Under the lights
LR Southwest’s first home game, Robinson vs. Maumelle part of action.
Several members of Little Rock Parkview’s defense bring down Little Rock Southwest tight end Marsel Rogers during Friday night’s game at Gryphon Stadium in Little Rock. It was the first game at the stadium.
LITTLE ROCK PARKVIEW 49, LITTLE ROCK SOUTHWEST 0
Experience mattered Friday night in Little Rock Southwest’s first home game in school history.
Visiting Little Rock Parkview scored 28 first-half points and took care of the Gryphons 49-0 at Gryphon Stadium in Little Rock.
Senior quarterback Landon Rogers accounted for three touchdowns for the Patriots (1-0), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s No. 5 team in Class 6A. The University of Arkansas oral commitment ran for two touchdowns and threw a scoring pass. He finished with 150 yards passing and 88 yards on the ground.
Erin Outley, a senior tight end who has also orally committed to Arkansas, caught 2 passes for 90 yards and a touchdown.
Junior James Jointer ran for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns on 13 carries.
Parkview Coach Brad Bolding said that having the trio of Rogers, Outley and Jointer helps the Patriots’ chances of competing in Class 6A this season.
“It’s huge, especially going three months when you don’t have your kids,” said Bolding, referencing the period from mid-March until June 1 when high school football teams couldn’t hold in-person workouts because of covid-19. “Zoom was all we did. That’s a tough three months for everybody all over the state.
“Our kids came back and hit the ground running. You could tell when you see them that they’ve put on some muscle since June 1. I’m pretty proud of that.”
The Gryphons (0-2) are in their first season as the new Little Rock School District high school that features students from the now-closed McClellan and Fair High Schools.
Southwest Coach Daryl Patton said the Gryphons will have better days.
“We didn’t play smart. We had a lot of mistakes,” Patton said. “Those are things with youth where we’ll get better. Like I told our seniors, your legacy may not be winning a lot of games. But who knows, you can teach this team how to practice, how to compete. That’s what we’re doing.
“There’s not a team in America that was hurt more by having covid and everything happening. We didn’t have that offseason. We didn’t have that team-building. Putting together two or three schools, it’s a challenge. But we’re going to get there. It may take some time, but we’re not going to quit. We’re not going to let go of the rope. We’re going to keep fighting.”
Rogers opened the Patriots’ scoring with a 16-yard touchdown run that made it 7-0 with 24 seconds left in the first quarter.
Parkview took a 14-0 lead with 9:35 left in the second quarter when Rogers found Outley for a 72-yard touchdown.
Jointer’s 5-yard touchdown extended Parkview’s lead to 21-0 with 7:29 remaining in the second quarter.
Junior free safety Trent Bennett’s interception of Southwest senior quarterback Hunter Belton set up Parkview’s longest scoring drive of the game.
Rogers’ 17-yard pass to Outley on third-and-8 set up his 14-yard touchdown run four plays later for a 28-0 advantage with 25 seconds remaining before halftime. The touchdown capped a 13play, 88-yard drive that took 4:28 off the clock.
Jointer’s 3-yard touchdown run with 2:28 left in the third quarter stretched the Patriots’ lead to 35-0.
The Patriots travel to White Hall on Thursday night in a game that will be televised by KARZ-TV. Bolding said he was proud of the Patriots’ effort Friday, but that they’ll have to be better against White Hall.
“They pushed early,” Bolding said. “They played hard. We played physical.”