For more photos of this event by Kevin Nagle, go here
The Cabot South Panthers eighth grade team may have deployed in a different formation, but their formula was the same. As they did when they were running the old dead-T in the past, so it was when they ran a spread offense this season.
The Panthers controlled the ball with their running game, playing keepaway from the Bryant Blue Hornets eighth-grade team of Bryant Junior High on Thursday night. Cabot South ran 43 plays, 39 rushes, to 17 for the Hornets.
Leading 8-6 at the half, the Panthers drove 57 yards in 16 plays for a clinching touchdown, using up all seven minutes of the third quarter and nearly two minutes of the fourth. Bryant Blue had one possession in the second half. After the Hornets turned the ball over on downs, Cabot South chewed up the final 3:11 to win 16-6.
And, to top it off, if anyone had told Hornet fans, players and coaches that Cabot South would complete more passes than Bryant Blue, they surely wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, that’s just what happened. The Hornets completed just one pass in the game and that wasn’t until they trailed 16-6 in the fourth quarter. The Panthers hit 3 of 4 passes for 36 yards.
Quarterback Donovan O’Neal scored all of Cabot South’s points with a pair of 1-yard touchdown sneaks plus a pair of two-point conversions.
The Hornets had three possessions in the first half. An interception by Cabot South’s Ross Baxter ended the first one. The Hornets’ defense forced a three-and-out. A punt by Clinton Flores was returned 24 yards to the Panthers’ 36 by Cason Trickey but a block in the back negated the return and more.
On first down at their own 31, quarterback Gideon Motes was sacked for a loss back to the 22 and the Hornets were unable to make up the yardage. Motes punted the Panthers back to their own 10.
But Cabot South then proceeded to drive 90 yards in 17 plays. They converted three third-down situations along the way including a 19-yard pass from O’Neal to Baxter. Otherwise, every play was a running play featuring O’Neal, Carter Bing and Logan Eason as they chewed up the yardage in small bursts. The longest run of the march was 10 yards.
With 2:59 left in the half, Cabot South had an 8-0 lead.
But, on Bryant’s third possession, a strong return of the kick by Jaden Ashford set them up at the Cabot South 44. They reached the 25 on a pair of runs by Muse then, on a third-down, Ashford sliced 25 yards for a touchdown with 1:08 left in the half. A try for two failed, leaving it 8-6.
On their lone second-half series, the pass completion from Motes to Jonathan Mendez picked up a first down at the 46. Ashford picked up 6 yards to the Panthers’ 49 but, on the next play was dropped for a loss. A false start penalty set them back more.
A third-and-11 pass fell incomplete. On their last gasp, a fourth-down play, a bad snap evaded Motes. Ashford picked it up and dashed for 6 yards but it wasn’t enough to keep the drive alive and Cabot South took over on downs.
It was just the second loss of the season for Bryant Blue, now 5-2, a letdown after winning the Hornet Bowl in convincing fashion a week before. They’ll try to bounce back on Halloween Night against Cabot North at Little Rock Central’s Quigley-Cox Stadium.
