Photo by Rick Nation
The last time the Catholic Rockets of Little Rock visited Bryant, it was 2013 and the Hornets were trying to regain their bearings after a season-opening loss at Conway. They’d come back to win at Little Rock Central and appeared to have things in order when the Rockets spoiled the home opener with a stunning 37-19 win.
Part of that might’ve been the fact that the Salt Bowl was looming on the horizon, the very next week, in fact. That’s when Bryant and Benton were playing in the same conference. But it was nonetheless a shock to the Hornets who were off to the worst start for a Bryant team since 2005 when they opened 1-2-1 in their first four games.
There was some soul-searching that week as they prepared for the Salt Bowl and the league season.
As it happened, the loss helped turn Bryant’s season around. The Hornets finished with six wins in their last seven games including their last five in a row, winning a conference championship.
The 2015 Hornets would just as soon skip that losing part of it as they contend for another league title. But here’s Catholic coming back to town tonight, looking to put the first blemish on Bryant’s record this season.
And it’s a doubly important game because as Class 7A members of the 7A/6A-Central Conference, the contest will count towards each team’s bid to reach the post-season. (Games against Class 6A members of the league do not.)
“I look for them to come to Bryant just like they did two years ago and put forth a great effort,” said Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “Hopefully, we’ll respond better than we did two years ago when we did not play very well. So we’re actually trying to redeem ourselves for that effort two years ago.
“Catholic is going to play extremely hard,” he added. “I was looking back at them last year and I thought it was one of our better ballgames (a 34-7 win) but, boy, they played hard. And it’s a good thing we played hard. So we expect them to come out with great effort.”
The Hornets are 4-0 and coming in off a narrow escape. An 88-yard return of a kickoff for a touchdown by Phillip Isom-Green in the final minute erased Russellville’s 24-20 lead, snatching victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat.
It was a costly win because, early on, the Hornets lost their leading rusher, senior Savonte Turner to a broken leg that figures to keep him out for the rest of the season.
Likewise, Catholic has suffered a major injury to a key offensive player. The Rockets were off to a tremendous start, spoiling North Little Rock’s debut in their new stadium, 32-25 in overtime, then taking a Cabot team that’s still unbeaten, to overtime before losing 40-33.
Late in that Cabot game, however, senior quarterback Andre Sales, who was apparently catching some attention from Division I recruiters, broke his arm. His understudy, junior Taylor Price took over and the team has struggled the last two weeks. Parkview handed them a tough loss, 35-5, the following week. Last Friday, the Rockets lost to a very good Alma team, 27-16.
“They did lose their quarterback earlier in the year,” Griffith acknowledged. “The young man (Price) that has replaced him has been getting better. You can see that he’s improved every week. We expect him to be better than he was last week or the week before.
“In the running game, they’ve got a couple of tough young men (Lance Harville-Thomas and Monroe McKay),” the coach continued. “They got a lot of playing time last year so they’re experienced. They run extremely hard. The offensive line is very capable. They lost several of their better receivers last year but they’ve got some kids catching the ball really well right now.”
At Russellville, Bryant fell behind 17-0 and had to battle back twice. The Cyclones surprised the Hornets a bit when they alternated between a throwing quarterback in Ryan Talley and a runner in Cole McKown.
“The biggest adjustment was we just had to roll our safeties down a little bit,” said Griffith. “Once we got that done, we were able to get that taken care of pretty good.”
“We still need to work on a couple of things,” he related. “Obviously, our communication and, mentally, being focused on not making mistakes. We made a couple of mental mistakes that hurt us early in the game (at Russellville).
“I was pleased, in the second and third quarter, I thought we bounced back after a slow first quarter and played very hard,” the coach continued. “Then in the fourth quarter, we had a couple of mental mistakes that cost a little bit. Thankfully, we found a way to get it done in the kicking game.
“We’d like to get four solid quarters, which we have not done so far. That’s our hope for Friday night.”
Likewise, the Hornets would like to put together four solid quarters on offense. At Russellville, the loss of Turner before the Hornets had even run a play on offense had its effect.
“We had a good idea of what Russellville was going to do and we have three really good backs,” recounted Bryant offensive coordinator Lance Parker. “We planned to have two of them in for a lot of the game. But we lost Savonte before we ever walked out there on offense. It knocked out a lot of our game plan.
“So we tried to make sure that we can do the things that we want to do out of sets with receivers,” he added. “We corrected that problem a little bit. But it threw us for a loop. I think it just took the wind out of our sail. When a player that good, one of our main weapons on offense, goes down, I think everybody was just shell-shocked because of the nature of the injury.
“But we collected ourselves and I was proud of how the kids fought back in the second half,” Parker stated. “We said, we’re not going to panic. We’re just going to keep doing what we do and climb back into the game. I think once we get into a close game our kids really respond well. We hope they’ll continue to do that but we’d like not to be down 17 anymore. We’d like to be right there in the game or ahead as much as we can.”
The Hornets other two running backs went on to combine for 213 yards rushing.
Regarding Catholic’s defense, Parker said, “They remind you a little bit of Benton. It’s not the exact same defense but it’s a similar philosophy of just, you know, organized chaos inside, hoping a guy comes free and makes the tackle. So we’ve got to concentrate on our assignments and rules, make sure we can block that stuff.
“As for their personnel, they’re probably going to be one of the more physical teams we’ve played, especially inside,” he continued. “We’re going to have to block well and be able to run it. And I would imagine they’re going to try to make us throw it to beat them. So we’ve got to develop some more balance on offense. We’ve tried to fix some of the protection issues we’ve been having.
“We’ve got to find a way to make them defend every blade of grass,” the coach said. “While we may not be strong in those things yet, we’re going to continue to try to work and develop and make sure that, when it gets to the end and in these games that count, we can have balance and they can’t just key on one thing. They’ve got to play balanced football too.”
So far, the Hornets have run the ball 160 times for 780 yards and passed 64 times, completing 41 for 499 yards. Quarterback Gunnar Burks is fifth in the league with 493 yards passing (40 of 63). After rushing for 167 yards last week, junior DeAmonte Turner is seventh in the league with 273 yards on 45 carries this season.
The Bryant defense is second in the conference, allowing 250.8 yards a game. The Hornets led in rushing defense, allowing just 360 yards total all season.
Catholic has rushed for 692 yards, led by Harville-Thomas with 202 yards and McCay with 160. Price is 30 of 53 passing for 202 yards since taking over. The Rockets are fourth in the conference in offense, just ahead of the Hornets, averaging 325.3 yards per game to Bryant’s 319.3.
On defense, Catholic is fourth, averaging 293.8 yards allowed. The Rockets have allowed 789 yards on the ground. Only Russellville (793) and Conway (966) have allowed more among conference teams.
“We’ve had a good week of practice,” Parker said. “Hopefully, it carries over to Friday night.”
