By Rob Patrick
So, let’s review:
The Bryant Hornets have defeated the Class 6A teams, Benton and Texarkana, with ease. They lost, however, to Fort Smith Northside of the vaunted 7A-West.
The Little Rock Catholic Rockets lost to Class 7A foes, Springdale and North Little Rock (in a non-conference game against a conference rival scheduled when neither could find a playing partner for the second week of the season). They won, however, over Fort Smith Northside of the vaunted 7A-West.
Now, they face each other to open the 7A/6A-Central Conference on Friday at War Memorial Stadium.[more]
“I don’t think comparing scores plays into anything,” commented Catholic’s first-year head coach David Estes. “It’ll be a matter of who makes fewer mistakes and who’s the most emotional, most intense team; whoever comes out wanting to fight for 48 minutes. In 7A, a lot of times, that’s what it comes down to.”
Though in his first year as head coach Estes knows about 7A football. He served as an assistant at Catholic High for 11 years, the last seven as defensive coordinator.
“They’ve got a good football team,” Bryant head coach Paul Calley said of the Rockets. “Offensively, they’re efficient. Defensively, they gave up some big plays against North Little Rock but they had people in position and they’ve gotten better. Just knowing they beat Northside scares me. We’re going to have to play a mistake-free game.”
“We were inexperienced coming into the season,” Estes reviewed. “I think we had five players that had played on Fridays so it’s taken us some time to get used to the pace of the game. But I think we’re getting there. Last week was a big win for us. It built some confidence. We’re getting better. I’ve got quite a few seniors that start but they just don’t have any experience. The more games they play, hopefully, the better they’ll get. We’ll see. It’s a tough schedule.”
Bryant is coming off its win at Texarkana, bouncing back from the loss to Northside.
“Our effort was much better than it was the previous week with Northside,” acknowledged Hornets defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “The technique was much better. We just played with a whole lot more energy and showed up like we expect a winning football team to play.
“There are still a number of things that we can correct and do a little bit better job of and that’s our objective this week as we prepare for Catholic,” he added.
“I thought we played extremely hard,” Calley agreed. “We still made some mistakes, not being on the right angle and just not seeing blitzers when they’re walking up. But it’s all correctable.”
“With Bryant, you’re always up against a well-coached team,” Estes said. “Offensively, they’ve got a stable of backs and a good play-action game, big hosses up front, two guys that can motor on the edges and catch the ball. They’re physical.”
Calley expects the Rockets to be determined to stop the Hornets’ ground attack, which has produced 650 yards in three games.
“We’ve got to be able to throw the ball this week,” he said. “They’re going to give us different looks up front. They’re going to send people off the edge but they’re going to give us man coverage, we believe. So, we’ve got to be able to throw the football.
“They’re going to load the box to stop the run, play games with us, try to take our outside running game away,” he mentioned. “They’ve got big defensive ends, big defensive tackles — it’s going to be hard to move them.
“Again, we’re going to have to be physical up front and we’re going to have to block until the whistle blows,” Calley emphasized. “I think that’s the key. That’s what we did the other night (at Texarkana). We blocked until the play was over and it allowed us to get out of some bad plays. Pass protection is also going to be a big key. We’ve got to pick up stunts, twist stunts, blitzes with the linebackers and throw the ball on time.”
“We play a 4-3 defense depending upon who we face,” Estes said. “We change sometimes depending on our opponent.”
He mentioned that his defense is led by strong side linebacker Matt Morris and strong safety Jordan Hartnedy, both returning starters.
“They went back to a four-man front from a three-man front which allows them to be better against the run,” Calley observed. “I go back to ’07. The scheme they used in ’07 is very similar.”
On offense, junior quarterback Zach Conque and tailback Quinta Thomas are the leaders for the Rockets.
“It’s the same thing on offense,” Estes mentioned. “We get in a lot of different sets, trying to figure out what’s going to be there.
“Defensively, Bryant seems to mix it up a little bit in coverage,” he added. “Recognizing that becomes tough. They’re tough up front. They’re a good football team, a 7A football team.”
“Offensively, they’re doing a lot of things they’ve done in the past,” Griffith mentioned. “They have a couple of new wrinkles but it’s a lot of the same things. They’re probably throwing the ball a little bit more than Coach (Scooter) Register (now at Little Rock Central) did but, overall, it’s a lot of the same type of things, throw the ball, run the ball tough, come back off of play-action and throw the ball.
“They are always going to play us really tough,” he added. “You know you’re going to get great energy out of them. They’re going to play very, very hard.
“Skill-wise, they’ve got a very good quarterback,” said Griffith. “He throws the ball really well. He probably doesn’t scramble quite as well as the two we’ve seen the last couple of weeks but very capable of throwing the ball. They’ve got good receivers, a big, physical offensive line and a solid running back. It’s a typical Catholic football team like we’ve seen the last few years. Coach Register’s not there but they still have that hard, tough mentality he brought in. We expect to get a great effort out of them and we hope to respond with a good effort of our own.”
Kickoff is 7 p.m.
BRYANT HORNETS STATS
2010 through 3 games
Score by quarters
Opponent 14 17 14 6 — 51
BRYANT 39 53 21 0 — 101
Team stats
Oppt. Bryant
First downs 50 61
Rushes-yds 90-477 105-650
Passing 46-78-1 29-54-2
Passing yards 485 449
Fumbles-lost 10-5 4-2
Penalties-yds 33-333 23-197
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: Clark 16-156, Dismuke 24-148, J.Bell 16-98, Pritchett 6-70, J.Powell 15-63, Tolbert 1-42, Lessenberry 12-42, Harris 2-6, Henson 3-0, Davidson 1-0, Smith 1-(-2)
Passing (C-A-I-Y): Lessenberry 19-32-1-231 (2 TDs), Davidson 10-20-1-218 (4 TDs), Dismuke 0-2-0-0.
Receiving: Nichols 8-220, Elmore 5-59, Daniel 4-46, Winfrey 3-39, J.Bell 3-38, Garrett 3-21, Pritchett 1-10, Tolbert 1-13.
Scoring: Clark 18 (3 td-r), Tolbert 12 (1 td-r, 1 td-rec), Winfrey 12 (2 td-rec), Nichols 12 (2 td-rec), Powell 12 (2 td-r), J.Bell 12 (1 td-r, 1 td-rec), Denker 7 (7 of 8 conv.), Lessenberry 6 (1 td-r), Pritchett 6 (1 td-r), Lowery 4 (4 of 4 conv.)
Tackles: Hampton 23, Mayall 23, Brady 22, Chavis 21, Seale 18, Blasi 15, Chapdelaine 15, Freshour 15, Tolbert 15, Kidd 11, Winfrey 9, Jones 7, Kelly 6, Perlman 5, A.Bell 3, Clark 3.
Tackles for losses: Brady 3, Chapdelaine 2, Seale 1, Hampton 1, Smith 1, Williams 1, Mayall 1, Kelly 1, Mills 1, Blasi 1.
Sacks: Seale 3, Kidd 2, Hampton 1, Jones 1, Perlman 1.
Fumbles recovered: Chavis 2, Bench 1, Hampton 1, Mayall 1.Interceptions: Chapdelaine 1
Pass break-ups: Blasi 6, Winfrey 3, Thomas 1, Tolbert 1.
