Photo by Kevin Nagle
The Bryant Hornets were supposed to focus on execution when they hosted the underdog Little Rock McClellan Crimson Lions last Friday night.
“Two things we wanted to accomplish,” acknowledged head coach Paul Calley Monday after grading the video. “We wanted to execute well, better than we did last Friday, and play hard. I thought we did both. To score on your first six possessions is really good. Our defense played really well.”
The Hornets rolled to a 42-0 lead and everybody played on the way to a 49-21 victory, despite the fact they were without senior Brushawn Hunter, who led the team in rushing and receiving last year. Hunter is nursing a foot injury.
“You’d like to have a little more of a test at this point,” Calley said about McClellan, “but we’re relatively healthy going into (Little Rock) Central (this week). We’ve got to go to Quigley, got to win on the road. We hope to get Brushawn back. He’s better but it’s still day to day.”
Calley admits he got a little nervous when McClellan came out and scored two quick touchdowns in the third quarter, though his team still had a 27-point lead.
“The mercy rule was invoked with six minutes left in the first half,” he recalled. “I probably jumped the gun. I made wholesale changes in special teams at halftime then we allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown then we fumbled the very next possession (and it was returned for a touchdown). It scared me enough that I was thinking about getting the first group warmed back up and get them in because you don’t want it to get out of hand before you get it under control.”
But the lead was never really in doubt. Both teams added late TD’s.
There was a downside to the easy win, Calley mentioned.
“The thing that hurts us is we lost reps in a game, which, conditioning-wise, it hurts,” he explained. “But the execution was better. (McClellan) played a little bit different defensively than we expected and we adjusted to that well. That’s another plus. I feel like the effort’s going to be there.”
Looking ahead, the coach said, “Against Central — they’ve got such big-play threats offensively — we’ve got to make sure we’re lined up right on defense. On the offensive side of the ball, we’ve got to put consistent drives together, keep our defense off the field, and score in the red zone.
“You know last year we had a couple of times we got down there in the first half and didn’t score,” he reminded. “We wound up going in at halftime tied 7-7. I don’t want to be in that situation.”
The Hornets surged in the second half and came away with a 28-14 win. It was the seventh consecutive time Bryant has defeated Central after the Tigers won four of the first five times the teams met dating back to 2002.
The game is the final tune-up for both teams before they begin conference play, Bryant in the new 7A/6A-Central against Russellville and Central back in the 7A/6A-East against Searcy.
