Hornets dismiss Russellville
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By Rob Patrick
Photos by Rick Nation
RUSSELLVILLE — Josh Hampton was sick to his stomach all week.
But, on Friday night, he was making the Russellville Cyclones a little queasy.
For most defenses, it’s the linebackers, maybe a safety, that come up with double digits in tackles but, in Bryant’s 38-7 romp at Cyclone Stadium, Hampton, a defensive lineman, got in on a whopping 16 stops including a sack and three tackles for losses. And, on the other end of the Hornets’ front four, Ben Seale was in on 10 stops including three sacks.[more]
The Hornets defense bent a couple of times in the first half but wound up shutting out the Cyclones until the very end when they scored against the Bryant reserves.
“Josh played one of his better ballgames,” said Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “He did a great job against some good offensive tackles.”
Offensively, the Hornets only passed nine times.
They didn’t need to.
Behind their big, veteran offensive line that was regularly creating wide swaths of running room, the Hornets were breaking off big chunks of yardage on the ground. They ended up averaging almost eight yards per attempt for the game, after averaging just over 10 per rush in the first half.
Efficient and devastating, Bryant scored on six of its seven possessions against the rebuilding Cyclones. Five different players ran for touchdowns including Hampton playing fullback in the Hornets’ Jumbo (power I) formation.
And, except for a pair of extended drives in the second quarter, the Bryant defense shackled the Cyclones before they drove for a touchdown against the Hornets’ reserves in the final seconds of the game.
It was the first time, the Hornets’ seniors have been able to defeat a Russellville team. The Cyclones had won the two previous meetings. It was also a lopsided win in a nine-game series, so far, in which every game was close and the largest margin of victory had been the 14-3 difference that Russellville produced in 2009.
The win sets up a first-place showdown between the Hornets, 5-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play, and the unbeaten Conway Wampus Cats at Bryant Stadium next Friday night.
Bryant head coach Paul Calley wanted his team to get on top early to keep the upset minded Cyclones from providing those hopes with a foothold. And his team obliged.
Tanner Tolbert returned the opening kickoff 55 yards to the Russellville 47 then quarterback Hayden Lessenberry fired a strike to Dillon Winfrey for 39 yards on the first play from scrimmage.
Stephen Clark, who rushed for 118 yards on 12 carries (9.8 yards a carry) for the game, slashed for 7 to the one and, a play later, Lessenberry snuck it in.
The Hornets would also get 112 yards on just 10 carries by Karon Dismuke (11.2 per carry) as the team piled up 279 yards on the ground.
Russellville made a bid to answer. The Cyclones’ Antonious Davis came up with a long return of the kickoff and, three plays later, they were at the Bryant 20. But a pass into the end zone by quarterback Jordan Barrett, under pressure from linebacker Cameron Price, was well covered by Tolbert. The ball was tipped into the air and Tolbert caught the carom for the interception.
Price was a bit of a revelation at linebacker working in tandem with Jacob Brady.
“It wasn’t in the plan but we started running information in using the two of them,” Griffith mentioned. “I felt like (Price) responded well and made some plays.”
Price finished by getting in on eight tackles, matching James Kidd. He also broke up a pair of passes. Hunter Mayall was in on nine stops. Tolbert had a hand in five stops but also had the interception and a break-up.
Keyed by a 50-yard run by Dismuke, the Hornets drove from their own 20 to the Russellville 13 but a busted play — about their only mistake of the night — created a fourth-and-9 at the 17.
But Jace Denker came on to drill a 35-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with 5:53 still to play in the first quarter.
Denker was a factor in the field-position game as five times his kickoffs got to the end zone for touchbacks.
The first of those kicks followed his field goal and Russellville couldn’t manage a first down. A short punt and the Hornets were 54 yards away from adding to the lead.
It took them just three plays, an eight-yard run by Dylan Pritchett, an incomplete pass, and a 46-yard blast from Clark that, with Denker’s PAT had the Hornets in command 17-0 with 3:41 still to go in the first quarter.
Russellville, using Barrett and fellow quarterback Lane Reves effectively in the running game fashioned a 19-play drive from the Cyclones’ own 20 to the Bryant 3. The Cyclones started to go for it on fourth-and-goal but a delay penalty cost them 5 yards and kicker John Marasco came on to attempt a 25-yard field goal. But a bad snap sabotaged the play and before Marasco could scoop up the loose football and do anything with it, Winfrey was there to drop him at the 14.
The Hornets drove to the Russellville 44 where the drive stalled. They faked a punt but Dismuke was stopped short of the first down and Russellville took over with 4:01 left in the half.
That was, by the way, the only possession for Bryant that didn’t produce points.
Russellville wound up using that last 4:01 with a 13-play drive that reached the Bryant 25 before a holding penalty pushed them back. Reves completed a 6-yard pass to Davis but two incomplete passes followed as time ran out on the Cyclones.
“We had a little lapse there in the second quarter but I felt like we came out and played really well in the first quarter,” Griffith mentioned. “We got lined back out at halftime, made a couple of adjustments, moved Hampton over to the weakside where (Russellville) was trying to run a little bit. And we got the outside linebackers to squeeze in a little tighter.
“We were playing cover-two and they were running doubles and our ‘backers are naturally a little wide on that,” he explained. “We just decided we were going to make them throw the ball to make us move the (linebackers) back. We were going to bring them in tighter so we could get in on that quarterback a little bit better. We did a much better job, I thought, the second half.”
Indeed, after another touchback on the opening kickoff of the third quarter, the Cylcones picked up a yard on the dive play, then optioned the next two plays. Both times, Seale was there for a sack resulting in a Cyclone punt.
Thanks to a short kick, the Hornets’ offense came on the field for its first possession of the second half just 43 yards from another score.
Clark slashed for 11 yards but, a play later, the Hornets were cited for holding. It was the team’s only penalty of the game and they responded to it by picking up a first down. Lessenberry passed to Sawyer Nichols for 13 yards then Clark crashed for 3 and the first down.
A 12-yard run by Dismuke got the Hornets to the 5 and, from there, Hampton got the call and he rumbled into the end zone.
Denker booted it to 24-0 with 6:47 left in the third quarter.
Bryant got the ball back after Russellville’s next drive stalled at the 46 with Hampton dropping Barrett for a loss on a fourth-down play. Taking over at the 50, the Hornets scored in seven plays, highlighted by Dismuke’s 13-yard run and Lessenberry’s 11-yard pass to Nichols.
A play later, Dismuke scored from the 3 and the Hornets were in charge 31-0.
The Cyclones got nothing on their next possession with Seale making his third sack on a third-down play, forcing a punt.
Great field position again — the Hornets started their possession at their own 46. Aided by a face mask penalty and a 26-yard burst by Jacob Powell, they moved to the 1 where, on fourth down, Powell leapt over the pile at the goal line for the Hornets’ final touchdown and, incidentally, their final offensive play of the contest.
The 38-0 lead invoked the mercy rule, setting the clock running the rest of the game.
After Denker’s touchback, the Hornets coaches started to filter in reserves. Though it took a pair of fourth-down conversions, the Cyclones overcame a sack of Reves by Cody Perlson and Austin Dunnahoo. Reves followed up with a 14-yard pass to Kendall Bond then broke a 24-yard run to the 6. A play later, Bond got into the end zone on a 4-yard run.
BRYANT 38, RUSSELLVILLE 7
Score by quarters
BRYANT 17 0 14 7 — 38
Russellville 0 0 0 7 — 7
Scoring summary
First quarter
BRYANT — Lessenberry 1 run (Denker kick), 10:39
BRYANT — Denker 35 field goal, 5:53
BRYANT — Clark 46 run (Denker kick), 3:41
Third quarter
BRYANT — Hampton 5 run (Denker kick), 6:47
BRYANT — Dismuke 3 run (Denker kick), 1:38
Fourth quarter
BRYANT — Powell 1 run (Denker kick), 7:58
RUSSELLVILLE — Bond 4 run (Marasco kick), :31
Team stats
BRYANT Russellville
First downs 15 15
Rushes-yds 36-279 43-150
Passing 5-9-0 14-26-1
Passing yds 68 109
Punts-avg. 0-00.0 3-30.7
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0
Penalties-yds 1-10 5-45
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: BRYANT, Clark 12-118, Dismuke 10-112, Powell 5-29, Pritchett 4-18, Hampton 1-5, Davidson 1-0, Lessenberry 3-(-3); RUSSELLVILLE, Reves 16-49, Barrett 7-44, Davis 11-42, Bond 7-18, Campbell 1-7, Marasco 1-(-10).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): BRYANT, Lessenberry 5-9-0-68; RUSSELLVILLE, Barrett 6-12-1-41, Reves 8-14-0-68.
Receiving: BRYANT, Winfrey 2-42, Nichols 2-24, Clark 1-2; RUSSELLVILLE, Johnson 4-20, Chiolino 3-31, Peevy 2-21, Davis 2-9, Bond 1-14, Standridge 1-8, Freeman 1-6.
