As part of the countdown to the 10th Salt Bowl, BryantDaily.com is featuring the game stories published in the Bryant Times about the first nine. New ones are posted each day. Salt Bowl VII was played on Aug. 29, 2006, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. — Rob
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
There was a press conference held at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock to promote this year’s Salt Bowl football game between the Saline County rivals, Bryant and Benton. Politicians were on hand, school administrators, representatives from both Chambers of Commerce, economic development folks and — oh yeah, players and coaches. And there was some of the Little Rock media, the focus of the event.
And it was a Bryant-Benton love fest, with all this talk about how well the people of the two towns work so well together while being oh-so-friendly rivals.
To anyone that knew better, it was difficult to keep a straight face. And when the two head football coaches, Bryant’s Paul Calley and Benton’s Marc Jones, took their turns at the podium they had a hard time keeping with the theme.[more]
The fact is, on an individual basis, these folks from Saline County get along fine. Everyone in Bryant’s got friends in Benton and vise versa.
But, in general, Benton folks resent Bryant for, among other things, growing so fast and stealing some of the thunder from the county seat. After all, folks that have lived in Benton a long time can remember when Bryant was a tiny little community, a wide spot in the road. And Bryant folks resent Benton for, among other things, lording it over them for so many years, with the perception that Benton always treated upstart Bryant with disdain.
There is no love lost here.
And that goes a long way toward explaining the intensity of the rivalry, which may be as compelling as any in the state, no matter what the event. And if it’s football? Well . . .
That’s why over 22,000 fans showed up for the 2006 Salt Bowl on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at War Memorial. That’s why the game is played there, to accommodate those rabid fans. That’s why the two teams pounded on each all game long. And that’s why it meant so much for the Hornets to take back the Salt Bowl trophy after it spent a year in Benton following the Panthers’ two wins over the Hornets in 2005.
Old-school win
Like so many other programs in the state, both the Bryant and Benton run that new-fangled, spread-’em-out, wide open, pass-oriented offense. But, on Tuesday, the Hornets’ 20-7 victory was keyed by old-fashioned, never-out-of-style defense, kicking and field position.
Going into the final three minutes of play, with a 20-0 lead, the Hornets had allowed Benton a net of 95 yards of offense and five first downs. The Panthers went on to drive for their only score in those final minutes as the Hornets tried to get some subs into the game and wound up with 161 yards of offense but, before that, they never got into the red zone (inside the opponent’s 20).
It helped that Benton had so far to go. While Bryant’s punter Cody Williams only averaged 27.8 yards a punt to 23.5 for Benton’s Zac McCauley, there was a much more significant difference — where each was punting from. And a bad snap on a punt attempt led to the game’s first score.
“We won the kicking game, that’s what we needed to do,” stated Calley. “I think that may have been the difference in the ballgame, field position. Defensively, we played great. I thought we flew to the football, we recognized things. For the most part, we did everything we needed to do defensively. And that’s what I said coming in, if we play great defense, we’re going to win. That’s going to carry us more times than not.
“We were, at times, anemic on offense,” he added. “I thought we’d come out here and execute. I really did. And we didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. But we’re going to get better.”
First score
Bryant’s second possession, stunted by a procedure penalty, stalled at the Benton 45. Williams punted the Panthers back to the 18.
Three plays netted 5 yards for Benton with McCauley, the Panthers’ quarterback, getting stopped on a third-and-6 by Bryant’s Jared Szabad, Chris Taylor and Williams, the team’s middle linebacker.
On the ensuing put attempt, McCauley was able to knock down the high snap and make a run for it but Nathan Probst, Landon Montgomery and Jordan “Texas” Knight were there to bring him down at the 19.
Though the Panther defense made a stand, dropping quarterback Matt Schrader for a loss on a third-and-1 at the 10, sophomore Austin Bradley came on to boot his first varsity field goal from 30 yards out.
Benton’s ensuing possession ended with an interception by safety Logan Cruse who returned to the Panthers 34. A delay penalty and a sack prevented the Hornets from picking up a first down but Williams came on to punt the Panthers back to the 5 as the second quarter got under way.
Three plays netted 3 yards and McCauley had to punt it back. Trent Daniel, despite being interfered with, hauled in the kick and Bryant was just 35 yards away from paydirt.
Touchdown
Dustin Seljan blasted for 16 yards then junior quarterback Logan Parker hit Jake Jackson for 10. Two plays later, Parker connected with Raylen Cantrell, who kept his focus despite having the pass tipped, for a 5-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0.
The theme continued in the second half. Benton’s first possession stalled when Probst and Spencer Jones dropped McCauley for a loss on a third-and-7 from the 30. McCauley’s short punt reached the 50 and the Hornets took advantage.
This time, Schrader led the drive, keyed by a 20-yard completion to Taylor Masters that converted a third-and-8 from the 48. Bryant reached the 19 where, on a fourth-and-one, sophomore Aspen Trevino slashed to the 5. A play later, Schrader scored on a keeper and, with Bradley’s point-after, the Hornets led 17-0.
Benton then put together it’s most significant drive after a 36-yard kickoff return by Greg Noble (with Bradley making what may have been a touchdown-saving stop at the Bryant 44).
McCauley’s 25-yard pass to Nick Hoffman reached the 29 and gave Benton a big lift. But the Hornets’ defense rose up and pushed the Panthers back. Williams and Matt Bonner stopped McCauley for no gain then Taylor broke through to sack McCauley back to the 36. A third-down pass got back 10 yards but, on fourth down, Taylor got a coverage sack when McCauley couldn’t find an open receiver and the Panthers turned the ball over on downs.
The teams traded punts until, with less than six minutes left to play, the Panthers went for it on a fourth-and-12 from their own 32. A deep pass down the left sideline fell incomplete with Bryant cornerback Trent Daniel coming closer to catching it than any Panther. With 5:15 left, the Hornets took over and, behind the running of Seljan, moved to the 12 where Bradley knocked through a 29-yard field goal.
Stats
Seljan finished with 62 yards on 14 carries. Trevino added 32 yards on six tries. In the air, Schrader hit 7 of 15 passes for 61 yards and Parker completed 4 of 7 for 44 more as the two new quarterbacks alternated every two possessions or so. Bryant’s only turnover was an interception of a tipped pass on the first possession of the game. Despite their inexperience, the signal-callers didn’t do anything that could get the Hornets beat.
“I told them before we left the dressing room, ‘Don’t feel like you have to win the ballgame for us,’” Calley related. “These guys, they’re going to be okay. We tried to do some things to help them out but it ended up — Benton took us out of that early, the things we wanted to do, they didn’t let us do. So, we had to go back. I guess once a spread team, always a spread team. We had to spread it out, call plays at the line of scrimmage and do what we’ve always done.
“I thought the second quarter, we got more comfortable,” he continued. “We moved the ball and we stalled a couple of times. Stupid penalties. It’s every year, every year we have to go through the same deal early on. Hopefully, as the year goes on, we’ll get out of that penalty phase — delay of game, false starts, things like that. You can’t do that and compete in our conference. If we shoot ourselves in the foot, it’s going to be a long year.”
The Hornets were only flagged for six penalties for 40 yards but every one seemed to come at an inopportune time.
BRYANT 20, BENTON 7
Score by quarters
Benton 0 0 0 7 — 7
Benton 3 7 7 3 — 20
Scoring summary
First quarter
BRYANT — Bradley 30 field goal, 2:45
Second quarter
BRYANT — Cantrell 5 pass from Parker (Bradley kick), 7:53
Third quarter
BRYANT — Schrader 5 run (Bradley kick), 6:49
Fourth quarter
BRYANT — Bradley 29 field goal, 2:47
BENTON — Fishburn 9 pass from McCauley (Couto kick), 0:29.6
Team stats
Benton BRYANT
First downs 10 12
Rushes-yds 26-12 36-119
Passing 13-29-1 11-22-1
Passing yds 139 105
Punts 5-23.0 5-27.8
Fumbles-lost 2-0 0-0
Penalties-yds 5-25 6-40
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: BRYANT, Seljan 14-62, Trevino 6-32, Schrader 13-27, Parker 4(-2); BENTON, McCauley 18-10, Poole 5-6, Fishburn 3-4, Roberts 1-3.
Passing (C-A-I-Y): BRYANT, Schrader 7-15-1-61, Parker 4-7-0-44; BENTON, McCauley 13-29-1-139.
Receiving: BRYANT, Cantrell 4-29, Masters 3-34, Jackson 3-31, Jordan 1-11; BENTON, Hoffman 6-80, Fishburn 6-39, Noble 1-10.
