Lions catch, run off from Badgers

There are teams who like to take time off the clock and there are teams who don’t care about time of possession.

Little Rock McClellan is that second kind of team.

The Crimson Lions ran one play in the first quarter and nine in the first half, but took advantage of a long touchdown run on their first offensive play, ran an interception back for a touchdown and scored on a three-play, 81-yard drive en route to a 54-21 5A-Central come-frombehind victory over Beebe on Friday at Bro Erwin Stadium.

Beebe ran 62 more plays (88-26) than McClellan, but it didn’t matter to the Lions.

“I think we played much better this week,” McClellan Coach Maurice Moody said, a week after he had his team running sprints after he wasn’t pleased by a runaway victory over Little Rock Fair at Scott Field in Little Rock.

“We cleaned up a little bit, our penalties were down and we moved the football,” he said. “I think we had three offensive drives in the first half, scored on two of them then had a pick-six. It was tough sledding against those guys, but we played much better ball.”

Beebe took an early 7-0 lead on a 15-play, 61-yard drive that ate up almost eight minutes. Taylor Boyce scored from the 1 with 4:36 left in the quarter.

McClellan’s Tyrse Lair and Andre Campbell collided trying to catch the ensuing kickoff, and the muff gave the Badgers a first down at the McClellan 33.

A four-play Beebe possession ended on an incomplete pass, and the Lions finally got to run an offensive play, which turned out to be their only play of the quarter.

Bennie Kemp III made it count, going 70 yards for a score, and after a two-point conversion, McClellan led 8-7.

Kemp supplied three touchdowns for the Lions, running for one and passing for two more. He ran the ball 9 times for 118 yards and completed 6-of-6 passing for 115 yards.

Before the night was done, McClellan converted six twopoint conversions.

Beebe took some more time off the clock on its third possession, a 15-play, 61-yard drive that ended when Boyce scored on a 8-yard run for a 14-8 lead with 7:31 left in the half.

The Badgers forced McClellan to punt on its next possession but Lair intercepted a second-down pass from C.J. Cauldwell and returned it 55 yards for a 16-14 lead.

The Lions forced a Badgers punt and took over at their 19.

Kemp passed to Kyreek Lair for 15 yards, Tommy Crumpton III went for 10 yards, then followed that with a 46-yard touchdown run and a 24-14 halftime lead.