Photo by Kevin Nagle
By Rob Patrick
A little Bryant football history will be on the line tonight as the 2015 Hornets travel to Alma to play for the first time. A win would make this team just the second in school history to start a season 6-0, the first since 1999. Plus, a win would No. 100 at Bryant for head coach Paul Calley, who took over in 2003.
They will have to earn it against a 4-1 Alma team that will be celebrating Homecoming. The Airedales have won four in a row after a season-opening loss to Fort Smith Southside, 35-19.
The Hornets’ winning formula has been running the ball and stopping the run. Last Friday, with Little Rock Catholic stacking up the line of scrimmage to try to stop the ground game, the Hornets rushed for 371 yards, nearly a school record.
No doubt, Bryant opponents will continue to try to challenge the Hornets to beat them throwing the ball.
“We’re going to have to continue to try to create balance, continue to work on throwing the ball,” said Bryant offensive coordinator Lance Parker. “We’re going to have to hit some throws, get some people out of the box if we can.”
In the last two games, Hornet senior quarterback Gunnar Burks has completed 11 of 23 passes for 103 yards. But earlier in the season, he was 12 of 22 for 164 yards against Little Rock Central and 17 of 21 for 200 yards against Little Rock McClellan.
But it’s been a struggle for Central this season at 1-4 and even though McClellan played perennial power Pulaski Academy surprisingly tough last week, the Lions are no Alma.
“I feel like our guys really know our scheme well,” Parker related. “We’re not doing a lot of different things. It looks different but we do a lot of the same things. And we can do those things we’ve got well. We won’t have to rig up a bunch of stuff to move the football.
“I’m really pleased with that but, having done this for a while, I feel like eventually somebody’s going to solve the riddle and we’re going to have to get guys out of there with the pass,” he continued. “We plan to continue to work and, hopefully, all the reps that we’ve done throwing the ball — we’re trying to take the same philosophy in the passing game. We’re not trying to do a lot of different things. We’re just trying to hit the routes that we practice. I feel like we will. Hopefully, it’ll happen Friday.”
Regarding Alma’s defense, which has allowed 648 yards rushing, second lowest total behind only Bryant, and 965 yards passing in the five games so far. It’s in the middle of the pack among 7A/6A-Central Conference teams. Bryant leads the league in rushing with 1,150 yards but last in passing with 550.
The Hornets have four backs, including Burks that have rushed for more than 180 yards this season (though senior Savonte Turner is out with a broken leg). De’Amonte Terry leads the team with 423 yards. Over the last two games, since Turner’s injury, Terry has averaged 159 yards a game.
“They play with a lot of confidence,” said Parker of the Airedales’ defense. “I think they’ve got a lot of guys going both ways. They play really, really hard. They’ve got some big kids.”
On the other side of the ball, the Hornets lead the league in defense, allowing the fewest yards overall and just 408 on the ground so far this season. Meanwhile, the Airedales are second in the league in offense, averaging 408 yards a game — 1,064 so far rushing and 978 passing.
“Alma is probably the best 50-50 run-pass team we’ve seen,” said Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. “They do a good job with balance on offense. They’re very capable in the running game. They do a great job of running the power read where you make a read as to whether or not to give the ball to the running back to the outside or the quarterback running the ball up inside. They’re outstanding at that.
“Then they do a nice job of passing the football,” he added. “They have a two-quarterback system and both young men are very capable of both running and throwing the football.”
Noah Dotson is the primary thrower, however. He’s completed 65 of 103 passes with four interceptions for 945 yards and eight touchdowns. Alex Benuex is more of a runner. He’s only thrown 14 passes and completed four. Though Benuex has rushed for 238 yards including a 113-yard game against in last Friday’s 41-24 win over Siloam Springs. Dotson has rushed for 212 yards in five games but, last week, did damage in the air hitting 22 of 28 passes for 199 yards and two TDs.
“They’ll get in some power sets and they’ll also spread the field,” Griffith said. “They run a lot of different sets to prepare for, kind of like our offense does. So our preparation time has been spent trying to make sure that we are sound in our alignment, we communicate with each other and we let our key progression take over from there.”
The Hornets’ front seven has been tremendous though they lost senior middle linebacker Devin Howard to injury. Hayden Knowles, moving from defensive line to linebacker, had taken up the slack with Peyton Robertson joining Madre Dixon, Cameron Murray and Mario Waits manning the front four. In certain situations, Knowles will be back on the line and Philip Isom-Green will move down from safety to play in the middle. Devon Alpe, who had a strong game last week, and Marvin Moody are the other linebackers.
“We know it’s going to be a challenge,” Griffith said, about the Alma offense. “One of the keys will be how well those guys up front play. The more pressure they can put on the quarterback, the tougher it is on him to throw the football accurately. They’ve played well, really well last week. We hope they continue their improvement and continue to do what they did against the running game and continue to give us a good pass rush.
“We had a really good day Tuesday, looking at multiple sets,” he mentioned. “The secondary, linebackers were very sharp at making their calls. So we’re hoping that will continue over into Friday.”
