Williams carries Cardinals in 5A
FARMINGTON — Caleb Williams rushed for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns to power Farmington to a 36-27 victory against Vilonia at Allen Holland Stadium on Friday.
The senior tailback finished with 25 carries for 203 yards in helping the Cardinals snap a two-game losing skid. They improve to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in 5A-West play.
“Getting back to 50 percent in conference makes a huge impact for us,” Williams said. “It’s a statement for Farmington as a school that, even coming up to 5A, that we can play with these guys and come back from the losses and prove ourselves as a team.”
Williams was running without one of his best blockers as offensive lineman Sam Stevens watched from the sidelines with a knee injury. Junior Chuck Carlson, who’s 6-1, 330 pounds, filled in for Stevens and helped Williams score on runs of 18, 12, 16 and 52 yards.
Williams’ final two touchdowns came in a span of 62 seconds to help Farmington take control in the fourth quarter.
“I thought it was crucial to see if any of our backup linemen stepped up,” Williams said. “And Chuck Carlson was definitely able to do just that and helped make it happen for our offense.”
Vilonia (0-7, 0-4) made it interesting after Farmington needed just four offensive plays to grab a 15-0 lead. After a defensive stand, Williams sidestepped defenders on his way to a 18-yard touchdown run. Quarterback Trey Waggle, who was 8 of 14 for 150 yards, hooked up with Drew Sturgeon on a 59-yard touchdown pass to account for the Cardinals quick-strike scoring.
A roughing the punter penalty kept Vilonia’s first scoring drive alive as quarterback Jordan Britton capped off a 16-play, 72-yard drive with the first of his three touchdown runs to cut the deficit to 15-6 at halftime.
“Vilonia has improved; they changed some things on us,” Farmington Coach Mike Adams said. “They changed some things on us and gave us some things we haven’t seen, but our guys did a good job of adjusting and we did a much better job of tackling. That was a key for us, and we got some people on the ground.”
Another touchdown run by Britton, this one from 34 yards out, made it 15-13. Farmington answered with 21 unanswered points to pull away.
“We still have execution issues we need to clear up,” Adams said. “We had a couple of things like a silly motion penalty that cost us a first down and a couple of other things like that, or we could have really put the game away, but we couldn’t get it done.”
5A-WEST ALMA 48, CLARKSVILLE 35
CLARKSVILLE — Alma’s defense came up big at the end as Garrison Jensen returned an interception 99 yards to help the Airedales (4-3, 3-1) hold off Clarksville (1-6, 0-4).
Clarksville was driving to tie the game with three seconds remaining with Alma leading 42-35 when Jensen made his interception on 2nd-and-goal at the Airedales 4.
Jensen accounted for five touchdowns for the Airedales, including two passing, two rushing and a defensive score. He gave Alma a 42-35 lead with 2:50 remaining on an 8-yard run.
GREENBRIER 33, HARRISON 16
HARRISON — Seth Howard returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown just before halftime, then ran 51 yards for another score in the game’s final seven minutes as Greenbrier (4-3, 3-1 5A-West) defeated Harrison (5-2, 3-1).
Howard led the Panthers with 100 yards on 6 carries.
Andrew Johnson started the scoring for Greenbrier with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Grant Brown in the first quarter and Ethan Hall added a 40-yard goal to give the Panthers a 16-0 halftime advantage.
Hall kicked another field goal in the third quarter and Johnson, who passed 19 of 25 for 162 yards, found Sacari Reese with a 17-yard touchdown pass in the fourth.
MORRILTON 49, MAUMELLE 28
MORRILTON — Quarterback Jacolby Criswell completed all 13 of his passes for 225 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead Morrilton (4-3, 2-2 5A-West) over Maumelle (4-3, 3-1).
Criswell also had 12 carries for 46 yards and a touchdown.
Maumelle quarterback Connor McCullough went 8 for 24 for 212 yards with a touchdown and an interception.