White leads LR Christian to win
LITTLE ROCK CHRISTIAN 63, LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL 0
Little Rock Christian methodically dismantled Little Rock Central, winning by a score of 63-0 in a one-sided matchup Friday night at Warrior Field in Little Rock.
Warriors quarterback and Auburn commit Walker White lived up to the hype entering the game, leading his team to a 35-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and looking very efficient in the process.
Following an early rushing touchdown from Ronny Anokye that gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead, White accounted for the remaining four touchdowns scored in the opening quarter, three through the air and one on the ground.
Cade Bowman, Tristan Watson and Tate Collins were on the receiving end of White’s first-quarter passing scores.
“We’ve asked him between last season and this season to really emerge as a leader,” Little Rock Christian Coach Eric Cohu said of White’s performance. “He is leading with great poise and playmaking. He has always been a great playmaker, but being a leader is key to and he’s really done a good job of emerging as a leader for us.”
In the second quarter, Little Rock Christian scored two more touchdowns on long runs from Connor Smith and Jackson Ward to extend the lead to 49-0 going into halftime.
The Warriors dominated all night on defense as well, pitching a shutout and keeping Central on their side of the field for the majority of the game.
“The biggest thing for us is playing defense with anticipation and intensity and our guys did that,” Cohu said. “We really work on tackling and tackling well is fundamental. Our guys responded in the first and even the second half. When we had a lot of second and third team guys in, they tackled well also.”
The Warriors started the second half off just as strong as they did the first half, with safety Gabe Schroeder intercepting a pass from Central quarterback Adrian Bing and returning 31 yards for a score. With the running clock implemented during the second half, the rest of the game moved along quickly.
Cohu said he was pleased with the Warriors’ performance, but that the season is young and improvements still need to be made.
“Even in a game like this, there were mistakes we made,” he said. “In the sec- ond quarter we didn’t play as well as we could have. We’ll quickly turn the page. You only learn through critique of what you do. We do have to critique the things that went wrong and understand that for us to get better each week, and us to be where we want to be at the end of the season, we have to correct those mistakes.”
Little Rock Christian will play Shiloh Christian at home next Friday. Central will look to rebound with a better showing next Friday when it hosts Pine Bluff. With temperatures expected to be cooler next week, both games are slated for regular 7 p.m. start times.