Wildcats fall to cardinals
El Dorado’s varsity recovered from a slow start to advance to the championship game of the Wildcat 7-on-7 Tournament Friday.
But, Camden Fairview, coached by former El Dorado defensive coordinator Jacob Monden, had two interceptions and beat the Wildcats 15-13 to claim the championship.
The Cardinals’ win equaled out the 7-on7 scoreboard after El Dorado won Fairview’s 7-on-7 tournament earlier.
Monden did not receive a trophy.
“I probably won’t even give him one,” joked El Dorado coach Scott Reed. “He tossed mine on the turf over there because I wanted to get a picture. So, I told him when he won, I said, we’ll have it next week when you get here because I wasn’t going to give him one.”
The Wildcats, who went 1-3 in pool play, got a touchdown pass from Stuart Bowers to Shun Levingston and a defensive stop to take a 9-7 lead against the Cardinals.
But, Fairview came up with an interception to take a 10-9 lead before the Wildcats answered with a defensive stop for two points.
Clayton Helm came in to quarterback and completed a deep pass over the middle to Trey Norman.
But, the next pass into the end zone was tipped by the receiver and intercepted by the Cardinals for an 13-11 advantage.
The Wildcats’ defense answered with another defensive hold with Chris Newton and Calab Scott both breaking up passes. The stop tied the game at 13-13.
The Wildcats got the ball with a chance to win but two dropped passes led to a defensive stop for the Cardinals and a 15-13 lead. Fairview took over possession and ran out the clock.
“Camden didn’t get enough offensively. The issue was, we didn’t get enough on offense,” said Reed. “We went down there and turned it over. You throw two interceptions in 7-on-7, you’re not going to win, especially one that should’ve been a touchdown.”
The Wildcats advanced to the title game with a 23-3 win over Magnolia.
Devunte Kidd caught a touchdown pass each from Bowers and Helm and William Artis had an interception.
Fairview beat Monticello 30-21 in the other semifinal.
“I think they’re very good. They’re much better,” Reed said of the Cardinals. “I think Magnolia is good, too. I think the football down here is going to be better overall. It’s going to be a heck of a ball game when we play Camden this year. They’re going to be a tough opponent.”
As for the Wildcats, Reed liked how the program looked as a whole, especially with his JV squad.
“It’s amazing. Our young group had a better record in the morning than our older group. They were 2-2. I’m really pleased with them. They competed hard. They won a game in the tournament. So, the JV group was very good,” he said.
“The older group, this morning was not very good. We were 1-3 and not much life. And then, this afternoon we looked like a really good football team until, offensively there at the end we didn’t look very good. But, defensively, we looked good this afternoon. There was life. It seems like there has to be something on the line for us to play.”
Senior quarterback Alex Hicks was out of town all week.
He dressed for the 7-on-7 but didn’t see much action at quarterback.
“Alex has been out of town all week so I didn’t want to play him. It’s not a disciplinary thing at all. He’ll be fine. He’ll be ready to play. He handled it well,” said Reed.
“The two quarterbacks were fine. For us to get to the finals, they obviously did a pretty good job.”
The throwing and catching portion of the tournament was patchy for the Wildcats, who had some key drops and had other passes which weren’t on target.
Bowers has only participated in a couple of practices but showed some impressive flashes.
“We had two drops this morning and we were 1-3,” said Reed. “I’m concerned about drops because it seemed like when it got really intense in the tournament, we missed … and some of the times the ball wasn’t in the right spot, either. We can be better. We can be more accurate. But, we’re going to get better at that.”
One area that was more consistent was El Dorado’s defense, which only gave up one touchdown in the last two games.
“I was pleased with some kids today defensively,” said Reed. “I thought our corners grew up today at the end. Early, they got picked on by some of the teams. This afternoon, they took the challenge and I’m talking about Artis and Devarious Bell and L.J. Yarbrough. It was just a good effort.”
At the end of a long, hot day, Reed said the tournament went off without a hitch.
“I really appreciate all of the people that worked and came out. I think our town supports. We had a lot of people donate time and/or money so we could put this on,” he said.
“We fed over 325 players today. It was so well run. We took care of the kids, didn’t have any issues. I’m really pleased with all the people that worked. That’s why we get people coming. We actually had to limit it this year because of the work at the stadium. We had other teams that wanted to come and we had to draw the line at 12 because we didn’t have more fields. It was good.
“Everything was good except the last game.”
El Dorado will hold the junior high 7-on-7 tournament next Friday.