Second-half surge propels Mineral Springs to victory
MIINERAL SPRINGS 20, JESSIEVILLE 6
JESSIEVILLE — Following a ceremony Friday night at Phillips Field dedicating new turf, lights and scoreboard after a tornado tore through the stadium in January, Mineral Springs defeated host Jessieville 20-6.
“You can’t turn the ball over four times against a good team,” Jessieville Coach T.J. Burk said. “We got inside the red zone three times, inside the 10 twice and never punched it in. We had our opportunities to be up two or three touchdowns at least in the first half and we just didn’t capitalize on them.”
The first quarter was marked by rushing drives as two players incrementally gained most of the yardage for the Lions. Sawyer Castleberry and quarterback Dalton Ellison rushed about five yards at a time all the way to the goal line, but were denied access by a stubborn Hornet defense.
Late in the first half, Jessieville’s Karston Criswell nabbed an interception and returned it from the Lions’ 35 yard line and took it all the way back to the Hornets’ 24. A series of plays put the end zone within reach for the Lions. They reached the 1 but were unable to score, leaving the score 0-0 at halftime.
After Jessieville took the lead initially, Mineral Springs gained the advantage and pulled away in the second half as both teams’ players struggled with cramping.
“When you’re limited to how much you can practice because of heat, you’re going to have some of that,” Burk said. “We tried to hydrate as well as we could. It’s unfortunate, but we had a few bumps and bruises that were kind of slowing a few of them down a little bit. But other than that, it was hot.”
“Our conditioning held out,” Mineral Springs Coach Jason Hathcock. “We weren’t cramping as bad. That’s kind of the difference. They played a heck of a ballgame. They really took us to the lines. We see a lot of things we have to improve for the next game.”
Mineral Springs managed a late touchdown and twopoint conversion to set the final score.
“It was ugly, but we found a way to win,” Hathcock said. “I challenged them at halftime to come out and be the more aggressive team. I think we did that.”