Cards' opener exciting till end

The Dollarway Cardinals refused to let missed opportunities in the early going of Friday’s high school football season opener to come back to haunt them.

Two touchdowns within the final 5 minutes helped the Cardinals pull away from a 12-all tie and take a 26-12 win over the Helena-West Helena Central Cougars at Cardinal Stadium.

“Based on the score, naturally in the first half, both teams made mistakes,” Cardinals Coach Martese Henry said. “It’s the first game. We got in the red zone three times and didn’t capitalize other than on the first touchdown. They got in the red zone once.”

Dollarway (1-0) got on the board first thanks to a 9-yard Shamarion Winston run in the first quarter. Central (0-1) tied it on a 5-yard Clayton Dyer run in the second quarter, but the Cardinals would move back ahead in the third quarter when Briveon Sample snuck into the end zone for six points to cap a lengthy drive.

Central’s last scoring drive went into the fourth quarter. A 60-yard pass to Jeff Redmon knotted the game at 12-all, but Dollarway needed a little time to answer before Sample fired a touchdown pass to Greg McGown.

With about 3 minutes remaining, Javion Cain sealed the win with a 20-yard rush, and Eddie Collins converted the extra two points.

“We started rotating our running backs, trying to keep a fresh set of guys in,” Henry said. “We started popping some runs down

the stretch.”

Dollarway’s defense also came through with two interceptions and recoveries on two Central fumbles.

With next Friday’s game at Pine Bluff High School canceled, Henry said the extra off-date will help the Cardinals before heading to Texarkana for its last nonconference game.

“It’s going to give us an opportunity to re-evaluate the film,” Henry said. “We had a few chances in the red zone and didn’t capitalize. It’ll give us a chance to get further conditioning.”