By Rob Patrick
Photos by Kevin Nagle
The North Little Rock Junior Charging Wildcats kept their hopes alive for a share of the 7A-Central Junior High Conference championship by taking advantage of three Bryant turnovers Thursday night and escaping the Hornets, 22-13.
The Wildcats improved to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in league play, bouncing back from its first loss to Cabot South which came into its game on Thursday against Benton unbeaten.[more]
The Hornets’ last outside chance to get a piece of the title or to move up to a tie for second was dashed. Bryant takes a 6-3 overall record and 3-3 league mark into its finale, the annual grudge match against the Benton Junior Panthers on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
The turnovers and stalled drives frustrated the Hornets on a night when they outgained North Little Rock 330 yards to 207.
In their three losses this season, the Hornets have suffered nine turnovers combined. In their six wins, they’ve had just four and two of those came in a 35-0 romp over Conway Blue.
“I thought we really played pretty good for the most part,” stated Hornets coach Kenny Horn. “The last two or three weeks, we just haven’t handled the football very good. We’ve turned it over. As short as the time is in a (freshman game), you really can’t.
“North Little Rock’s pretty good but I still thought we should’ve won,” he asserted. “I personally think we’re as good as them. I know we’re better than Cabot North and we should’ve beaten Cabot South. We turned the ball over five times against them. We should be sitting here 9-0 but we’re not. I don’t know. I still think we’re a pretty good football team and if (North Little Rock) called me five minutes from now and said, ‘You want to play again in the morning?’ we’d be there first thing in the morning and I think we could beat them.”
The teams traded scores at the start. It didn’t take North Little Rock long. On the second snap, Deon Tidwell just would not be tackled, rambling 51 yards for a TD. On the extra point, the Wildcats lined up left tackle James Kimble as an eligible receiver at tight end with the number 64. The Hornets lost track of him and he was wide open for quarterback Peyton Holmes to throw to for the conversion.
Bryant answered with a 73-yard march. Quarterback Wesley Akers kept for 9 yards on a bootleg then, a play later, found Greyson Giles for 11 yards. A lateral to Giles picked up 19 more to the 21.
On the next play, running back Madre London was hit hard at the line of scrimmage picking up just 1 yard and coming out because of the collision. Bryce Denker entered and slashed to the 6 on a 14-yard run then scored from there.
But a try for two failed as North Little Rock’s Marquez Jones tracked down Austin Miller on a pitch sweep. So the Wildcats retained an 8-6 lead.
London, by the way, would sit out the next series but returned after that to rack up 152 yards rushing on 22 carries with a touchdown.
Fired by the offensive success, the Hornets defense forced a three-and-out starting with Jason Browning’s tackle of running by Juan Day for a loss of 6 on first down. Davis Nossaman and Matt Mears piled up Kavin Alexander after a short gain on second down then Holmes passed incomplete to set up a punt situation from the Wildcats’ 45.
But, with Holmes the punter, the Cats ran a fake. He threw to Michael Casey but Mears, Tanner Gullett and Miller sniffed out the play and dropped Casey short of the first down.
Taking over at their own 47, the Hornets made a bid to take the lead when Akers threw deep to Miller for 35 yards to the 15.
An offsides penalty against the Wildcats got the ball to the 10 but two plays later, the Hornets faced a fourth-and-5 there. North Little Rock came with a blitz and Akers, hit as he was throwing the ball, has his toss picked off by Tuala Tauai, one of the Wildcats’ defensive lineman. Ahead of the pack, Tauai went the distance the other way, 82 yards.
So, instead of Bryant taking the lead, North Little Rock had extended theirs on defense. The Wildcats were penalized twice as they tried to go for two. Finally, from the 13, Holmes swung a pass to Alexander who sliced his way through the Bryant defense to convert, making it 16-6 with :41.1 still to play in the first quarter.
The Hornets were driving again on their subsequent possession. Giles grabbed an Akers aerial for 18 yards to midfield then London crashed 12 more to the 38. On the next play, however, the ball came loose and Tidwell recovered for North Little Rock.
But the Wildcats couldn’t move it, hampered by a procedure penalty (one of the 11 flags they drew in the game). Holmes punted short and the Hornets regained possession near midfield.
This time, London broke a 16-yard run then a 12-yard jaunt to the 25. A Wildcat penalty and a trio of quarterback power sneaks followed as the Hornets crashed to the 2. On a third-and-down there, the Wildcats stacked the middle to try to stop Akers. But, this time, Akers gave to London who eased into the end zone for the score.
An extra point kick by Davis Nossaman had the Hornets within 16-13. And when Jacob Irby intercepted a pass to thwart a North Little Rock drive at the 6, the Hornets seemed to grab the emotional edge going into the half. Behind London and the team’s solid offensive line, the Hornets drove to the Wildcats’ 40 in the final minute.
But the Hornets were to get the ball to start the second half. They picked up a first down behind London but then he was stopped for no gain and Akers threw a pair of incomplete passes.
Grey Orman came on to punt it away but when Tidwell tried to field the kick, London was there and stripped the ball loose and covered it at the North Little Rock 28.
London slashed to the 15 and the Hornets reached the 7 eventually. But, on a fourth-and-2 there, Akers tried to sneak for the first down only to be denied.
The Bryant defense forced a punt again, however, and the offense was back in business in no time from midfield. They drove to the 37 where, on second-and-10 they suffered another fumble that North Little Rock’s Ed’Zemion Lyons recovered with 7:49 left to play.
“Golly, just a couple of plays,” Horn lamented. “We had the momentum. Credit to those guys. They got a couple of big stops down here. We probably should’ve kicked it (on the first drive) but, you know, in the end it wouldn’t have made a difference. But you never know how that might’ve shifted it back towards us.”
Fired up over their defensive work, the Wildcats’ offense came out with renewed purpose against the discouraged and weary Bryant defense. In six plays, they marched to what looked to be a clinching touchdown. Tidwell’s 22-yard run accounted for the points, setting what proved to be the final score.
The Hornets, however, had two more possessions before the end of the game. The first one, from their own 45 lasted four plays including three incomplete passes.
Using their timeouts well and thanks to big stops by Amador Gaspar, Jimmy McCann and Denker, the Hornets’ defense forced another punt with 2:49 left.
Hoping to score and try an onside kick, the Hornets drove into North Little Rock territory as Akers hit Miller for gains of 11 and 33 yards. But four subsequent passes fell incomplete including a fourth-down shot and, with 1:56 left, the Wildcats took the ball over and ran out the clock.
It was a rugged night for Akers, who was pressured much of the time when he was trying to throw. Coming into the game, he was 73 of 103 (71 percent completion rate) but against North Little Rock, he finished 6 of 23 including some drops, more than half the incomplete passes he’d suffered in the Hornets’ other eight games combined.
“The good thing is, I don’t think we’ve regressed,” Horn contemplated. “I think we’re still playing good, we just haven’t stepped up and made a big play when we had to.
“I feel like we’ve had everybody schemed up,” he added regarding game planning work. “The coaches are doing a super job. We’ve got people where they need to be, we’re just not making plays.”
The coach concluded, “Our job, at this level — hopefully, these guys can remember what this is like and what they’ve got to do and can carry that up to the high school when they start playing on Friday night and remember these things, the lessons.”
JR. CHARGING WILDCATS 22, JR. HORNETS 13
Score by quarters
North Little Rock 16 0 0 6 — 22
BRYANT 6 7 0 0 — 13
Scoring summary
First quarter
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Tidwell 51 run (Kimble pass from Holmes), 7:10
BRYANT — Denker 6 run (run failed), 3:52
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Tauai 82 interception return (Alexander pass from Holmes), 0:41.1
Second quarter
BRYANT — London 2 run (Denker kick), 2:30
Fourth quarter
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Tidwell 22 run (run failed), 6:15
Team stats
NLR Bryant
First downs 8 18
Rushes-yds 22-151 33-219
Passing 2-7-1 6-23-1
Passing yds 56 111
Punts-avg. 3-24.3 1-30.0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-2
Penalties-yds 11-60 3-15
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: BRYANT, London 22-152, Akers 6-25, Denker 3-23, Giles 1-19, Burton 1-0; NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Tidwell 7-72, Day 9-53, Holmes 3-17, Alexander 2-11, Strozier 1-(-2).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): BRYANT, Akers 6-23-1-111; NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Holmes 2-7-1-52.
Receiving: BRYANT, Miller 3-79, Giles 2-29, Browning 1-3; NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Kimble 1-48, Casey 1-8.
