,” he continued. “They have some young men playing both ways so they tend to rotate guys at running back that are also starting on defense, trying to keep them as fresh as they can.”
Landon Brigance, Josh Parker and Alex Benuex each have rushed for over 145 yards this season. Each of the three has over 25 tackles on defense as well.
“Our big challenge, I think, is to just make sure that we’re aligned properly and we follow our key progressions,” Griffith summarized. “We should be okay if we can do those things.”
Wide receiver Evan Lee stretches the ball across the goal line to finish off a touchdown pass play against Little Rock Catholic. (Photo by Rick Nation)
The coach was pleased with how his team played last week, particularly his front four who were all among the team leaders in tackles for the game, tackles Mario Waits and Cameron Murray with ends Hunter Fugitt and Ryan Hall. Plus the Hornets forced five turnovers.
“The number one thing that we improved was our intensity,” Griffith related. “I think anybody watching the football game saw a much more intense unit. We challenged them through the week. We challenged a couple of them individually. And, as a group, Coach (Paul) Calley challenged them before the ballgame.
“I thought they responded well and I’m hopeful that they will see that and see how much more effective that we can be when we are playing with some intensity; we’re playing with some excitement, some fire, we’re having some fun out there; and we can be a pretty good unit if we’ll do those things,” he concluded.
Through five weeks, the Hornets have given up a league-low 1,408 yards of total offense (281 yards per game) including the least rushing yardage (534). They’ve also given up fewer points than anybody in the league at 58. Alma is second at 63, and fourth in the league in yardage surrendered.
Linebacker Curtis Lloyd leads Alma’s defense. He’s already been in on 76 tackles including 45 unassisted stops. Jake Marrs, another linebacker, has been in on 52 overall.
“We’re going to see a 4-3 that’s very similar to our defense,” said Hornets offensive coordinator Lance Parker. “We’ve noticed that they have a lot of guys going both ways so they try to keep it pretty simple. They’re very good tacklers so we’ll have to continue to run through tackles.
“I feel like we’ll have a size advantage but they’ll probably slant around and blitz us to try to cause us a little confusion,” he added. “We’ve just got to make sure we stay on our blocks and run our feet through tackles like we have been.”
Bryant is, by far, the top rushing team in the conference with 1,366 yards. Next highest is Conway with 890 through five games. Both Kylon Boyle (329 yards) and Savonte Turner (315) are in the league’s top six rushers. With senior quarterback Brandan Warner at 254 yards, the Hornets have three players in the league’s top 10 rushing.
The Hornets haven’t thrown as much as other teams but when they do they’ve been on target. Though they have a league low 531 yards passing, Warner is completing 70 percent of his passes, second in the league only to Greenwood’s Reid Wheeler.
“I think we’re continuing to come along throwing the ball,” Parker acknowledged, referring to Warner’s 11 of 14 night for 155 yards and two touchdowns against Catholic. “I was proud of the efficiency throwing.
“We didn’t have our best game up front, assignment-wise, but (Catholic) threw a lot of stuff at us, some stuff we didn’t practice against,” he observed. “For the most part, whenever we missed up front, the backs made things right by running hard and running through tackles. When it wasn’t perfect, they still made it work.”
Tonight’s meeting is the first ever between Bryant and Alma on the gridiron.
BRYANT HORNES
Unofficial 2014 stats through 5 games
Score by quarters
Opponent 13 17 22 6 — 58
BRYANT 49 58 17 35 — 149
Team stats
Oppt Bryant
First downs 70 92
Rushes-yds 141-527 198-1366
Passing 76-124-6 50-71-1
Passing yds 871 531
Fumbles-lost 14-8 7-7
Penalties-yds 20-194 32-288
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
Rushing: Boyle 45-329, Turner 50-315, Warner 40-254, Burks 21-133, Terry 13-97, Hunter 10-96, Tierney 3-53, Schrader 3-30, Tucker 1-30, Coleman 9-28, Dr.Alpe 3-6, Bonvillain 1-(-5).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): Warner 42-60-0-439 (4 TD), Bonvillain 3-4-0-34, Burks 3-4-1-26 (1 TD), Schrader 1-1-0-23, Jacobs 1-1-0-13, Lee 0-1-0-0.
Receiving: Lee 15-214, Turner 7-19, Kelly 5-54, Tierney 5-42, Terry 5-35, Royal 4-30, Orender 4-22, Boyle 2-49, Hunter 2-12, Martindale 1-31, Hunt 1-13, L.Smith 1-10.
Scoring: Boyle 36 (6 td-r), Denker 25 (2 of 2 fg. {41, 45} 20 of 21 PATs), Turner 24 (3 td-r, 1 td-rec.), Burks 18 (3 td-r), Warner 18 (3 td-r), Lee 12 (2 td-p), Kelly 6 (1 td-p), Murdock 6 (1 td-bl.punt ret), Royal 6 (1 td-rec), Tucker 6 (1 td-r), Ray 2 (2 of 2 PAT).
Tackles: Bruick 35 (12u, 16a, 3st), Fugitt 31 (9u, 14a, 2s), Young 30 (14u, 15a, 1 st), Lovelace 30 (13u, 15a, 2st), Hall 27 (10u, 14a, 3s), Chapdelaine 25 (13u, 11a), Murray 23 (4u, 12a), Nelson 22 (15u, 7a), Waits 20 (11u, 7a, 1s), Isom-Green 20 (7u, 11a, 2st), Tipton 19 (9u, 9a, 1 st), Alpe 17 (7u, 10a), Murdock 10 (6u, 3a, 1 st), Knowles 9 (5a, 4st.), Howard 6 (4u, 2a), Jones 5 (5a), Robertson 5 (1u, 2a, 2 st), Allen 3 (1u, 1a)
Tackles for loss: Murray 6, Fugitt 6, Waits 3, Bruick 3, Lovelace 2, Allen 1, Chapdelaine 1, Tipton 1, Murdock 1
Sacks: Hall 3, Fugitt 1, Waits 1, Lovelace 1
Pass break-ups: Tipton 6, Nelson 3, Fugitt 3, Bruick 1, Young 1, Hall 1, Isom-Green 1, Murdock 1.
Interceptions: Murdock 2, Bruick 1, Alpe 1, Finney 1.
