Rogers starts fast, dumps Little Rock Southwest
ROGERS 63, LITTLE ROCK SOUTHWEST 12
ROGERS — It was all Rogers from the kickoff as it built a 49-12 halftime lead and cruised to a 63-12 win over Little Rock Southwest on Friday night.
Rogers broke the scoring flood gates open with a 14-yard pass from senior quarterback Dane Williams to Braxton Lindsay to put the Mounties up 7-0 with 8:33 left in the first quarter. Southwest would answer on its next possession, Chase Forte scored on a run from a yard out. The PAT was blocked by Isaac Chapman and the Mounties led 7-6.
“We thought that if we could get off to a good start we had to kind of get rolling. [That] was kind of the key tonight,” Rogers Coach Chad Harbison said. We picked our places to throw the ball. … We felt like we had to throw it to loosen them up. They had six [players] in the box, we were able to get JJ [Jacob Jenkins] the ball more.”
Rogers would go on a 42-6 run to end the half. Jenkins scored one of his two rushing touchdowns in the second quarter, a 5-yard run, to make it 14-6. Williams ran off the left side for a one yard score to push the lead to 21-6. On the ensuing possession, Rogers’ Luke Patterson intercepted Forte and returned it 44 yards for the score for a 28-6 Mounties lead to cap the first quarter scoring.
Early in the second quarter, Williams found a wide open sophomore Jeff Regan for a 29-yard pass and catch for a score to make it 35-6. The Southwest offense would find some rhythm and Forte hit Logan White in the middle of the field for a 43-yard pass for touchdown. The 2-point conversion failed to make it 35-12. Rogers tacked on two more scores before the half. Williams found Lindsey again, this time from 28 yards for 42-12.
Williams scored on a quarterback sneak from a yard out to end the first half with a 4912 lead.
“I didn’t have them prepared.. Give credit where credit is due, Rogers is a good football team and they are worthy of a top-10 ranking,” Little Rock Southwest Coach Daryl Patton said. “We were in a gym practicing all week practicing in T-shirts and shorts with no contact and try to come out here and play a top 10 team tonight. That’s hard.”
The Mounties’ balanced attack kept the Gryphons on their heels. Jenkins scored his second score of the night with an 8-yard run with 5:14 left in the third quarter. The clock ran the entire half, but that didn’t stop Brennan Northrip from returning second interception for a touchdown to make the final score 63-12.